138 



Alcohol — is it a Food. 



boDic acid exhaled following the ingestion of four drachms 

 of alcohol three times a day for five days. ^ Dr. S. Davis 

 of Chicago states, that the diminution of carbonic acid 

 amounts sometimes to fifty per cent, two hours after a dose 

 of alcohol has been taken, ^ and Perrin, ^ Horn, * Vierordt, ^ 

 and many other experimenters give equally positive testi- 

 mony. And as to the calorific power of alcohol, contrary 

 to what is considered the general experience, and to the 

 statements of the authors quoted, together with many 

 others not mentioned, it is capable of direct proof that its 

 administration causes in man, and in many other of the 

 warm-blooded animals, a decided fall of temperature. 

 Indeed alcohol is now employed as an antipyretic in 

 fevers. There may be at first a slight rise of surface tem- 

 perature, quickly subsiding and there is undoubtedly ex- 

 perienced a feeling of warmth in the extremities and a 

 certain glow on the surface following the ingestion of 

 alcoholic liquids, but this proceeds in reality from a cool- 

 ing process which results from the increased supply of 

 blood sent to the capillaries of the surface which, with its 

 temperature lowered, is returned to the heart. This effect 

 is believed to depend upon the action of the alcohol upon 

 the ganglionic nervous system. The control which the 

 nervous filaments exert upon the capillaries is weakened ; 

 the normal state of tonicity gives place to a flaccid dilata- 

 tion ; the vessels become distended with blood ; a greater 

 quantity is sent to the part, and, therefore, the check upon 

 the heart being relaxed, its pulsations become more frequent. 

 ^ot only is the blood being more rapidly cooled but an 

 extra amount of work is necessarily put upon the heart. 



1 Op. c^■^., p. 48. 



^ Trans. Am. Med. As'sn., vol. yiii, p. 577. 



2 Archives generales, 6tli series, vol. iv. 

 * Flint, op. cit., vol. i, p. 437. 



