April 7, 192 1] 



NATURE 



163 



declaration by the chairman that a general meet- 

 ing is not the occasion for an explanation of such 

 peculiar circumstances is one with which many 

 will sympathise ; but the public is entitled to full 

 information at the earliest convenient opportunity. 

 Pending more precise knowledge of the facts, it 

 would not be fair to the late managing directors, 

 or to the board, to pass judgment on their action. 

 If, however, as the published statements at present 

 suggest, incompatibihty of temperament is the 

 cause, chemists will regard them as having failed 

 in realising their responsibility to science at a 

 critical juncture ; on the other hand, the board can 

 scarcely escape the reproach of having allowed an 

 impossible situation to continue far beyond the 

 point at which a surgical operation had become an 

 obvious necessity. Having regard to the immense 

 scientific and national interests which are involved 

 in the ultimate success of this enterprise, and to 

 the large sum of public money which has been in- 

 vested in the corporation, its future conduct 

 demands very careful scrutiny. 



Alcohology. 



y^otes on a Cellar-hook. By George Saintsbury. 

 New edition. Pp. xxxi-f228. (London: Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 1920.) 75. 6d. net. 



THAT constituent principle of all vinous or 

 spirituous drinks which maketh glad the 

 heart of man, no matter how diverse their origin 

 — and this diversity is something astonishing — is 

 commonly reputed to be alcohol. But since this 

 word, in scientific terminology, has lost its original 

 restricted meaning, and is now used generically 

 to comprehend a multitude of substances, solids 

 as well as liquids, the majority of which are not 

 produced by fermentation, it is desirable to be 

 more precise, and to say that this exhilarating 

 principle is held to be the ethyl alcohol of the 

 chemist. All alcohols are not toxic, although 

 certain of the congeners of ethyl alcohol — such as 

 methyl, propyl, and butyl alcohols — are highly 

 poisonous — far more so, apparently, than ethyl 

 alcohol. On the other hand, glycerin, which is 

 regarded by the chemist as an alcohol, is non- 

 poisonous. Other instances of non-toxic alcohols 

 might be quoted. 



The stimulating, as distinct from the toxic, 

 ■effect on the normal individual of what we usually 

 call alcoholic beverages is a very complex pheno- 

 menon. It is partly physiological and partly 

 psychological. To begin with, the liquid 

 must be pleasant, or at least not repugnant, 

 NO. 2684, VOL. 107] 



to the senses. The physiological effect is 

 probably not wholly due to the ethyl alcohol. 

 Perfectly pure ethyl alcohol, in the sense in 

 which the chemist understands the term 

 "pure," is seldom seen, and is certainly 

 never a commercial article. When produced 

 by synthetic processes from inorganic materials 

 it is devoid of all flavour ; it is as char- 

 acterless, indeed, as distilled water. To drink 

 it would afford no pleasure to a sane person. 

 The ethyl alcohol of all fermented liquids, whether 

 they are distilled or not, is accompanied by a 

 variety of substances, such as the alcohols chemic- 

 ally related to ethyl alcohol, as well as ethers, 

 esters, aldehydes, and other products, originally, 

 in the case of wine and cognac, contained in the 

 must or juice of the grape, or, in the case of 

 spirits, derived from the fermented wort of various 

 grains. In the case of liqueurs and cordials, the 

 composition is far more complex by reason of the 

 flavouring or other ingredients present. Some of 

 these may be factitious substances made to simu- 

 late natural products, but with widely different 

 physiological properties. The main point is that 

 the substances associated with the ethyl alcohol 

 in wine, beer, spirits, liqueurs, cordials, etc., con- 

 tribute their effect to the character of the beverage 

 and also to its physiological action ; they may, 

 indeed, in certain cases overpower, or mask, that 

 due to the ethyl alcohol alone. 



The cult of alcohol is, however, too vast a 

 subject to be treated at greater length in such 

 a notice as the present. It is of an immemorial 

 antiquity. As we are informed, it has occupied 

 mankind at least since the days of Noah, who, 

 in the words of the German song, was certainly 

 "ein frommer Mann," as well as a husbandman. 

 But there were tillers of the ground before the 

 Flood, and even Cain may have planted a vine- 

 yard, for it is not expressly stated that Noah was 

 the first to do so. In that case it may have occa- 

 sioned the first recorded murder, pace Prof. 

 Saintsbury, who fails to see any connection 

 between crime and strong drink. 



The literature of alcohology — that is, the litera- 

 ture which treats of the origin, nature, and pro- 

 perties of alcoholic beverages ; which sings their 

 praises and extols their benefits ; or which, on the 

 other hand, anathematises the wine when it is 

 red, stigmatising it as a mocker, which biteth 

 like a serpent and stingeth like an adder, and 

 which curses strong drink as the source of 

 woe and sorrow, of contention and babbling, of 

 wounds without cause, and redness of eyes — is 

 probably one of the most extensive in the 



