BIOLOGY APPLIED TO HEALTHFUL LIVING 543 



A liter (nearly a quart) of whisky, gin, or rum given in one 

 dose would kill any animal weighing 67 kilograms. (How 

 many pounds?) Evidently alcohol in large quantities is a 

 poison. However, even a victim of the alcoholic habit 

 would not drink a quart of whisky within a short time. 

 The question is whether in the smaller amounts, such as are 

 commonly used by drinkers, alcohol should be classed as a 

 poison. The next four sections discuss this question with 

 reference to the organs of digestion, circulation, and respira- 

 tion, and the nervous system ; and it is pointed out that it 

 is impossible to show by scientific methods that ordinary 

 small amounts of alcohol produce effects comparable to those 

 of the substances which druggists label " poison." Hence it 

 must be concluded that, so far as we now know, alcohol in 

 small amounts is not harmful enough to warrant labeling it 

 " poison." We do not so label common salt, although a 

 strong solution taken into the stomach has caused death; 

 and while coffee contains a dangerous poison, a pot of the 

 beverage should not be labeled as dangerous. Most people 

 would be misled by such a label, for they know well that in 

 ordinary quantities common salt and coffee produce no symp- 

 toms of poisoning. Likewise, in very limited quantity 

 alcohol is not a poison in the sense that we understand 

 various drugs to be poisons. 



468. Effect of Alcoholic Liquors on Digestion. When 

 taken into the stomach, alcoholic fluids cause a marked in- 

 crease in the flow of gastric juice from the glands of the 

 stomach wall. There is also an increase in the amount of the 

 constituents of gastric juice : namely, pepsin and hydro- 

 chloric acid. Wine, alcohol, beer, whisky, brandy, and 

 wines all stimulate the gastric glands in this way. The 

 alcohol quickly leaves the stomach, being absorbed into the 

 blood, leaving the gastric juice in concentrated form. 

 Whether such an effect of alcoholic fluids upon gastric secre- 

 tion is directly harmful or not seems to depend upon the 



