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Dietetics  of  Alcohol. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1889. 
A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  DIETETICS  OF  ALCOHOL.1 
By  Dr.  Alexei  M.  Mohilansky. 
In  order  to  study  the  action  produced  by  an  occasional  (dietetic) 
use  of  alcohol  on  the  nitrogenous  metabolism  and  the  assimilation  of 
proteids  and  fats,  Dr.  Mohilansky,  house  physician  to  Professor  V. 
A.  Manassein's  clinic,  has  undertaken  careful  experiments  on  15 
healthy  men  (mostly  medical  students),  aged  from  18  to  28.  Some  of 
the  subjects  were  total  abstainers ;  some  were  occasional,  and  others 
habitual  alcohol  drinkers.  The  administration  of  alcohol  varied 
according  to  the  subject's  habit,  the  daily  dose  oscillating  between  60 
and  140  ccm.  of  absolute  alcohol,  or  from  four  small  wineglassfuls 
(ri'amka)  to  half-a-bottle  of  a  40  or  42  per  cent,  vodka  (aquavit).  To 
put  it  otherwise,  the  beverage  was  given  in  a  dose  sufficient  to  pro- 
duce a  slight  intoxication  (high  spirits  and  talkativeness,  etc.).  The 
principal  results  of  Dr.  Mohilansky 's  important  and  very  instructive 
researches  may  be  given  somewhat  as  follows : — 
(1)  In  habituated  people,  alcohol,  when  taken  in  moderate  quanti- 
ties, distinctly  improves  appetite  and  gives  rise  to  a  marked  increase 
in  the  assimilation  of  the  nitrogenous  constituents  of  food,  the  average 
surplus  amounting  to  2*09  per  cent.,  the  maximal  to  4*22  [e.  g.,  a 
patient  who  had  been  assimilating  93'10  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  without 
alcohol,  proved  to  be  assimilating  96*07  per  cent,  when  alcohol  was 
added  to  his  dietary]. 
(2)  In  habitual  total  abstainers,  however,  the  assimilation  some- 
what sinks  (0*28  or  0*33  per  cent.). 
(3)  The  increased  assimilation  in  the  former  category  must  be  attrib- 
uted to  a  more  complete  absorption  and  intensified  gastric  digestion, 
which  result  from  a  prolonged  retention  of  food  in  the  stomach,  on  one 
side,  and  from  increased  digestive  power  and  secretion  of  the  gastric 
juice  (Claude  Bernard,  Kretschy,  Bichet,  Lever,  Petit  et  Semerie, 
Glucinski). 
(4)  The  nitrogenous  metabolism,  or  disintegration  of  systemic  pro- 
teids, almost  invariably  (in  13  out  of  15  cases)  decreases,  the  average 
fall  being  8*73  per  cent.,  the  maximal  19*42,  the  minimal  0*14  [e.  g., 
in  a  patient  in  whom  the  metamorphosis  in  non-alcoholic  days  had 
amounted  to  80*11  per  cent.,  in  alcoholic  ones  it  fell  to  63*78].  The 
decrease  is  observed  very  frequently  even  when  small  doses  are  taken ; 
1  Condensed  from  a  St.  Petersburg  Inaugural  Dissertation,  1889,  by  Valerius 
Idelson;  reprinted  from  The  Medical  Chronicle,  November,  1889. 
