328 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



disturbance caused by alcoholic beverages intoxication, which, by deriva- 

 tion, means poisoning." — Dr. Adolph Fick, Professor of Physiology, Wiirz- 

 burg, Germany. 



"Ethyl alcohol, even when diluted as in wine, beer, and cider, is a poison 

 which changes pathologically the tissues of the body and leads to fatty 

 degeneration. Of course I am not speaking here of the smallest doses. 

 However, the latter (for example, half a liter of beer or a glass of wine) 

 are also poisonous, because they injure the brain by producing paralysis 

 and derangement of function; that is clearly demonstrated by the experi- 

 ments of Kraepelin, Smith, Fiirer, Aschaffenburg, etc. The same have 

 never been controverted. The most moderate drinking of alcohol is quite 

 useless for the individual, but by means of example and fashion produces 

 an incalculable social injury and misery to the masses, since all cannot 

 remain moderate, and the entirely moderate remains at last the exception.'' 

 — Dr. August Forel, Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Zurich. 



"All the alcohols are poisons." — Dujardin-Beaumetz and Audtge. 



"Is alcohol a poison? I reply. Yes. It answers to the description of a 

 poison. It possesses an inherent deleterious property which, when intro- 

 duced into the system, is capable of destroying life, and it has its place with 

 arsenic, belladonna, prussic acid, opium, etc." — Dr. Willard Parker, late 

 Professor of Surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York; 

 Consulting Physician to Bellevue, Mount Sinai, Roosevelt, and the New 

 York hospitals. 



" It [alcohol] leads to degeneration of the tissues; it damages the health; 

 it injures the intellect. Short of drunkenness, that is, in those effects of 

 it which stop short of drunkenness, I should say from my experience that 

 alcohol is the most destructive agent we are aware of in this country." — • 

 Sir William Gull, M.D., F.R.S., Consulting Physician to Guy's Hospital, 

 London. 



" We know that alcohol is mostly oxidized in our body. . . . Alcohol is, 

 therefore, without doubt, a source of living energy in' our body, but it 

 does not follow from this that it is also a nutriment. To justify this assump- 

 tion, proof must be furnished that the living energy set free by its oxida- 

 tion is utilized for the purpose of a normal function. It is not enough 

 that potential energy is transformed into living energy; the transformation 

 must take place at the right time and place, and at definite points in definite 

 elements of the tissues. These elements are not adapted to be fed with 

 every sort of oxidizable material. We do not know whether alcohol can 

 furnish to the muscles and nerves a source of energy for the performance 

 of their functions. ... In general, alcohol has only paralyzing proper- 

 ties, etc." — G. Bunge, Lehrbuch der Physiologischen und Pathologischen 

 Chemie (Leipsic, 1894), page 124. 



"Alcohol, also, when not taken in too large quantities, maybe oxidized 

 in the body, and furnish a not inconsiderable amount of energy. It i^ 



