Alcohol — is it a Food. 



139 



So long ago as in 1848, Dumeril and Demarquay asserted 

 that after the administration of large doses of alcohol, there 

 was a fall of temperature.^ Dr. Davis's experiments gave 

 similar results over twenty years since, ^ and those per- 

 formed by Dr. Eichardson show that with few exceptions, 

 small doses of alcohol lower the bodily temperature, and 

 that without exception the administration of quantities suffi- 

 cient to produce intoxication causes a very decided fall.^ 

 Indeed he points out that the sleep of apoplexy may easily 

 be distinguished from that of drunkenness by this fact 

 alone ; that in the one case the temperature is above, in 

 the other below the normal standard of 98.5°. He is of 

 the opinion, and who can doubt it, that life is often lost 

 by thrusting intoxicated persons into the cold, damp cells 

 of prisons.* A person in such a condition should always 

 be kept warm. 



The statements of nearly all recent observers, to a host 

 of whom reference might be made, agree upon this point 

 and Dr. Hayes' experience in the use of alcoholic liquors 

 in polar regions fully corroborates the testimony of scien- 

 tific observers. He says : " While fresh animal food, and 

 especially fat, is absolutely essential to the inhabitants and 

 travellers in arctic countries, alcohol is, in almost any 

 shape, not only completely useless but positively injurious. 

 * * * * Circumstances may occur under which its admin- 

 istration seems necessary, such for instance, as great 

 prostration from long continued exposure and exertion or 

 from gettii]g wet ; but then it should be avoided if possible, 

 for the succeeding reaction is alwaj^s to be dreaded ; and if 

 a place of safety is not near at hand the immediate danger 



^ H. C. Word Therapeutics, Materia Medica and Toxicology, Pbila., 1874, 

 p. 103. 



' Trans. Am. Med. As'sn., vol. viii,p. 577. 

 ^ Richardson, op. cit., p. 68, et seq. 

 * lUd, 



