428 AC TION OF AL COHOL. 



its exhibition to young animals is also accounted 

 for. 



Action of Alcohol upon the production of Heat. In a 

 slight catarrh in a healthy man, six or eight ounces of 

 alcohol did not lower the temperature, which however 

 was only 1007 (Parkes & Wollowicz). This fact 

 cannot be advanced as an argument against the value 

 of alcohol in cases of fever and internal inflammation. 

 In slight febrile disturbances there is no doubt what- 

 ever not only that alcohol in large quantities does no 

 good, but that it does positive harm, by exciting 

 the heart's action unduly and tending to produce 

 narcotism. In very low states of system, however, 

 albuminoid matters are fast escaping from the blood, 

 the blood corpuscles are undergoing rapid disintegra- 

 tion, and the living matter or bioplasm of the vessels of 

 the neighbouring tissues and of the blood is growing 

 very quickly. The changes referred to are associated 

 with a rise in bodily temperature. Alcohol, as has been 

 shown, tends to modify all these phenomena. And I 

 believe that by further research in the same direction 

 we shall succeed in giving a full and thoroughly satis- 

 factory explanation of the action of alcohol in lowering 

 the body heat in severe attacks of fever. 



Summary. The observations upon the action of 

 alcohol on the "cells" or elementary units of the tissues 

 justify us in concluding that its beneficial influence 

 in very bad cases of disease is due in part to its 

 action upon the pabulum and its tendency to render 



