Note 182 — Chapter III

Alcoholic beverages are consumed first, because they are agreeable to the taste (at least some of them); second, and especially, because aside from the taste they have the power of awaking agreeable sensations. In his work “Der Alkoholismus” Dr. A. Grotjahn expresses himself thus upon this point: “Narcotics act … not primarily through their agreeable taste, but influence directly the cerebral cortex and awaken pleasurable sensations which are completely independent of the activity of the senses or of pleasure-producing perceptions of the outer world. There is no other means of producing pleasurable sensations independent of the perceptions arising from the outer world, and independent of the functions of the senses. Only in this way is it to be explained that the need for the use of narcotics has attained so wide a dissemination, and struck such deep roots when once mankind had learned their use.”182