3 88 DR. PARKED OBSERVATIONS. 



up to form alcohol and carbonic acid, water, and 

 a form of cellulose. We shall not be surprised to 

 find that another form of living matter that of the 

 liver-cell has the power of appropriating alcohol, 

 re-arranging its elements, and causing them to com- 

 bine with other elements to form compounds, having 

 properties very different from those of the materials 

 out of which they were made. And it seems probable 

 that under certain circumstances other forms of 

 bioplasm of the body are able to take up and appro- 

 priate alcohol ; for it is certain that in some prolonged 

 cases of exhausting disease a large amount of alcohol 

 is readily assimilated, while ordinary foods can only 

 be taken in such infinitesimal amount that we cannot 

 attribute to them much influence in the maintenance 

 of life. In severe cases of fever, as I shall again have 

 occasion to state, the greater proportion of the alcohol 

 introduced is probably not oxidised, as used to be 

 supposed, but appropriated. Its effect is to lower, 

 not to elevate, the temperature ; and, so far from 

 increasing the dyspnoea in bad cases of bronchitis, 

 pneumonia, &c., by throwing increased work upon 

 the lungs, as used to be affirmed, it has a directly 

 contrary effect. 



Dr. Parkes has shown that diluted alcohol, given 

 daily in such proportions that not more than two 

 ounces of absolute alcohol are consumed in the 

 twenty-four hours, in most cases improves the appe- 

 tite, and slightly quickens the heart's action ; but that 



