4 1 6 A CTION OF AL CO HOL IN PNE UMONIA . 



sceptics upon the question of the proper management 

 of disease ; and, in the course of years, most valuable 

 practical conclusions, arrived at from actual expe- 

 rience, are forgotten, because the theory upon which 

 these conclusions were based has been overthrown 

 and proved to be unsound. But why, for example, 

 may we not retain in practice the depleting process in 

 those cases in which -it has been proved to be of 

 service, although the principles upon which depletion 

 was carried to foolish extremes have been proved to 

 be erroneous ? And on the other hand, why may we 

 not continue to carry on the system of stimulation in 

 cases in which stimulants are known to be useful, 

 although it may be quite true that stimulants neither 

 support life, nor give life, nor nourish tissues, nor 

 supply the place of food, nor directly affect the disin- 

 tegration of tissues ? 



So far from the abstraction of blood diminishing 

 the nutrition of bioplasm, the process may actually be 

 increased by violent bleeding. The blood that remains 

 becomes weaker, and the watery parts necessarily 

 permeate tissues more readily. Thus rapidly growing 

 cells, such as exist in the air-cells in pneumonia, grow 

 still faster, because they are supplied more freely with 

 nutrient pabulum. On the other hand, alcohol in several 

 ways interferes w r ith the growth of these bioplasts, 

 and thus tends to put a stop to the " inflammatory 

 process." The results of practice in fact support this 

 theory : that in low conditions of the system, and by 



