The Arts and Manufactures of Savages

1868 Scientific American  
�UGUST 26, 1868.] J citutific ,mtriCJu. 131 drinking Englishman, what . Franklin was to the London fluid that is called for by the wants of the economy. The printers. It is beyond the capacity of a well-beered brain artificial drinks are prohably all more or less mjurious; some even to read the pamphlet on Liherty and Necessity, which more so thl\n others, hut nonl' can claim exemption from the Franklin wrote in those times. genera: charge. Even tea and coff<le, the common beverages Branches of
more » ... trees, howevH, naturally take this shape, and were probably used before stone clubs, which are very rale weapons, though they are sometimes u"ed. All savage races have �O'll e clubs, which are merely pieces of woad thlCker at ont! end than the other; but besides these, there are gener ally many of more artificial forms, and which are more or less elaborately carved. The few experiments which have been made, with a view of all classes of people, have a tendency to dehilitate the to trace the course of alcohol in the living system, all confirm digestive organs. * * * The whole class of alcoholic what all drinkers feel, that it is to the brain that alcohol hur-liquors may be considered as narcotics, producing very little ries when it h'ls passed the lips. Some innocent dogs have diff erence in their ultimate effects upon the human system. suffered and died in this inve8tjg�tion. Dr. Percy, a British He ascertained, too, (not guessed, or inferred, but ascer physician, records, that he injected two ounces and a half of tained, watch in hand) that such things as mustard, horse alcohol into the st'lmach of a dog, which caused its almost radish, and pepper retard digestion. At the close of his val instant death. The dog dropped very much as he would if he uahle work, Dr. Beaumont appends a long list of "I nferences," had heen struck upon the head with a club. The experimenter among which are the following: "That solid food of a without a moment's unncessaIY delay, removed the animai's certain texture i8 easier of digestion than fluid; that stimu brain, suhjected it to didtillation, and extracted from it a surlating condiments are injurious to the healthy system; that prising quantity of alcohol,-a larger proportion than he could the use of ardent spirits always produces disease of the distill from the blood or liver. The 'alcohol seemed to have stomach if pers"ted in; that water, arden� spirits, and most rushed to the hrain; it was a blow upon the head which other fl uids, are not affected hy the gastric juice, hut pass killed the dog_ Dr. Percy introduced into the stomachs of from the stomach soon after they have been received. " One other dogs smaller quantities of alcohol, not sufficient to thing appears to have much surprised Dr. Beaumont, and cause death; but upon killing the dogs, and subjecting the that was, the degree to which St. Martin's system could be brain, the hlood, the bile, the liver, and other portions of the disordered, without his b�ing much inconvenienced by it.
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican08261868-131 fatcat:vdbz7mce4be43hqkrpvmghgyq4