274 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



ALCOHOL AND ITS EFFECTS. 



REV. L, J. TEMPLIN. 



The earliest authentic account we have of the use of intoxicating liquors as 

 beverages is in the case of Noah, who, it is said, planted a vineyard and became 

 drunken on the wine made from the fruit thereof. From that time down we 

 have frequent accounts of the use and effects of various kinds of intoxicating 

 liquors among many nations and tribes of people. The most common source of 

 these drinks in ancient times was the grape; but the palm tree, pomegranate, and 

 melon have been extensively employed for this purpose in both ancient and mod- 

 ern times. In recent times the various cereals have come into very general use 

 for this purpose. Various other substances, as fruits, milk, etc., are frequently 

 employed for the manufacture of intoxicating drinks. It is only by a process 

 of fermentation that the intoxicating principle is generated, as none of it is 

 ever found in any living substance. In the process of decomposition of any 

 organic substance containing sugar in the presence of water, it passes through 

 three distinct stages ; the alcoholic, the acetic, and the putrefactive. It is the 

 business of the brewer and distiller to check the process when it has reached the 

 first stage, and so manipulate their liquor as to prevent any further fermentation. 

 Intoxicating drinks were in use many centuries before any correct knowledge of 

 the true nature of the intoxicating principle was obtained. 



The Arabian alchemists discovered that if wine was kept at the boiUng point 

 for a few minutes it lost its intoxicating power. The intoxicating principle, 

 whatever that was, had escaped. But this powerful agent was invisible, hence 

 it was regarded as a spirit — the spirit of wine. 



About the middle of the eleventh century Avicena caught this subtle agent 

 and gave it a visible, bodily form. Chemists called it "alcohol." This term 

 comes from two Arabic words, Al the, and Kahol, a fine, impalpable powder. 

 The ladies of the east were accustomed to employ such powders at their toilet. 

 The term "alcohol" seems to have been applied to any powerful, subtle agent, 

 but its modern use is confined to the intoxicating principle or strong drinks — the 

 spirit of wine. The process by which this agent is developed is now quite well 

 understood. If starch be moistened with water in which a little ferment, as yeast, 

 has been dissolved, and subjected to a temperature of one hundred degrees of 

 heat it will be changed to grape sugar. But if the temperature be maintained in 

 the presence of a ferment it will be decomposed and its elements separated into 

 carbonic anhydride and alcohol. The gas speedily escapes into the air and the 



