104 
Methyl  Alcohol. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      March.  1905. 
purposes  cannot  be  open  to  objection.  It  is  true  that  any  danger- 
ous substance,  even  when  manufactured  solely  for  the  arts,  may  be 
used  in  other  ways  to  the  great  detriment  or  even  death  of  the  user. 
As  a  rule,  however,  in  the  case  of  wood  alcohol  the  user  himself  is 
the  culpable  person,  since  he  takes  it  either  from  an  uncontrollable 
desire  to  drink  or  by  accident  which  could  be  avoided  by  the  exer- 
cise, on  his  part,  of  common  discretion. 
The  addition  of  methyl  alcohol,  either  pure  or  refined,  to  bever- 
ages or  to  medicine  cannot  be  too  severely  condemned.  I  have 
spoken  of  the  desirability  of  eliminating  it  from  liquids  applied  exter- 
nally, such  as  bay  rum  and  others  of  the  same  class,  and  I  think  it 
is  probable  that  the  results  of  accident  and  experience  are  such  as 
to  warrant  such  exclusion. 
All  the  alcohols  are  more  or  less  poisonous,  but  the  toxicity  does 
not  seem  to  be  regularly  connected  with  the  place  of  the  alcohol  in 
the  series.  The  two  alcohols  which  are  most  common  and  occur  in 
the  greatest  abundance  are  ethyl  and  methyl.  Methyl  is  given  the 
first  place  in  the  series,  and  ethyl  the  second.  It  is  generally  ac- 
knowledged that  methyl  alcohol  is  more  toxic  than  ethyl,  and  yet 
the  toxicity  of  ethyl  alcohol  is  familiar  to  every  one.  Both  methyl 
and  ethyl  alcohol  appear  to  undergo,  to  a  considerable  extent>  oxi- 
dation in  the  tissues  of  the  body,  but  each  of  them  before  undergo- 
ing oxidation  may  pass  into  the  circulation  and  produce  toxic 
effects  before  nature  has  an  opportunity  to  oxidize  and  remove  it. 
Some  of  the  higher  alcohols  are  supposed  to  be  more  toxic  than 
ethyl,  just  as  methyl  is  supposed  to  be  more  toxic,  but  there  is  some 
doubt  about  the  degree  of  toxicity  of  some  of  the  higher  alcohols, 
especially  amyl  alcohol.  When  quite  pure  it  does  not  appear  to 
have  by  any  means  the  toxic  properties  which  are  exhibited  by  the 
crude  article.  All  this  leads  to  the  belief  that  very  often  the  tox- 
icity of  alcohols  may  be  due  to  some  aldehydic  or  other  body  formed 
with  them,  and  from  which  it  is  difficult  to  separate  them.  In  fact 
it  is  believed  that  the  aldehydes  which  so  generally  accompany  the 
alcohols  and  have  such  an  intimate  relation  thereto  are  more  toxic 
than  their  corresponding  alcohols.  This  appears  to  be  pre-emi- 
nently true  in  the  case  ot  methyl  alcohol,  for  it  is  generally  believed 
that  formaldehyde  is  more  toxic  than  the  alcohol  itself.  The 
same  is  doubtless  true  of  acetaldehyde,  which  is  more  toxic  than 
ethyl  alcohol. 
