176 ALIMENTATION. 



tial to proper nutrition and that they undergo important changes in the or- 

 ganism. Alcohol is absorbed and taken into the blood ; and it becomes a 

 question of importance to determine whether it be consumed in the economy 

 or whether it be discharged unchanged by the various emunctories. 



Alcohol has long since been recognized in the expired air after it has been 

 taken into the stomach ; and late researches have confirmed th'e earlier ob- 

 servations with regard to its elimination in its original form, and have shown 

 that after it has been taken in quantity, it exists in the blood and all the tis- 

 sues and organs, particularly the liver and nervous system. Lallemaiid, Per- 

 rin and Duroy have stated, also, that there is a considerable elimination of al- 

 cohol by the lungs, skin and kidneys ; but the accuracy of the experiments 

 by which these results were arrived at has been questioned. The observa- 

 tions of Anstie and of Dupre have, indeed, thrown great doubt upon the 

 chromic-acid test for alcohol, which was employed by the French observers 

 above mentioned. Nevertheless, when alcohol has been taken in narcotic 

 doses, there is some alcoholic elimination in the urine, as was shown long ago 

 by Percy. 



As the result of the final experiments of Anstie, it is certain that most 

 of the alcohol which is taken in quantities not sufficient to produce alcoholic 

 intoxication is consumed in the organism, and but a trivial quantity is 

 thrown off, either in the urine, the faeces, the breath or the cutaneous tran- 

 spiration. This question is of importance with regard to the moderate use 

 of alcohol under normal conditions, and especially in its bearing upon the 

 therapeutical action of the various alcoholic drinks administered in cases of 

 disease. 



Taken in moderate quantity, alcohol generally produces a certain degree of 

 nervous exaltation which gradually passes off. In some individuals the men- 

 tal faculties are sharpened by alcohol, while in others they are blunted. 

 There is nothing, indeed, more variable than the immediate effects of alcohol 

 on different persons. In large doses the effects are the well known phenom- 

 ena of intoxication^ delirum, more or less anaesthesia, coma, and sometimes, 

 if the quantity be excessive, death. As a rule, the mental exaltation pro- 

 duced by alcohol is followed by reaction and depression, except in debilitated 

 or exhausted conditions of the system, when the alcohol seerns to supply a de- 

 cided want. 



The views of physiologists concerning the influence of a moderate quanti- 

 ty of alcohol on the nervous system are somewhat conflicting. That it may 

 temporarily give tone and vigor to the system when the energies are unusually 

 taxed, can not be doubted ; but this effect is not produced in all individuals. 

 The constant use of alcohol may create an apparent necessity for it, produc- 

 ing a condition of the system which must be regarded as pathological. 



The immediate effects of the ingestion of a moderate quantity of alcohol, 

 continued for a few days, are decided. It notably diminishes the exhalation 

 of carbon dioxide and the discharge of other excrementitious matters, par- 

 ticularly urea. These facts have long since been experimentally demonstrat- 

 ed. Proper mental and physical exercise, tranquillity of the nervous system, 



