6 
This is true notwithstanding the fact that animals were given intox- 
icating doses daily for years. Thus the experiments on swine of 
Dujardin-Beaumetz and Audige (1879-1884) extending over several 
years were practically negative. In Friedenwald’s experiments, car- 
ried out in Welch’s laboratory, rabbits wwe given intoxicating doses 
of alcohol for long periods — sometimes for years; the results w^ere 
stated by Welch to be meager. Doctor Welch further states, ‘‘Xo 
systematic experiments have been made to determine the pathological 
effects on animals of the long-continued use of alcohol in quantities 
so small as to produce no manifest s}unptoms of intoxication; but 
in view^ of the comparatively meager results in the experiments 
wdth moderate intoxicating doses, it seems improbable that experi- 
ments of the former character w'ould yield positive results,” and, fur- 
ther, that from the clinical side, however, ‘instances have been 
reported in increasing numbers in recent years of the occurrence of 
diseases of the circulatory, renal, and nervous systems, reasonably 
or positively attributed to the use of alcoholic liquors in persons 
w'ho regarded themselves, or wwe regarded by others, as moderate 
drinkers.” In many cases the injury was latent, and only manifested 
itself as the result of some accident or of an acute febrile disease. 
The relation of alcoholic liquors to gouty manifestations has long 
been recognized, as well as the increased liability of alcoholics to 
contract certain diseases or to contract them in especially severe form. 
Much has also been wTitten, from both the clinical and experimental 
side, on the relation of alcohol to infection; the results, which are, as 
yet, not very concordant have recently been summarized by Meltzer.® 
In most, if not all, of this experimental work the alcohol w^as given in 
intoxicating doses. 
In a series of experiments to be described in this paper I have found 
profound modifications of certain physiological processes to result in a 
comparatively short time from doses of alcohol so small that indica- 
tions of intoxication never occurred. So far as I am aware this is the 
first series of experiments in which distinct physiological changes have 
been found to result from what may be called the strictly moderate 
use of alcohol. Although there may be some doubt as to the exact 
explanation of the results I have obtained, any positive results in this 
field may prove of interest. 
Before describing these experiments, how^ever, a fewr wmrds may 
be said upon the more general effects of alcohol upon the metabolism. 
The views upon this subject and especially upon the effect of alcohol 
upon physiological oxidations have undergone great changes in the 
«Brit. Med. Journ., Xov. 24, 1906, p. 1463; see also Meltzer, Amer. Med., vol. 4, 
p. 60; 1902, and Trommsdorff, Arch. f. Hyg., vol. 59, p. 1; 1906. 
