94 On the Condition of the Blood. 
One word as to the influence of large doses of alcohol: 
In the Australian Medical Jowrnal of April, 1859, a case 
of snake-bite is recorded by Dr. Doughty, in which two 
bottles of brandy were drunk without the shghest symptoms 
of intoxication ; and Mr. Gillbee mentioned to me a case in 
which he pave a girl, aged fourteen, three bottles without 
intoxication, and she recovered. 
These cells being of a rapid growth, have probably a brief 
existence, recovery from snake-bite being usually sudden. 
Alcohol, as you know, has powerful attractions for oxygen, 
and being immediately absorbed by the veins of the stomach, 
if it should engage the oxygen the cells would perish and 
recovery ensue. 
The inhalation of oxygen must be quite an experiment, 
some authors, as my former eminent and much respected 
teacher, Dr. Bence Jones, thinking the gas essential to cell 
life, others of authority, as Dr. Beale, deeming it prejudicial. 
