122 A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE 



consequently in the body alcoholic fluids would hardly lead 

 to any retardation of gastric digestion. This point has been 

 very carefully and thoroughly tested by numerous experi- 

 ments on healthy dogs with gastric fistulae, using proteid test 

 meals, with the result that certainly in the stomach of dogs 

 digestion is not retarded in any pronounced degree under the 

 influence of alcohol or alcoholic fluids. Of hastened digestion, 

 the results obtained give little or no suggestion, and we must 

 therefore conclude that the two diverse factors above referred 

 to more or less counterbalance each other so that gastric 

 digestion in the broadest sense of the term is not markedly 

 varied under the influence of alcohol or alcoholic fluids. This 

 conclusion, it may be mentioned, stands in perfect harmony 

 with the results of the investigations of Zuntz and Magnus- 

 Levy regarding the influence of alcohol (beer) on the digesti- 

 bility and utilization of food in the body. These investigators 

 found by a series of metabolic experiments on men with diets 

 largely made up of milk and bread, and on individuals accus- 

 tomed and unaccustomed to the use of alcoholic beverages, 

 that the latter did not in any way diminish the utilization 

 of the food by the body.* 



Especially worthy of note is the rapid disappearance of 

 alcohol from the stomach and alimentary tract when alcoholic 

 fluids are taken. As our results show, the introduction of 

 even 200 c.c. of 37 per cent alcohol into the stomach of a dog 

 with the duodenum ligated at the pylorus may be followed 

 by the nearly complete disappearance of the alcohol in 3-3J 

 hours by absorption through the stomach walls into the blood. 

 With the outlet from the stomach into the intestine open, the 

 rate of absorption of alcohol is greatly increased. We may 

 well believe, as stated by Ogata, that, when 6-8 grams of 

 alcohol are taken into the stomach in the form of wine or 

 beer, 80-90 per cent of the alcohol will disappear from the 

 alimentary tract inside of half an hour. Indeed, our own 

 experiments on dogs with gastric fistulse lead to this con- 



* Zuntz and Magnus-Levy, Archiv f. d. ges. Physiol., 1891, xlix, p. 438; 

 Magnus-Levy, ibid., 1893, liii, p. 544. 



