THE ACTION OF ALCOHOL 551 



be used strictly in this narrower sense in discussing the 

 question of alcohol, and if its effects, beneficial or otherwise, 

 were always referred to each individual organ. 



Alcohol affects so many functions of the body that it is 

 impossible to take them all up in the time at my disposal, and I 

 shall therefore limit my observations to its action on nutrition, 

 on the brain, and on the circulation. 



Its effects on nutrition are ascribed in part to its influencing 

 the digestion and absorption of ordinary foods, and in part to 

 its acting as a food itself. As to the first, its effects on the 

 digestive processes, there is a very general belief, supported by 

 apostolic authority, that alcohol improves digestion. A large 

 number of painstaking investigations have been carried out 

 without fully confirming the popular view, however. It is true 

 that the digestive ferments have been found to be accelerated 

 by very small quantities of pure alcohol, but the acceleration is 

 very small in degree, and is not observed when the forms of 

 alcohol in ordinary use are substituted for the pure spirit, nor 

 when this itself is added in quantities corresponding to one to 

 two glasses of whiskey in man. As to the secretion of the 

 digestive fluids under alcohol, it has been repeatedly found that 

 alcohol after absorption induces a flow of gastric juice, but this 

 is devoid of, or poor in ferments, and can scarcely promote the 

 preparation of food for absorption. The movements of the 

 stomach and intestine may perhaps be more active after alcohol 

 has been swallowed in a concentrated form, and this may 

 perhaps be the basis of the after-dinner liqueur. And some 

 evidence is presented that alcohol accelerates absorption from 

 the intestine, as is true of many other slightly irritant bodies. 



The effects of alcohol on the digestion are therefore complex, 

 for almost every factor in the process is altered in activity to a 

 small extent when moderate quantities are taken. When one 

 remembers, in addition, that the greatest influence of all on 

 digestion is exercised by the taste and odour of the food, one 

 is prepared for great divergences in the effects of alcohol in 

 man. And this is the only inference that can be drawn from 

 the results of clinical inquiry as to the value of alcohol as a 

 stomachic in man. In some people the progress of digestion 

 seems to be rather improved when wine is taken, but the 

 improvement is small, while in others the reverse is true : the 

 digestion is not accelerated, and may even be retarded by a 



