376 
ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE SYSTEM. 
the disturbance of the functions of the system, to produce indirect effects 
which will tend towards disease.” 
A writer on this subject in the British Medical Journal 
says— 
“ The question of the action of alcohol on the system, and its value as a 
dietetic and therapeutic agent, is now attracting much attention botli amongst 
the members of our profession and the scientific world at large. No doubt 
can be entertained of the importance of a consideration of the subject—a 
consideration, however, into which our limits wiil not allow us fully to enter. 
If there were one cherished view which we thought chemistry had taught us, 
it was surely that alcohol was oxidized in the system, and thus made sub¬ 
servient, if not to the formation of some of the tissues of the body, at any 
rate to the maintenance of animal heat. However indisposed physiologists 
may have been of late years to give in their adhesion to the theories of 
Liebig as to the division of alimentary materials, we think that most have 
been, and probably many will still be, disposed to consider the substance we 
are speaking of in the light of a heat-producing agent. Our opinions on this 
point have, however, been somewhat rudely assailed, and the position which 
alcohol has occupied as a dietetic article is threatened with imminent danger. 
As from the chemists we received the theory of its combustible nature, so 
from chemical research and experiments now comes the opposite doctrine of 
its entire elimination, unchanged from the body. 
‘‘Consideringthe vast amount of alcohol which is daily consumed, whether 
as a general article of diet or in the treatment of disease, it becomes a mat¬ 
ter of essential importance that correct principles should be laid down with 
reference to its modus operandi , and the manner in which it is disposed of in 
the system. We cordially hail, therefore, the appearance of the work of 
Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin, and Durov {Bit Role de /’ Alcohol et des Anes - 
theaiques dans V Organisme , Paris, I860), which gives us the results of the 
most recent experiments and researches on the subject. A careful perusal 
of this work has convinced us that some of our views of the dietetic value of 
alcohol require modification; but we cannot, on that account, allow the 
evidence which is brought forward, and which does not appear to us conclu¬ 
sive on the point, to make us discard altogether the substance of which we 
are speaking from our list of alimentary materials. 
“ If we were briefly to sum up the facts which the researches of the above 
authors seem to have established, they would be these :—That after any fluid 
containing alcohol is taken the latter becomes eliminated, unchanged by the 
various secreting organs—the skin, the liver, the kidneys, the lungs; and 
not only this, but that it is deposited in all the tissues, and can be extracted 
alike from the substauce of the brain, the liver, the muscles, and the cel¬ 
lular tissue, as well as from the blood. It is right to observe that even 
when small quantities of alcohol were taken, traces of it could be found in 
the excretions; thus proving that it is not simply when the substance is 
taken in excess that it becomes eliminated without change. 
“Prom the results of their experiments, MM. Lallemand, Perrin, and Duroy 
think they are justified in concluding that all the alcohol ingested, with the 
exception of a small quantity which they and other experimenters have found 
converted into acetic acid in the stomach, is eliminated from the body, without 
undergoing any change whatever; and that in this respect it resembles in its 
action the various anmst.hetic agents, such as chloroform, &c. Prom these 
conclusions necessarily follows the inference, that alcohol cannot be con¬ 
sidered in the light of an alimentary substance. 
“ We believe Dr. Percy was the first to show that, after poisoning by 
