April 14, 1911J 



SCIENCE 



589 



both of which contain less than seven parts of 

 alcohol. On the other hand, Holland gin, 

 which contains approximately fifty parts of 

 alcohol is much less toxic than any of the 

 beers or wines which range in their contents 



same manner as the liquors which contained 

 alcohol. Rotifers were placed in various dilu- 

 tions of these solutions and the results com- 

 pared with those obtained from the liquors 

 containing alcohol. 



Shoicing the Highest Percentage of Alcohol in 



the Beverages at which Apparently Normal 



Young were Produced 



TABI^ III 



Shoicing the Comparative Acute Toxicity of 

 Claret and Sherry with and without Alcohol 



Cider 



Cider 



Cider 



Claret 



Claret 



Port wine 



Port wine 



White wine 



Sherry 



Sherry 



Dark beer 



Ked star lager beer... 

 Budweiser lager beer 



Schlitz beer 



Bass's pale ale 



Bass's pale ale 



Ballen tine's ale 



Ballentine's ale 



Eye whiskey 



Blend whiskey 



Holland gin 



Holland gin 



French brandy 



Cooking brandy 



Absolute alcohol 





7.5 

 6.23 

 8.8 

 11. 

 9.25 

 19.65 

 22.6 

 11.5 

 20.5 

 19.25 

 5.8 

 3.75 

 4.9 

 5.35 

 9.25 

 8.5 

 6.3 

 6.3 

 46.4 

 44.5 

 49. 

 52. 

 50.8 

 53.2 

 99.5 



Oh •J o -S 61.5 



a -to 



.065 

 0.1 

 0.1 

 0.3 

 0.3 

 0.3 

 0.2 

 0.4 

 0.9 

 0.9 

 1. 

 0.6 

 0.3 

 1. 



0.05 

 0.06 

 1. 

 1. 

 2. 

 2. 

 2. 

 2. 

 2. 

 % 

 3.-4 



from three to twenty-three parts of alcohol. 

 Thus it seems that the total poisonous effects 

 of alcoholic beverages are not entirely caused 

 by alcohol but are due in part to other sub- 

 stances. 



In further support of this statement a 

 few additional experiments of a somewhat dif- 

 ferent nature were made. A certain quantity 

 of both claret and sherry were placed upon a 

 steam radiator and allowed to evaporate. In 

 both cases a residue remained. As soon as this 

 residue was thoroughly dried distilled water 

 was added until the original volume was re- 

 stored. Then each solution was diluted in the 



TABLE IV 



Showing the Comparative Toxicity of Claret and 



Sherry with and without Alcohol in Dilutions 



of ichich Young Rotifers were Produced 



The acute toxicity of claret and sherry 

 which have the alcohol removed is much less 

 than in the cases where the alcohol is present. 

 Even with the alcohol removed claret is much 

 more toxic than the alcoholless sherry and 

 each of them is more toxic than absolute al- 

 cohol. The same fact is shown in the experi- 

 ments where young rotifers were produced as 

 is indicated in Table IV. 



If alcohol is the only toxic ingredient of 

 claret and sherry neither of them ought to 

 produce poisonous effects upon rotifers after 

 the alcohol is removed. These experiments, 

 however, show that these two liquors are very 

 toxic even when they contain no alcohol. 



Tables I. and II. show that the wines are 

 strikingly more toxic than the same percentage 

 of absolute alcohol. Chittenden' found that 

 wines had a greater inhibitory action on sali- 

 vary and pancreatic digestion than did a cor- 



