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during life, and soon alter after death, or after being removed from the 
body. 3rd. They assume the consistence of the tissue or fluid in which 
they exist. They are solid in the solids, like bone ; semi-solid in the 
semi-solids, like muscle ; fluid in the fluids, like the blood. They are not 
dissolved in water ; but water is an ingredient, and its quantity determines 
their consistence. 4th. In the body they never exist alone, but always 
combined with inorganic substances, which accompany them in the 
changes they undergo in the processes of nutrition and destructive assimi- 
lation. 5th. As all the proximate analyses of the organised fluids, parti- 
cularly of the blood, have been made with the idea that the organic 
ingredients were solids in solution in water, their quantitative analyses 
give, not the proportion of fibrine or albumen, but of dried fibrine and 
albumen, the original substance having been subjected to a process which 
drives off its most important constituent, and which alters its properties. 
Such analyses as representing real quantities are erroneous. We cannot 
quite coincide with the concluding remarks of Professor Smith, but place 
them before our readers, as, at all events, suggestive. — American Journal 
of the Medical Sciences, XCIL, 1863. 
Action of Alcohol in Acute Diseases . — Much as the good folk who delight 
in Maine liquor law speculations may be surprised at it, it is nevertheless 
quite true that alcohol is a most valuable remedy in certain diseases of an 
acute form, and especially in low pneumonia. Dr. Beale has recently 
published a little pamphlet on this question, and does not hesitate to 
advocate the employment of alcohol in such cases as those referred to. 
He explains the difference in results produced by alcohol in the healthy 
and morbid systems, by the supposition that it is capable only of affecting 
the production of cells which have been hastily formed and whose walls 
are, therefore, not sufficiently protected from its influence. Thus alcohol, 
when administered in cases where cells are being rapidly generated, 
checks the development of their structures, whilst when administered in 
health it is incapable of acting on the normal cells by reason of the dense 
character of their coats. After carefully watching more than one hundred 
cases of acute disease which had been treated with large quantities of 
stimulants, the author concludes : — (1.) That intoxication is not produced. 
(2.) That delirium, if it have occurred, ceases or is prevented from 
occurring at all in the course of the case. (3.) That headache is not occa- 
sioned. (4.) That the action of the skin, kidneys, and bowels goes on 
freely. (5.) That the tongue remains moist, or, if dry and brown, often 
becomes moist. (6.) That the pulse falls in frequency and increases in 
power. (7.) That respiration is not impeded, but that where even one 
entire lung hepatised, the distress of breathing is not increased. (8.) The 
respiratory changes go on as well as if no alcohol had been given. In what 
appeared hopeless cases, as much brandy as the patient could be made to 
swallow (an ounce and a half to two ounces in an hour) has been given 
for several hours in succession, and then as much as thirty ounces a day 
for several days, not only without producing the slightest intoxication, 
vomiting, or headache, but the treatment has been followed by recovery. — 
See “ On the Deficiency of Vital Power in Disease,” &c. Lionel S. 
Beale, M.B., F.R.S. London ; Richards. 
