THE CHEMISTRY OE THE ANIMAL BODY. 535 



fed they appear readily in the urine. It has a penetrating odor, acts as a 

 reducing agent (HCOOH -f- O = CO a + H 2 0), and therefore precipitates 

 Fehling's solution. Outside of the body it readily undergoes oxidation to 

 water and carbonic acid. It produces inflammation of the skin. A 7 per 

 cent, solution given to a rabbit per os has a most powerful corrosive action and 

 results fatally, formic acid being found in the urine. 



Ethyl Compounds. 



Ethyl Hydroxide, or Ethyl Alcohol, C 2 H 5 OH. — This has been detected 

 in minute quantity in the normal muscle of rabbits, horses, and cattle. 1 

 Yeast-cells produce a ferment, zymase, which acts to split dextrose into alcohol 

 and carbonic acid, producing likewise, to a very small extent, the higher 

 alcohols, propyl, isobutyl, amyl, the esters of the fatty acids (fusel oil), 

 glycerin, and succinic acid. Such fermentation may to a small extent take 

 place in the intestine, 2 and likewise in the bladder (occurrence in diabetic- 

 urine). Pure alcohol is a colorless, almost odorless liquid, having a burning 

 taste. It is a valuable solvent of resins, fats, volatile oils, bromine, iodine, 

 and many medicaments. 



Tinctures are alcoholic solutions of various drugs and salts. 



Liqueurs are manufactured from alcohol properly diluted, and treated with sugar and 

 characteristic ethereal oils and aromatics. 



Distilled liquors are obtained by the distillation of the fermentative products of various 

 substances, whiskey from corn and rye, rum from molasses, brandy from wine. The cha- 

 racterizing taste depends on the different ethereal and fusel oils. 



Wines are produced from the natural fermentation of grape-juice. Sherry, madeira, 

 and port are fortified by the further addition of alcohol and sugar. 



Beer is made by converting the starch of barley into maltose and dextrin through 

 diastase. To an aqueous solution of the above hops are added, and the whole is boiled. 

 After the settling of precipitated proteid, etc., the clear supernatant fluid is drawn oflf and 

 treated with yeast, with ultimate conversion into beer. The taste is furnished by the hops. 



Alcohol in the Body. — Alcohol in the stomach at first prevents the 

 gelatinization necessary in proteid for peptic digestion, but this difficulty is of 

 no great moment because the absorption of alcohol is rapid and complete. 

 It makes the mucous membrane hyperaemic, promotes the absorption of 

 accompanying substances (sugar, peptone, potassium iodide), and stimulates 

 the flow of the gastric juice. 3 In this matter it acts as do other condiments 

 (salt, pepper, mustard, peppermint), 4 but if there be too great an irritation 

 on the mucous membrane there is less activity (dyspepsia). The rapid 

 absorption gives to alcohol its quick recuperative effect alter collapse, and 

 it- value in administering drugs, especially antidotes. Alcoholic beverages 

 combining alcohol and flavor promote gastric digestion and absorption, but 

 often stimulate the appetite in excess of normal requirement Alcohol is 



^ajewski: Pfliiger's Archiv, 1875, Bd II. S. 122 



- Macfadyen, Nencki, and Sieber : Archiv fiir exper. Pathologic wnd Pharmakologie, 1891, Bd. 

 28, S. 347. 



3 Brandl: Zeitsehrifl fur Biologie, L892, Bd. 29, S. 277. Chittenden, Mendel, and Jackson: 

 American Journal of Physiology, 1808, vol. i. p. 164. 4 Brandl, Op. cit., 8. 292. 



