THE PHYSIOLOGICAL POSITION OF ALCOHOL. 
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read the physiological action of alcohol, and the reading thus 
obtained I propose to put forward in this brief chronicle. Let the 
reader, if he choose, take up the controversy from the narrative. 
I would deal now with one part of the science side of the 
alcohol question, and which, put in very simple language, would 
stand as follows : Is alcohol good for the health of man and 
the lower animals ? Does it give them strength, readiness for 
work, endurance for work, length of days, happiness? To 
answer the question relating to the lower animals first, we may, 
I think, come to the safe conclusion that alcohol is not good 
for animals under the rank of man. Calves fed on gin-balls — 
barley meal and gin — are very soon prepared for the abattoir , 
but are not exalted into anything very sprightly and lovely in 
the bovine line. On the contrary, they are rendered dull, 
slothful, sleepy calves, on whose bodies the advice 44 Rest and 
be thankful ” is morally branded. Cats and kittens are equally 
deteriorated by alcohol. I knew some young people who 
gradually taught a favourite kitten to walk round the dinner- 
table during dessert and taste wine. It was not long before 
the taste became a luxurious habit with the animal, but she 
soon began to fail under it. She slept half her life, lost all 
desire for play, and in the course of a month or two was 
dropsical and beyond cure. She contracted the liver disease 
called cirrhosis, and a very perfect specimen of the disorder she 
presented after her untimely death. I have observed that birds 
can be made to acquire a taste for alcohol. Pigeons and fowls, 
after a little training, will pick up peas saturated with spirit, 
and subsist on such diet. The animals fatten and sleep, but 
they lose their vivacity, and certainly lose their muscular power. 
The same rule holds good with fish. These animals, under the 
feeble but steady influence of alcohol, become indolent and 
sleepy and soon die. 
On the whole, then, we may conclude safely that god 
Bacchus meant wine and all its allies specially for man. 
Perhaps he foresaw that it would be too expensive an article 
• for beasts generally, and so wisely limited its adaptation ; or 
perhaps he did not adapt it wisely for the good of man, since, 
according to the best accounts of him from those his votaries 
who believe in him, he was not a personage who went deeply 
into any other subject than wine. Was he wise, and is alcohol 
bad for beasts, good for man ? We will turn to this question. 
It is right, before entering on this question, to say that under 
the word alcohol I mean specifically the alcohol which ordi- 
narily enters into wines, beers, spirits, and upon w 7 hich their 
action as stimulants depends. There are many other substances 
included now, by chemists, under the term alcohols, such as 
methylic, butylic, and amylic alcohols ; and there is another 
