Part 5

ALCOHOLIC PARALYSIS.--The immediate and transient effects of an excessive quantity of alcohol upon the human nervous system, whether they are manifested in the form of drunkenness, or of delirium tremens, or of an acute attack of insanity, are well-known. Scarcely less evident are the effects produced upon the nervous system by a less excessive, but a more prolonged, abuse of alcoholic drinks. These effects may be manifested either in a general failure of physical and mental power, or in a form of disease closely resembling progressive paralytic dementia, or in various forms of chronic insanity, or in epilepsy, or in neuralgia, or in paralysis. In the acute form of alcoholic poisoning, no change in the structure of the nervous system has been found, except that the meninges in common with the internal organs and the mucous membranes are the seat of a very decided injection and slight exudation. In the chronic form of alcoholism, a number of pathological changes have been discovered in the nervous system, which, however, vary greatly in different cases.

Of late years the paralysis which results from the abuse of alcohol has been accurately described by numerous observers, and the attempt has been made to discover the lesion of the nervous system which is associated with this form of paralysis. Two cases which are reported by Dr. Henry Hun, of Albany, in the _American Journal of Medical Sciences_ for April, 1885, are typical examples of this disease, and contribute to a better understanding of it.

Dr. Hun has collected the recorded cases of alcoholic paralysis, and from their study he holds that we are justified in regarding it as a special form of disease with the following symptoms: After a number of cerebral and gastric disturbances due to the alcoholic poisoning, the symptoms of the disease proper commence with neuralgic pains and paræsthesiæ in the legs, which gradually extend to the upper extremities, and which are accompanied at first by hyperæsthesia, later by anæsthesia, and in very severe cases by retardation of conduction of pain. Along with these symptoms appears a muscular weakness, which steadily increases to an extreme degree of paralysis, and is accompanied by rapid atrophy and by great sensitiveness of the muscles to pressure and passive motion. Both the sensory and motor disturbances are symmetrically distributed, and the paralysis attacks especially the extensor muscles. In addition to these motor and sensory symptoms, there is also a decided degree of ataxia. The tendon reflexes are abolished and vaso-motor symptoms, such as ɶdema, congestion, etc., are usually present. Symptoms of mental disturbance are always present in the form of loss of memory and in transient delirium.

The lesion is in all probability a degeneration of the peripheral nerve fibres and of the nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, together with a chronic congestion or inflammation of the pia mater. This lesion explains well the symptoms, although it is curious that alcohol should not attack the spinal cord, but only the highest and lowest part of the nervous system, if one may so call the cortex of the brain and the terminal branches of the peripheral nerves.--_Detroit Lancet._

* * * * *

NOURISHING THE TISSUES OF THE TEETH.--Dr. Frank Abbott says: For a number of years past I have entertained the views that there was some difficulty existing not due to an insufficiency of lime-salts, which occasions so many faulty and imperfectly formed teeth. With that idea in view I have advised exercise in the open air and other kinds of treatment for some patients which would favorably affect their digestion. That the food ordinarily taken contains sufficient lime-salts to form and to sustain the teeth I have no doubt (except in cases of extreme anemia, during gestation and lactation). I believe the fault is beyond that. There is a lack of proper nourishment of the tissues, due to imperfect digestion, which depends again on the proper "nerve tone." I believe this to be the real cause of the difficulty. It is reasonable to suppose that any _tonic_, whether taken in the form of exercise in the open air, or in any other form, which affects favorably other portions of the body, will affect the teeth favorably as well. When we have _ascertained the functions of the great nerve-centers_, and those functions are assured, then we will probably have more perfectly formed teeth.--_Items of Interest._

[Footnote A: See Gradle on "Bacteria and the Germ Theory of Disease," pp. 39 and 151.]