(5)
Who suffer from great bodily weakness, particularly during convalescence
from exhausting disease. (6) Who are engaged in exciting or
exhausting employment, in bad air and surroundings, in work shops and
mines. (7) Who are solitary or lonely or require amusement. (8) Who
have little self-control either hereditary or acquired. (9) Who suffer
from weakness, the result of senile degeneration. (10) Who suffer from
organic or functional diseases of the stomach, liver, kidney or heart.
(11) Who are young.
Much has been said concerning the stimulating effect of alcohol upon
the heart, and this had been treated at length. There is an increased
action of about four thousand beats in twenty-four hours for every
ounce of alcohol used. This fact still misleads some physicians into
prescribing it to strengthen the weak heart, but the increase is not due to
new force. The heart action normally is the result of arterial pressure
and nervous action, two forces mutually balancing each other. The
nervous action is diminished by the introduction of the alcohol; this
destroys the balance and deranges the arterial pressure. Dr. James
Edmunds, a great English physician, years ago said: "When we see a
man breathing with great vigor, does it occur to us that he must be in
good health? Is it an indication that he gets more air? We all know
better. It simply shows that he has asthma or some such disease, and
that his breathing is strained and imperfect.
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