150 foisons : their effects and detection. [§ 170 . 
were consumed by thirty-three men, could only find in the collected 
urine 10 grms. of alcohol. The numerous experiments by Dupre also 
establish the same truth, that but a fraction of the total alcohol ab¬ 
sorbed is excreted by the kidneys. According to Lallemand, Perrin, 
and Duroy, the content of the brain in alcohol is more than that of the 
other organs. One of us (A. W. B.) has found also that the brain after 
death has a wonderful attraction for alcohol, and yields it up at a water- 
heat very slowly and with difficulty. In one experiment, in which a 
finely divided portion of brain, which had been soaking in alcohol for 
many weeks, was submitted to a steam-heat of 100°, twenty-four hours’ 
consecutive heating failed to expel every trace of spirit. 
It is probable that true alcoholates of the chemical constituents of 
the brain are formed. In the case of vegetable colloidal bodies, such, 
for example, as the pulp of cherries, a similar attraction has been 
observed, the fruit condensing, as it were, the alcohol in its own tissues, 
and the outer liquid being of less alcoholic strength than that which 
can be expressed from the steeped cherries. Alcohol is also excreted 
by the sweat, and minute fractions have been found in the fseces. 
§ 170. Toxicological Detection of Alcohol (see Foods , pp. 
382-384).—The living cells of the body produce minute quantities of 
alcohol, as also some of the bacteria normally inhabiting the small 
intestine produce small quantities of alcohol, and it is often found in 
traces in putrefying fluids. Hence mere qualitative proofs of the 
presence of alcohol are insufficient on which to base an opinion as to 
whether alcohol had been taken during life or not, and it will be necessary 
to estimate the quantity accurately by some of the processes detailed 
in Foods, p. 385 et seq. In those cases in which alcohol is found in 
* 
quantity in the stomach, there can, of course, be no difficulty ; in 
others, the whole of the alcohol may have been absorbed, and chemical 
evidence, unless extremely definite, must be supplemented by other 
facts. 
Alcohols may in many instances be identified by converting them 
into the dinitro-benzoate esters. 
The following directions for ethyl alcohol are given by Mulliken 1 
for the preparation of ethyl 3 : 5 dinitro-benzoate, and are applicable to 
the series generally, with a few obvious modifications, provided the 
alcohol is pure and contains no more than 10 per cent, water. 
Heat together gently over a small flame 0-15 grm. 3 : 5 dinitro- 
benzoic acid and 0*29 grm. phosphorus pentachloride. When signs of 
chemical action appear, the heat is removed for a few seconds. The 
heat is then reapplied, and the liquefied mixture boiled for exactly one 
minute. The product is poured out on to a watch-glass and allowed 
to solidify. The liquid phosphorus oxychloride, with which the mass 
1 A Method for the Identification of Pure Organic Compounds, New York, 1904. 
