181 



Dr. E. A. Parkes on the 

 During Brandy. 



[Feb. 



The respirations in this rnan were always extremely quick, even when 

 he had been lying in bed for eighteen hours. The variation follows closely 

 the changes in the pulse. They increased after breakfast at 7 o'clock, and 

 then at 9.30 commenced to fall, and continued less numerous by two or 

 three per minute until dinner. This meal, and the exercise which was 

 always taken in the afternoon, raised the number. The brandy seemed 

 to lessen the number of respirations in the period from 11 to 2 o'clock ; 

 the mean of this period in the anti-brandy days was 19'86 per minute, 

 and in the brandy period was 17*88. This result, if it be real, showed a 

 difference between the pulse and respirations, the former being raised six 

 beats per minute on a mean of all the days, and the latter being lowered 

 two respirations per minute in the three hours following the brandy. 

 The effect on the number of respirations was most marked in the two 

 days when six ounces of brandy was taken. 



Considering, however, the rather unusual frequency of the respirations in 

 the man and the smallness of the change, I hesitate to conclude that the 

 respirations were lessened in number, but decidedly they were not 

 increased. 



Received February 5, 1874. 



II. Experiments during complete Inanition. 



The following experiments were made to determine the effect of alcohol 

 after sixteen hours fasting : 



A healthy man (J. S.), 5 ft. 4 in. in height, weighing r 66'774 kilo- 

 grammes, was kept in bed every day until 1 o'clock, at which time he re- 

 ceived his first meal in the day. The last meal was taken at 6 o'clock P.M. 

 He was consequently fasting for nineteen hours. The axilla and rectum 

 temperatures were taken every half hour from 6 to 10 A.M., and every 

 fifteen minutes from 10 to 1 P.M., the thermometers remaining in situ, 

 except for the purpose of being read. The daily food was the same, 

 except on two days, when the brandy destroyed his appetite and he could 

 not quite eat his ration, 



