The anatomy of drunkenness / By Robert Macnish.

  • Macnish, Robert, 1802-1837.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of drunkenness / By Robert Macnish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    oratory of so professed a Bacchanalian as Sheridan, scarcely excited the son of Chatham.” * All kinds of intoxicating agents act much more rapidly and powerfully upon an empty than upon a full stomach. In like manner, when the stomach is dis- ordered, and subject to weakness, heartburn, or disease of any kind, ebriety is more rapidly produced than when this organ is sound and healthy. The stomach may get accustomed to a strong stimu- lus, and resist it powerfully, while it yields to one much weaker. I have known people who could drink eight or ten glasses of raw spirits at a sitting without feeling them much, become perfectly intoxicated by half the quantity made into toddy. In like manner, he who is in the constant habit of using one spirit— rum, for instance—cannot, for the most part, indulge to an equal extent in another, without experiencing more severe effects than if he had partaken of his usual beverage. This happens even when the strength of the two liquors is the same. The mind exercises a considerable effect upon drunkenness, and may often control it powerfully. When in the company of a superior whom we respect, * Rede’s Memoir of the Right Hon. George Canning. C 2