136 MATERIA MEDIC A AND THERAPEUTICS. 



Port, Sherry, and Madeira, about 14 to 17 per cent. 

 Vinum Album Fortius (U.S.P.), about 11-5 to 14 per cent. 

 Vinum Album (U.S.P.), about 10 to 12 per cent. 

 Champagne, about 10 to 13 per cent. 

 Hock and Claret, about 8 to 11 per cent. 

 Beer and Cider, about 3, 5, or more per cent. 

 Koumiss (made from milk), about 1 to 3 per cent. 



ACTION AND USES. 

 1. IMMEDIATE LOCAL ACTION AND USES. 



Externally, alcohol is an antiseptic and disinfectant, em- 

 ployed as a constituent of lotions for ulcers and wounds. 

 Applied to the unbroken skin, and the vapour allowed to escape, 

 it is a powerful refrigerant, withdrawing heat from the body 

 by its evaporation. In this form it is used to prevent or allay 

 inflammations of superficial parts, such as the subcutaneous 

 tissues, joints, and muscles; blanches the parts by vascular con- 

 striction ; produces a sense of cold ; and relieves pain, especially 

 headache, due to vascular dilatation and throbbing. Spirituous 

 lotions sponged on the skin also diminish the activity of the 

 sweat-glands, and may be used in excessive perspiration as an 

 anhidrotic. On the contrary, if the vapour be confined, and 

 allowed to act upon the tissues underneath, or if the alcohol be 

 rubbed into the part, it penetrates and hardens the epithelium, 

 and irritates the nerves and vessels of the cutaneous structures, 

 causing redness, heat, and pain, followed by local anaesthesia. 

 In the form of brandy it is rubbed into the skin to prevent bed- 

 sores, by hardening and disinfecting the epidermis. Spirituous 

 liniments containing soaps, essential oils, and other stimulants 

 (e.g. Linimentum Camphors and Linimentum Cam] (horse Compo- 

 situm), are applied with friction to increase the nutrition of 

 j arts which are the seat of chronic inflammation, induration, 

 adhesions, stiffness, and pain, such as the joints and muscles in 

 chronic rheumatism, periostitis, and paralysis, or to produce a 

 rubefacient ell'ect on a large area of skin, for instance, of the 

 client in bronchitis. Alcohol is absorbed by the unbroken 

 skin. 



Internally, the local action of alcohol begins in the mouth 

 with its characteristic taste and a hot, painful, stimulating effect 

 on the tongue and mucous membranes. If it be retained in con- 

 ta'-t with them, the epithelium becomes condensed and whitened, 

 and the parts beneath anaesthetised. Some forms of toothache 

 can thus be quickly and completely relieved, the spirit also 

 acting as a disinfectant in the pulp cavity. Wines and other 



