THE PHYSIOLOGICAL POSITION OF ALCOHOL. 165 
injury, I could choose no better agent for the purpose of the ex- 
periment than alcohol. But alas ! the readiness with which 
strong well-built men slip into general paralysis under the con- 
tinued influence of this false support, attests how unnecessary 
it were to put a lower animal to the proof of an experiment. 
The experiment is a custom, and man is the subject. 
7. It may be urged that men take alcohol, nevertheless, take 
it freely and yet live ; that the adult Swede drinks his average 
cup of twenty-five gallons of alcohol per year and yet remains 
on the face of the earth. I admit force even in this argument, 
for I know that under the persistent use of alcohol there is a 
secondary provision for the continuance of life. In the con- 
firmed alcoholic the alcohol is in a certain sense so disposed of that 
it fits, as it were, the body for a long season, nay, becomes part of 
it ; and yet it is silently doing its fatal work : all the organs of the 
body are slowly being brought into a state of adaptation to 
receive it and to dispose of it ; but in that very preparation 
they are themselves undergoing physical changes tending to 
the destruction of their function and to perversion of their 
structure. Thus, the origin of alcoholic phthisis, of cirrhosis 
of the liver, of degeneration of the kidney, of disease of the 
membranes of the brain, of disease of the substance of the 
brain and spinal cord, of degeneration of the heart, and of all 
those varied modifications of organic parts which the dis- 
sector of the human subject so soon learns to observe — almost 
without concern, and certainly without anything more than 
commonplace curiosity — as the devastations incident to alcoholic 
indulgence. Thus, the origin of such a report as that of Mr. 
Everrett on the census of America in 1860, related by Dr. 
De Marinon in the 6 New York Medical Journal ’ for December 
1870. 
“ For the last ten years the use of spirits has — 1. Imposed on 
the nation a direct expense of 600,000,000 dollars. 2. Has 
caused an indirect expense of 600,000,000 dollars. 3. Has 
destroyed 300,000 lives. 4. Has sent 100,000 children to the 
poorhouses. 5. Has committed at least 150,000 people into 
prisons and workhouses. 6. Has made at least 1,000 in- 
sane. 7. Has determined at least 2,000 suicides. 8. Has 
caused the loss, by fire or violence, of at least 10,000,000 
dollars’ worth of property. 9. Has made 200,000 widows and 
1,000,000 orphans.” 
When I sat down to write this essay I noted many points of 
peculiar scientific interest as deserving my attention, and 
amongst these one specially important, the question : — How 
alcohol, after it has been taken into the organism, is disposed 
of, whether by conversion into a new product, by which it 
ceases to be alcohol, or whether, by leaving the body, as it 
