ETHYLIC ALCOHOL. 
169 .] 
149 
noticeable or constant characteristic. The pupils are mostly dilated. 
The smell of alcohol should be sought for ; sometimes it is only present 
in cases where but a short time has elapsed between the taking of the 
poison and death ; putrefaction may also conceal it, but under favour¬ 
able circumstances, especially if the weather is cold, the alcoholic smell 
may remain a long time. Alcohol may cause the most intense red¬ 
ness and congestion of the stomach. The most inflamed stomach I 
(A. W. B.) ever saw, short of inflammation by the corrosive poisons, was 
that of a sailor, who died suddenly after a twenty-four hours’ drinking 
bout : all the organs of the body were fairly healthy, the man had 
suffered from no disease ; analysis could detect no poison but alcohol ; 
and the history of the case, moreover, proved clearly that it was a pure 
case of alcoholic poisoning. 
In a case related by Taylor, in which a child drank 4 ozs. of brandy 
and died, the mucous membrane of the stomach presented patches of 
intense redness, and in several places was thickened and softened, some 
portions being actually detached and hanging loose, and there were 
evident signs of extravasations of blood. The effect may not be con¬ 
fined to the stomach, but extend to the duodenum and even to the 
whole intestinal canal. The blood is generally dark and fluid, and 
usually the contents of the skull are markedly hypersemic, the pia very 
full of blood, the sinuses and plexus gorged ; occasionally, the brain 
substance shows signs of unusual congestion ; serum is often found in 
the ventricles. The great veins of the neck, the lungs, and the right 
side of the heart are very often found full of blood, and the left side 
empty. (Edema of the lungs also occurs with tolerable frequency. 
The great veins of the abdomen are also filled with blood, and if the 
coma has been prolonged, the bladder will be distended with urine. A 
rare phenomenon has also been noticed—namely, the occurrence of 
blebs on the extremities, etc., just as if the part affected had been burnt 
or scalded. Lastly, with the changes directly due to the fatal dose may 
be included all those degenerations met with in the chronic drinker, 
provided the case had a history of previous intemperance. 
§ 169. Excretion of Alcohol. —Alcohol, in the diluted form, is 
quickly absorbed by the blood-vessels of the stomach, etc., and circulates 
in the blood ; but what becomes of it afterwards is by no means settled. 
There can be little doubt that the lungs are the main channels through 
which it is eliminated ; with persons given up to habits of intemper¬ 
ance, the breath has constantly a very peculiar ethereal odour, probably 
dependent upon some highly volatile oxidised product of alcohol. 
Alcohol is eliminated in small proportion only by the kidneys. 
Thudichum, in an experiment 1 by which 4000 grms. of absolute alcohol 
1 See Thudichum’s Pathology of the TJrine, London, 1877, in which both his own 
and Dr Dupre’s experiments are summarised. 
