1916 Jack's Manual by J A Grohusko (4th edition)

ever, compels the medical profession to require a reliable spirit, for unless alcohol is completely eliminated from the organism, its effects, being cumulative, are unsatisfactory; their effects increase in geometrical progression with each succeeding dose. Care must be exercised, therefore, in se- lecting whiskey or other spirits for general use. Medical opinion seems only to recognize the fact that new whiskey contains oils which are assumed to be amylic alcohol or fusel-oil, and which must be got rid of by rectification or age. Little attention is given to the other essential oils, the secon- dary products of the more correct materials of distillation. These may be either useful or detrimental in that they assist or retard the elimination of the alcohol. A properly distilled and well-matured whiskey made from a fully malted barley is the one to be selected. The essen- tial oil of malt being a bland and harmless substance, fulfils a very useful therapeutic office, as by its diaphoretic action upon the skin it promotes and increases excretion, and con- sequently mitigates the accumulative effects of the alcohol. Both pure malt whiskey as well as genuine cognac brandy possess beneficent qualities in their secondary products, the resulting ethers of which have peculiarly pleasing char- acteristics. Amylic alcohol, on the contrary (the essential oil of grain whiskey), is poisonous even in minute doses, and is most difficult to eliminate from the whiskey by any process. Its deleterious effect may be recognized by a paralyzing influ- ence upon the skin, which, closing the doors of escape for the alcohol when consumed, produces feverish symptoms, furred tongue, thirst and headache. Whiskey containing it has earned, therefore, the reputation of being "the Devil in Solution." It is also necessary to avoid spirits of any kind to which saccharine or other softening ingredients have been added. For some reason not apparent in the present state of our knowledge of the chemistry of digestion, the tendency of sugar to turn acid on the stomach is increased when taken in combination with alcohol. Alcohol plays an important part in the arrest of phthisis — particularly among those who have delicate skins and per- spire freely the advantageous effects produced in these cases by the entire abandonment of all medication, and the em- ployment of considerable doses of spirit is well established. All those cases which are characterized by weakness of the heart, failing circulation, inability to take food, loss of power of sleep, and exhaustion, come under the category of suitable cases in which the best liqueur brandy or fine old malt whiskey is indicated as the most suitable form of alco- hol that can be used, no matter how much one has to pay for it. The physiological action of alcohol of whatever variety is greatly modified by climate, habits of life, and the hourly changes in the atmosphere. A humid climate, whether it 26