104: ALIMENTATION. 



ten per cent, of alcohol), " the Jungs eliminated alcohol for 

 eight hours, and the kidneys for fourteen hours." * 



The question now arises whether the alcohol be elimi- 

 nated in totality, or w T hether it be in part removed in this 

 way, and in part destroyed in the system. This it is difficult 

 to answer with positiveness. It has been shown that a certain 

 amount of alcohol may be transformed into acetic acid in 

 the stomach, but this quantity is insignificant, and the experi- 

 ments of the observers above quoted show that it does not take 

 place in the general system. The view that alcohol undergoes 

 combustion or oxidation is based upon theoretical and not 

 upon any experimental considerations ; and the fact that this 

 substance is always eliminated, even when taken in minute 

 quantity, and that its elimination continues for a consider- 

 able time, gradually diminishing, render it probable that all 

 that is taken into the body is removed. The practical diffi- 

 culties in the way of collecting all the exhalations, espe- 

 cially those from the skin and lungs, are so great, that this 

 cannot, as yet, be demonstrated experimentally. 2 



1 Op. tit., p. 121. 



Percy detected alcohol in five ounces of urine taken from a man in a condi- 

 tion of intoxication, by first distilling over three drachms of a colorless liquid, 

 subjecting this to a second distillation in which one drachm passed over, which 

 was agitated in a test-tube with subcarbonate of potassa. He thus obtained a 

 clear supernatant stratum, which dissolved camphor and burned with a blue 

 flame (op. cit., p. 105). There can be hardly any doubt but that the kidneys al- 

 ways eliminate a certain quantity of alcohol when this substance finds its way 

 into the circulation. 



2 A recent English writer, Dr. Anstie, does not accept ths observations of Lal- 

 lemand, Perrin, and Duroy as showing that, in all probability, alcohol taken into 

 the alimentary canal is eliminated as alcohol, and is removed in totality by the 

 various emunctories. The experiments of Dr. Anstie are not on a very extended 

 scale, and, as far as they go, rather support than controvert the opinion of the 

 French observers. He found that even after small doses of alcohol had been 

 taken, the presence of this substance could be determined in the urine and in 

 the pulmonary and cutaneous exhalations. (Stimulants and Narcotics, Philadel- 

 phia, 1865, p. 358 et seg.) It must be remembered, however, that the total 

 elimination by the lungs and skin of watery vapor, which is much less volatile 

 than alcohol, is enormous, although, by the skin especially, its quantity in a lim- 



