Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Intoxication

INTOXICATION, the state produced by the excessive use of alcoholic liquids. In the first stage the circulation of the blood becomes somewhat more rapid, and all the functions of the body and mind are exercised with more freedom. In the next degree consciousness is still more weakened; the ideas lose their connection; vertigo, double vision, and other discomforts supervene; till finally the excitement partakes of the nature of delirium, and is followed by a more or less prolonged stupor, often by dangerous coma.