554 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



unfortunately, the quantities of alcohol given scarcely correspond 

 to the moderate use in man. Even Laitinen gave his rabbits 

 about i c.c. per kg., which would correspond to about 4-5 oz. of 

 whisky per day in a man. This quantity was insufficient to 

 cause symptoms of intoxication in his animals, but the corre- 

 sponding ratio could scarcely be considered within the limits 

 of moderation in man. 1 Some recent work by Reid Hunt bears 

 closely on this question, in that he finds that the continued 

 administration of alcohol in small quantities renders mice and 

 guinea-pigs much more susceptible to the effects of acetonitril, 

 a poison which acts by the liberation of hydrocyanic acid in 

 the tissues. Hunt considers his results due to alcohol deranging 

 the metabolism in certain directions, notably tending towards 

 an acceleration of some oxidative functions. And in this he 

 sees a specific difference between alcohol and the carbohydrates, 

 in that these have of course no such influence on the metabolic 

 processes. 



Hunt states that these changes arise from quantities of 

 alcohol which correspond to that indulged in by " moderate 

 drinkers," inasmuch as his animals showed no signs of intoxica- 

 tion. But a drop of alcohol per day for a mouse corresponds 

 to an immoderate use in man ; and in view of the importance 

 of his evidence, it is extremely desirable that a more accurate 

 determination of the amounts of alcohol given were available. 

 For while I think there can be no question that alcohol in 

 excess reduces the resistance of the general tissues to disease 

 and may be deleterious to them in other ways, as Hunt's results 

 indicate, it still remains undecided what is the lowest point in 

 alcohol administration capable of inducing these effects. 



On the whole, it must be conceded that small quantities 

 of alcohol have not been proved to act deleteriously on the 

 tissues in general, but, on the other hand, the threshold below 

 which alcohol is innocuous has not been ascertained with 

 accuracy, and probably lies nearer the limit of " moderate use " 

 than is generally recognised. 2 



1 Since this paper was written, a further series of experiments has been 

 published by Laitinen, who finds that the prolonged administration to animals of 

 quantities of alcohol corresponding to less than a glassful of whiskey or two 

 glasses of port wine per day in man, exercise a distinctly deleterious action on the 

 blood, and reduce the resistance to infection. 



2 In view of the statement made by Professor Reid Hunt during the 

 discussion of this paper and the later publication by Laitinen just mentioned. I 



