ON THE niYSIOLOaiCAL ACTION OF THE METHYL COMPOUNDS. 51 



for two reasons ; first, because the fact is an exposition of a general physio- 

 logical law in relation to bodies of the same series ; and secondly, because 

 there is a practical lesson behind bearing upon the employment of these sub- 

 stances. The physiological law is this, that the period of time required by 

 these bodies to produce their effects, and the period of time required for re- 

 covery, turns altogether on the evaporating-point of the fluid used. This is so 

 certain that when in an analogous series of fluids the action of one of the 

 series is well learned, the action of the others may be safely predicted from 

 the boiling-point. In illustration, here are these three alcohols — amylic 

 alcohol, ethylic alcohol, and mcthylic ; the first boils at 270° Fahr., the 

 second at 174°, the third at 140°. If wo intoxicate three animals of the 

 same kind with these alcohols, carrying the symptoms in each case to the 

 same degree, and then leave the animals to recover in the same temperature, 

 say 60°, — then if the animal in the methylie alcohol be four hours recovering, 

 the one in ethylic alcohol will be seven hours, and the one in amylic will be 

 sixteen hours. 



The explanation of this fact is very simple, and reduces the phenomenon 

 to a question, I had almost said, of mechanical force. The alcohols taken 

 into the body enter into no combination which changes their composition. 

 They pass out of the body chemically as they entered it, and theii- evolution 

 and the time of their evolution is a mere matter of so much expenditure of 

 force (caloric) to raise them and carry them off. To test this more directly, 

 intoxicated animals were placed in different degrees of temperature with the 

 unerring result of a quickened recovery in the higher degrees. 



The practical lessons I would refer to are two in number. I would sug- 

 gest that in all cases of alcohohc poisoning in the human subject, the most 

 important condition for recovery is a high temperature. The use of the hot- 

 air bath raised to 150° or even 180° would be the most perfect means of re- 

 covery. Next I would point out that as methyhc alcohol is much more rapid 

 in its action, and much less prolonged in its effects than is common alcohol, it 

 would be used with great advantage by tlie physiological physician in all 

 cases where he feels a demand for an alcohoHc that shall act instantly, and 

 with the least possible ultimate expenditure of animal force for its elimina- 

 tion. It must be observed that in the end aU these alcoholic bodies are 

 depressants, and although at first, by their caUiug vigorously into play the 

 natural force,- they seem to excite, and are therefore called stimulants ; they 

 themselves supply no force at any time, but take up force, by which means 

 they get away and therewith lead to exhaustion and paralysis of power. In 

 other words, the calorific force which should be expended on the nutrition and 

 sensation of the body is expended on the alcohol. 



I have only to acid to this recommendation of methylie alcohol as a me- 

 dicine in substitution for common alcohol, that the methylie spirit when quite 

 pure is extremely palatable, that it mixes easily with water, hot or cold, and 

 that it makes excellent toddy in the proportion of half an ounce to half a 

 pint of hot water. In a conversation I had a few days ago with one of those 

 veterans in physic, Avho links the medicine of the last generation with the 

 present, he told me that the most celebrated physician and scholar of his 

 acquaintance ha.ving once tasted wood-spirit took to it as a drink, and Hked 

 it so much better than any other stimulant that he held to it to the last, to 

 the long term of well nigh ninety years. 



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