q6 
Physiology and its Chemistry 
[January, 
by Arcadius Rajewski* (of St. Petersburg), “ On the Occur- 
rence of Alcohol in the Organism.” The experiments were 
conducted in Hoppe-Seyler’s laboratory. Alcohol was in- 
jected into the stomachs of rabbits, and after some hours 
the animals were killed, their brains removed, and these 
distilled with water, in order to ascertain whether a final 
rectified distillate would give Lieben’s iodoform reaction : it 
did so. This result induced the author to repeat the experi= 
ment upon the brain of a rabbit to which no alcohol had 
been administered : a like result was obtained. Other expe- 
riments were now instituted with the muscle and livers of 
alcoholised and “ sober ” rabbits, with no difference in the 
obtained results. Again, large quantities of ox-flesh, horse- 
flesh, and the flesh and livers of dogs and horses, were simi- 
larly treated; in each case a fluid distillate being obtained 
which gave the iodoform reaction, &c., but “ which would do 
anything but burn.” 
The conclusions drawn by the author from these experi- 
ments are as follows : — “ That for the estimation of alcohol 
in the system Lieben’s reaction is of no use, since in the 
animal organism there are portions existing which on distil- 
lation give alcohol ; or the organs of animals contain an 
ever-preformed quantity of alcohol.” 
Now, it is well known that Lieben had himself found the 
reaction which bears his name to be of no use for detecting 
alcohol in the urine. 
In further reference to this subject we would add that 
Dr. Percy, in 1839, published a research on the presence of 
alcohol in the ventricles of the brains of animals to which it 
had been administered, and concluded that a kind of affinity 
existed between the alcohol and the cerebral matter. Every 
other result of Rajewski’s had been previously arrived at 
and published by Dupre and others, and more correCtly in- 
terpreted. These observers showed conclusively that a 
substance exists in the animal body, and could be obtained 
therefrom, which gives many of the reactions of alcohol, 
but which is not alcohol. It is certainly desirable that ex- 
periments should be conducted with a view of ascertaining 
the extent to which alcohol may locate itself in the brain ; 
but this is not to be done in the way Rajewski has attempted 
it. It may here be stated that one of us is at the present 
time occupied with this matter. t 
Another typical research will suffice to illustrate a 
* Pfluger’s Archiven, xi., 122. 
t Kingzett, “ Alcohol on the Brain,” Chemical News, xxxiv., p. 158, 
