1874.] Influence of Brandy on the Bodily Temperature -c. 173 



These differences of statement led me to conceive that the time when 

 the alcohol was given might have some effect. 



In the experiments formerly reported to the Royal Society, alcohol 

 "was usually given either with or at no long interval from food. As 

 food raises the temperature of the body, it occurred to me that it might 

 mask an opposite action of the alcohol ; and I therefore determined to 

 repeat the experiments, and to give the alcohol about four hours after a 

 moderate breakfast, when the heating-effect of the food had gone off, 

 and when digestion was completed, and also to give it in a state of 

 complete inanition. 



I. Experiments after the completion of Digestion. 



The subject of the observations is a strong healthy soldier, T. B., aged 

 25, height 5 feet 8| inches, weight (naked) 67'46 kilogrammes, or 148 Ibs. 

 He has at times drunk some quantity of spirits, but not for the last two 

 or three years, and usually takes about two or three pints of beer daily. 



The course of the experiments was as follows : His breakfast was 

 taken at 6.30, was finished every day by 7A.M.; he took for breakfast 

 8 ounces of bread, ^ ounce of butter, and 17 fluid ounces of tea with sugar 

 and with 3 ounces of milk. Immediately after breakfast he went to bed 

 again, and did not get out of the recumbent position for any purpose 

 until 2 o'clock. He then dined on 12 ounces of beefsteak, 4 ounces of 

 bread, and 8 ounces of w r ater. 



After dinner he took exercise and smoked, had tea (same food as at 

 breakfast) at 6, and a glass of water at 9 P.M., when he went to bed. 

 He took daily precisely the same diet and quantity of water. 



Thermometers (tested for accuracy and exactly corresponding) were 

 placed in the axilla and rectum at 6 o'clock, and, except at breakfast, they 

 were removed only for the purpose of being read at first every 30 and 

 then every 15 minutes, and were at once replaced, until 2 o'clock, after 

 which time the temperatures were only taken every tw r o hours. 



After several days' preliminary examination (during which time he 

 took no alcohol) the experiments were commenced and carried on for six 

 days without alcohol ; then during five days undiluted brandy containing 

 50 per cent, of absolute alcohol was given once daily, viz. at 11 A.M., four 

 hours after breakfast. 



On the first day one fluid ounce of brandy (=| ounce of alcohol) was 

 given, on the second day two ounces, on the third day four ounces, on 

 the fourth day six ounces (=3 ounces of alcohol), and on the fifth day 

 also six ounces. I had intended to give him eight ounces on the fifth 

 day, but the brandy made him so ill, he begged me not to increase the 

 quantity*. 



* The effect of the six ounces of brandy taken in this way at one time and without 

 water was entirely to destroy appetite, so that he could not force himself to take his 

 food ; it also caused a great feeling of depression, sickness, and headache, and increased 

 the flow of urinary water very largely for three hours. The nitrogenous elimination 



