ALCOHOL AND ITS EFFECTS. 277 



to health. The highest state of health is secured only by the prompt removal of 

 this effete matter. Thus it appears that we live only by a constant process of 

 dying. Alcohol in the living system, as everywhere else, antagonizes the natural 

 tendency to decomposition. Hence the dead matter that, under the healthy ac- 

 tion of the system, would be speedily excreted from the system, is retained longer 

 than it should be. The result is the weight is increased, but it is by the retention 

 of the old matter that should be cast off and not by the addition of new material 

 obtained from the alcohol. Another argument in favor of the nutritious nature 

 of alcohol is based on the nature of this substance. All forms of food substances 

 may be arranged in two general classes, viz : nitrogenous and carbonaceous. 

 The former of these goes to make up the various tissues of the animal system, 

 and the latter results in the development of animal heat and carbonic anhydride. 

 Now as alcohol contains so large a proportion of carbon it was placed at the head 

 of the list of respiratory food substances. 



This theory, advanced by so high an authority as Baron Liebig, and look- 

 ing so plausible on its face, gained at once general acceptance. But it was not 

 long till Dr. Prout demonstrated by experiment that the amount of carbonic acid 

 exhaled from the lungs was directly diminished by the presence of alcohol. Dr. 

 Davis, of Chicago, next took up the question of the development of animal heat 

 from alcohol, and by carefully conducted experiments he demonstrated the fact 

 that so far from the heat of the system being increased under the influence of 

 alcohol it was actually diminished. After taking nutritious food into the stomach 

 the temperature of the body is increased, but after taking alcohol in any form or 

 mixture the temperature soon begins to fall and continues depressed one to two 

 degrees below normal for two or three hours, the extent and duration of this de- 

 pression being in exact proportion to the amount taken. The world has long 

 labored under the delusion that both the temperature and strength of the body 

 were increased by the presence of alcohol in the system. Dr. Davis's experi- 

 ments with a very delicate thermometer proved the first a mistake, and an appli- 

 cation of the dynamometer showed the last to be an error. The common error 

 on this subject arises from the state of perverted sensibility resulting from the 

 alcohol that has been imbibed. 



The individual will assert with great positiveness that he is warmer or stronger 

 while under its influence than at other times, but an application of the proper 

 tests proves his mistake. But it is this appeal to his sensibilities that has misled the 

 world on this subject for generations. In order to a full understanding of this 

 matter it is necessary to inquire more particularly into the effects of alcohol on 

 the human system. 



If an application of alcohol be made to any part of the body and continued 

 for sometime it will be found that the sensibility of that part has been diminished. 

 The nerves with which the poison comes in contact are paralyzed to some extent, 

 thus reducing their sensibility. And this leads us to inquire more fully into the 

 real nature of alcohol. The almost universal opinion is that alcohol is a stimulant 



VI— 18 



