83 
instead of fruit-juices are employed, the product is the same, 
although in this case the source of the alcohol is cane-sugar, in 
the former, glucoses. Best known of all these, of course, is the 
fermented juice of the sugar-cane. More famous, perhaps, is the 
pulgue, made by fermenting the juice collected from a cavity 
made by cutting out the bud, or head, of the century-plant when 
ready to flower. Many hundreds of pounds of this juice is often 
obtained, within a few weeks, from a single large plant. The 
liquid, at first clear, becomes curdy from coagulation of the albu- 
men, during fermentation, and the pulque looks somewhat like 
thin buttermilk. The alcoholic strength of these beers and wines 
ranges from two or three per cent. up to nearly eighteen per 
ent., the limit of possible production of alcohol, since at that 
strength the alcohol kills the organism the activity of which 
produces it. The systemic effect of alcohol is almost purely a 
depressing one, though it is commonly called a stimulant. The 
distinction is however, in most cases, rather theoretical than prac- 
tical. Most of our functions are presided over by an active 
agency and by another which is repressant or inhibitory. If 
the latter is depressed, the effect is to allow the former to act, 
thus yielding the effect of a stimulant, though not truely such. 
It is in this way that alcohol appears to stimulate. It depresses 
the nerves which cause the walls of the superficial arteries to 
contract, hence the latter enlarge and, engorging the surface 
vessels with warm blood, make us feel warmer. t the same 
time, it deadens the nerves which sense heat and cold. In the 
same way, it deadens the thirst-sensation and, in fact, most of 
our powers for feeling pain or discomfort. It is thus seductive. 
Its continued use tends to bring back, with increased emphasis, 
many of the unpleasant sensations which it temporarily dimin- 
ishes, so the demand for it becomes more and more imperative. 
e stronger solutions of it become called for, and we 
distil off the alcohol, with a small part of the water, from the fer- 
mented beverages already described, and obtain spirits, of which 
rum, whiskey, brandy, mescal, arrack, etc., are familiar examples. 
In these, the alcohol ranges from thirty per cent. to fifty per cent. 
or even more. Here we see a steady departure from the true 
