EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL.
It is, writes Mr. T. D. Crothers, M.D., one of the most curious errors that alcohol stimulates the imagination, and gives a clearer, more practical insight into the relation of events of life. The whirl of thought roused up by the increased circulation of the blood in the brain is not imagination: it is not a superior insight or conception of the relation of events, but is a rapid reproduction of previous thoughts, soon merging into confusion.
The inebriate never creates any new ideas or new views; all his fancies are tumultuous, blurred, and barren. The apparent brilliancy is only the flash of mania, quickly followed by dementia. Alcohol always lowers the brain capacity, and lowers the power of discriminating the relation of ideas and events. After a few periods of intoxication, the mind under the influence of spirits is a blank, blurred page.
The man who uses spirits to give mental force and clearness, is doing the very worst thing possible to destroy this effect. Alcohol is ever and always a paralysant, it never creates anything; it never gives strength or force that did not exist before: it never gives a clearer conception and power of execution, but always lowers, destroys, and breaks down.
Source: HINTS FOR HOUSEHOLDS. (1890, May 9). Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA : 1883 - 1897), p. 4 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE PORT ADELAIDE NEWS).
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