536 AN AMERICAN TEXT- HOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



burned in the body, but may also be found in the breath, perspiration, urine, 

 and milk. Alcohol has no effect on proteid decomposition, but acts to spare 

 tat from combustion. 1 The addition of 50 to 80 grams of alcohol to the 

 food has no apparent effect on the nitrogenous equilibrium. 2 Alcohol in the 

 body acts as a paralyzant on certain portions of the brain, destroying the more 

 delicate degrees of attention, judgment, and reflective thought, diminishing the 

 sense of weariness (use after great exertion — furnished to armies in the last 

 hours of battle) and raising the self-esteem ; it paralyzes the vaso-constrictor 

 nerves, producing turgescence of the skin with accompanying feeling of warmth 

 and therein' indirectly aiding the heart.' 5 Alcohol acts to stimulate the res- 

 piration especially in the tired and weak, wine with a rich bouquet like sherry 

 being more effective than plain alcohol.' The higher alcohols, propyl, butyl, 

 amyl (sec p. 539), are more poisonous as the series ascends, and are less vol- 

 atile, less easily burned, and therefore more tenaciously retained by the body, 

 with more pernicious result-. 



Ethyl Ether, C 2 H 5 .O.C 2 H 5 . — This is formed by the action of sulphuric acid on 

 alcohol, thus : 



C 2 H 5 OH - H 2 S0 4 = C 2 H 5 HS0 4 + H 2 0. 



C 2 H 5 HS0 4 + C 2 H 5 OH =(C 2 H 5 ) 2 + H 2 S0 4 . 



Ether is a solvent for fats, resins, and ethereal oils. Respired with air its action is like that 

 of chloroform, producing temporary paralysis of the nerves and nervous centres. Since it 

 boils at 35.5° its tension in the blood is always high, and it is probably not burned in the 

 body to any great extent, but when present is eliminated through the breath. 



Ethers in general are neutral and very stable bodies, and may be considered oxides of 

 organic radicles. They may all be prepared by boiling the corresponding alcohol with sul- 

 phuric acid. Mixed ethers, in which the radicles are different, are prepared by boiling two 

 different alcohols with sulphuric acid : 



CH 8 HSO, + C 2 H 5 OH = CH 3 OC 2 H 5 + H 2 S0 4 . 



Methyl-ethy] ether. 



Chloral Hydrate, CCl,CHO + H,0 or CCl s CH(OH) 2 .— This is thehydrated form of 

 trichlor-ethyl aldehyde, CCl 3 CHO, and is used as an anaesthetic. It is an interesting fact 

 that when fed it partially reappears in the urine as urochloralic acid, which consists of 

 trichlor-ethyl alcohol, (T1 3 CH,0II, combined with glycuronic acid (which see). This is a 

 notable illustration of reduction in the body, the change from an aldehyde to an alcohol. 



Acetic Acid, CH 3 COOH. — Acetic acid, the second of the fatty-acid series, 

 is found in the intestinal tract and in the feces, being a product of putrefaction 

 (see p. 545). It is more easily burned than formic acid, and when absorbed is 

 resolved into C0 2 and water. It is found in traces in the urine, the total 

 amount of fatty acids normally present being 0.008 gram per day. 6 Like 

 formic acid, and accompanied further by the higher acids of the series, it is 

 present in the blood, sweat, and urine in leucocythaemia and diabetes. The 



1 See Rosemann : Pfluger'a Arehiv, 1899, Bd. 77, S. 405. 



2 Strdm: Abstract in Centralblalt fur Physiologic, 1894, Bd. 8, S. 582. 



3 Schmiedeberg : Grundriss der Arzneimittellehre, 2d ed., 1888. 

 * Wendelstadt : Pfluger'a Arehiv, 1-99, Bd. 76, S. 226. 



& Gibbs and Reichert: Arehiv fur Physiologic, 1893, Suppl. Bd. S. 201. 

 « V. Jaksch : Z( itschrift fur physiologische Chemie, 1880, Bd. 10, S. 536. 



