The medicinal uses of stimulants are most found in chronic
disease, or in acute disease occuring in extremely debilitated
states. It is greviously to be lamented that the medical recom-
mendation of stimulants is not always sufficiently guarded and
watched. There has been of late a fashion to regard and to
teach that all disease proceeds from debility, and therefore that
it must be treated with alcoholic stimulants. Allowing (which
we do not) that such might be the case, yet the inference that
alcohol is the remedy is by no means conclusivCo A supply
of wholesome nourishment with avoidance of the causes of
disease, and bodily and mental rest, will be surer in their pres-
ent effects and safer in future results. Few medical practi-
tioners can pass many years, or even months, without meeting
with the melancholy results of intemperance that began with
the medicinal use of brandy and water, champagne, etc. The
possibility is here referred to simply as a warning to those who,
consulting these pages, may feel justified in advising the use of
alcoholic stimulants as a means of combating disease, lest they
forget to look also to the discontinuance of their use. As
regards the dietic use of alcoholic stimulants, we have only a
few words to add to the caution already given.
Malt Liquors are, as a general rule, the most wholeBomc
pf alcQhoUc beverages* The alcohol is in them so combined
418 MED-ICINAL.
with saccnarine matter and tonic vegetable principles that it
can only be separated by a distillation destructive of all other
qualities. A small quantity of mild ale or porter, taken with
dinner and supper, or luncheon and dinner, supports the
strength, and supplies wear and tear.
Wines resemble malt liquors in that, when pure, the alcohol
is in a state of chemical combination that can only be super-
ceded by destructive distillation. They have not, however, so
much solid matter suspended in them as malt liquors. They
are, for this reason, better suited to persons of weak digestive
powers. The dietic and the therapeutic uses of wines must
depend upon their percentage of alcohol, and upon the devel-
opment in them of certain acids and spirituous combinations
termed ethers, which constitute what judges of wine call the
**bouquet." The proportion of unfermented sugar also is a
point to be considered in selecting wine for invalids. Thus,
there are sweet and astringent wines, as there are red and white
wines, and there are wines in which the fermentations of the
sugar is checked, and the sparkling of effervescing wine is pro-
duced.
Effervescing wines, champagne and Moselle, are among
the most valuable wines for medicinal purposes. The free
carbonic acid they contain renders them very serviceable in
sickness and vomiting, while the alcohol, being in some pecu-
liar state of combination, is more volatile, acts as a more rapid
stimulant, effects passing off more rapidly than thos« of other
and stronger wines.
Page 310
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The medicinal uses of stimulants are most found in chronic disease, or in acute disease occuring in extremely debilitated states. It is grievously to be lamented that the medical recommendation of stimulants is not always sufficiently guarded and watched. There has been of late a fashion to regard and to teach that all disease proceeds from debility, and therefore that it must be treated with alcoholic stimulants. Allowing (which we do not) that such might be the case, yet the inference that alcohol is the remedy is by no means conclusive. A supply of wholesome nourishment with avoidance of the causes of disease, and bodily and mental rest, will be surer in their present effects and safer in future results. Few medical practitioners can pass many years, or even months, without meeting with the melancholy results of intemperance that began with the medicinal use of brandy and water, champagne, etc. The possibility is here referred to simply as a warning to those who, consulting these pages, may feel justified in advising the use of alcoholic stimulants as a means of combating disease, lest they forget to look also to the discontinuance of their use. As regards the dietic use of alcoholic stimulants, we have only a few words to add to the caution already given.
Malt Liquors are, as a general rule, the most wholesome of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol is in them so combined
with saccharine matter and tonic vegetable principles that it can only be separated by a distillation destructive of all other qualities. A small quantity of mild ale or porter, taken with dinner and supper, or luncheon and dinner, supports the strength, and supplies wear and tear.
Wines resemble malt liquors in that, when pure, the alcohol is in a state of chemical combination that can only be superceded by destructive distillation. They have not, however, so much solid matter suspended in them as malt liquors. They are, for this reason, better suited to persons of weak digestive powers. The dietic and the therapeutic uses of wines must depend upon their percentage of alcohol, and upon the development in them of certain acids and spirituous combinations termed ethers, which constitute what judges of wine call the **bouquet." The proportion of unfermented sugar also is a point to be considered in selecting wine for invalids. Thus, there are sweet and astringent wines, as there are red and white wines, and there are wines in which the fermentations of the sugar is checked, and the sparkling of effervescing wine is produced.
Effervescing wines, champagne and Moselle, are among the most valuable wines for medicinal purposes. The free carbonic acid they contain renders them very serviceable in sickness and vomiting, while the alcohol, being in some peculiar state of combination, is more volatile, acts as a more rapid stimulant, effects passing off more rapidly than those of other and stronger wines.