STUDIES IN EXPERIMENTAL ALCOHOLISM. 
By Reid Hunt. 
Chief of the Division of Pharmacology, Hygienic Laboratory, U. S. Public Health and 
Marine- Hospital Service. 
I. 
THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOLISM UPON RESISTANCE TO ACETONITRILE. 
Summary. — In the following experiments it is shown that animals to which alcohol 
has been administered for some time acquire an increased susceptibility to a definite 
poison (acetonitrile) ; this occurs after the administration of amounts of alcohol far too 
small to ever cause indications of intoxication and from doses which almost certainly 
cause no anatomical lesions which could be detected by present methods. It is shown 
that this increased susceptibility is not due to a general “lowering of resistance” but 
is associated with a distinctly increased power of the body to break up the molecule of 
acetonitrile; reasons are given for believing that this increased breaking up of the 
acetonitrile depends upon increased powers of oxidation on the part of the body. 
It is believed that these experiments afford clear experimental evidence for the view 
that extremely moderate amounts of alcohol may cause distinct changes in certain 
physiological functions and that these changes may, under certain circumstances, be 
injurious to the body. The results also afford further evidence that in some respects 
the action of alcohol as a food is different from that of carbohydrates, and finally that 
in all probability certain physiological processes in “moderate drinkers” are distinctly 
different from those in abstainers. 
The effects upon man of the moderate use of alcohol have long inter- 
ested pathologists and physiologists as well as clinicians. The earlier 
efforts to solve this problem were made by pathological anatomists. 
After the anatomical changes resulting from the excessive use of alco- 
hol had been recognized, pathologists turned their attention to the 
effects of smaller amounts of alcohol; for this purpose many experi- 
ments were made upon the lower animals, for it seemed probable that 
in this way better material for study could be obtained than from 
human subjects. As Professor Welch® points out, these anatomical 
studies on experimental alcoholism have, however, been distinctly 
disappointing and throw but little light on functional disturbances. 
“Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem, Yol. II. 
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