26 THE ACTIVE FORCES OF LIVING ORGANISMS 



stimulate the nerve centres.* If the dose be aug- 

 mented, a very marked slackening of the vital pro- 

 cesses occurs. The general consequence of large 

 amounts of alcohol is said to be to arrest oxidation 

 by imprisoning the oxygen in the blood corpuscles, 

 thus impeding the transfer of it to the tissues.! Just 

 as sleep produces a decrease of oxidation, so con- 

 versely a diminution of oxidation when caused by 

 alcohol leads to drowsiness and sleep. Alcohol itself 

 is a product of what one may term incomplete oxida- 

 tion, for when more" completely oxidized it- gives rise 

 to ethyl aldehyde and water, to acetic acid and water, 

 or to carbonic acid and water. Until it combines 

 with what oxygen it can seize, it appears to produce a 

 chemico-dynamic effect — it seems to strike a note of 

 incomplete oxidation, of the state, that is to say, in 

 which it was produced. It is not impossible that its 

 stimulative effect in the first instance is due, not, as 

 has been supposed, to an increase of oxidation, but to 

 a slight decrease. A change in the degree of oxida- 

 tion is probably always a stimulus to nervous action, 

 for the molecules of the nerve-cells may be supposed 

 to vibrate in a different manner, the rearrangement 

 which they undergo constituting excitation to increased 

 movement. That a diminution of oxidation is attended 

 by increased nervous excitability is conclusively proved 

 by the phenomena of asphyxia, in the iirst stage of 

 which the heart's action is increased. 



* Mitchell Bruce, 'Materia Medica and Therapeutics,' pp. 

 155, 156. 

 + Ibid., p. 155. 



