Word: alcoholism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...their noses to a two-story abandoned waterfront warehouse, climbed a six-foot metal fence, had a scuffle with a Doberman pinscher (which bit two of them), broke down three doors, and found a still which cost $50,000 to build. It could turn out 2,500 gallons of alcohol and gyp the Government of $50,000 in alcohol taxes every day. The agents arrested two men hiding behind the coils, started looking for the building's owner. A sign on a gate leading to the warehouse said: "Property of the City of New York...
...Milligrams Is Plenty. The all-important L of the formula (for blood-alcohol level) stands for the number of milligrams of alcohol in every 100 cc of a drinkers blood; W is the body weight in pounds; A is the intake of pure alcohol in ounces, and T (for time) is the number of hours from the onset of drinking...
...spent all evening nursing a couple of highballs made with 100-proof (50%) whisky can do his figuring easily. If he puts two ounces of whisky (one ounce of alcohol) in each drink, his A is 2. He multiplies this by 7,000; he divides the resulting 14,000 by 150 for his weight in pounds, and gets 93. He has been drinking for three hours, so he subtracts 39. Ergo, he has 54 milligrams of alcohol in 100 cc of blood...
Insidious Poison. This much may be all right, says Dr. Bell, but beyond that-beware. At a blood-alcohol level of about 50 milligrams, he finds there are usually "only mild sedative effects" of the type seen in ordinary social drinking. Between 50 and 150 milligrams there is a drop in tension and lowering of inhibitions, and many people begin to lose control of physical movements. Above 150, everybody has lost some control and is unsafe behind a wheel; at 300 milligrams (often below) comes unconsciousness, and between 500 and 700 death...
...Bell emphasizes that individuals differ enormously in their ability to "hold" liquor, e.g., a scrawny, 120-pounder may be able to outdrink a heavyweight wrestler. But is the body is repeatedly subjected to massive doses of alcohol, sooner or later it can no longer adapt itself to the stress, and metabolism breaks down. Warns Dr. Bell: "Anybody who repeatedly drinks so that he has a higher concentration than 50 milligrams should take a look at his drinking habits." Always moderate in his own drinking, Dr. Bell has cut down still more since he started to see milligrams in every glass...