INTOXICATION. 89 



The effects of alcohol on mind and body in the lower 

 animals are of the same kind as those in man, varying in 

 degree from simple transient, probably pleasurable, excite- 

 ment from small doses up to sudden or speedy death from 

 inordinate quantities. As in man, the effects vary according 

 not only to the dose or quantity, but according to the indi- 

 vidual, the species and genus, to whom or to which it is 

 administered. Thus from the same amount of the same form 

 of alcohol, given under apparently the same circumstances, one 

 animal may remain quiet and passive, while another becomes 

 mettlesome and dangerous ; one may commit only a series 

 of ludicrous absurdities of conduct, while another developes 

 a fury, ferocity, or destructiveness that are highly dangerous 

 to themselves, to other animals, or to man. 



The more marked effects of alcohol on the economy of 

 the lower animals include the following : 



1. Simple passing excitement, which may, however, be 

 variously exhibited in the form either of good or bad 

 humour ; the animal may become morbidly facile, so that 

 capture becomes easy, or irascibility is developed, rendering 

 it an unpleasant or unsafe associate. In the parrot wine 

 developes unusual loquacity or garrulity ; in the horse, 

 viciousness it becomes unmanageable by reason of its kick- 

 ing and biting (Pierquin). 



2. The excitement may be more permanent and more 

 intense for instance, in the case of elephants or other ani- 

 mals purposely rendered furious by wine or other stimulants 

 in order that they may minister to man's sports or other re- 

 quirements. Thus we are told that Ptolemy Philopater, 

 ages ago, massacred Jews in the hippodrome of Alexan- 

 dria by causing them to be trampled to death by elephants 

 rendered furious by wine and frankincense. And we have 

 already seen that animals intended to fight with each other 

 for man's amusement are endowed with the necessary 

 amount of courage and combativeness by the use of various 

 forms of alcohol. 



3. Reactionary depression, mental and physical, follow- 

 ing excitement, constituting what is quite as really a dismal 

 mood or humour as in man, associated probably with such 



