86 ALCOHOLIC POISON.
would disappear in the body, and only its ashe
the products of its combustion, would appe .
Unfortunately for the theory, MM. Lallomand
Perrin, and Duroy, three French chemists. b :
careful experiments proved that, when taken nty
the body, alcohol passed out again wnchan ol.
Hence it was not burned ; and hence it did o 6
produce either heat or force. Dr. Edward Smith
F. R. S., repeated their experiments and confirmed
their results. The fact that alcohol is unchanced
in the body was still further confirmed by the pe
servation that none of the products of the com.
bustion of alcohol, its ashes, were to be found ;
the blood or the excretions. "
The inevitable conclusion fr
ments is that alcohol does not eon "to the
production of either heat or force.
Says Dr. E. Smith, M. D. >., “Its di
action is to lessen nervous rear ob diet
“Is * vital force” augmented by it, or not ? All
the facts seem to answer in the negative a) i!
wh Medical Journal, 7 |
as or n K. Chambers, “Alcohol is primarily
essentially a less of
I J lessener of the power of the
“As their general action is qui
animal heat, I cannot see how they won — .
animal force. I see clearly how they enc
animal power, and can show a reason for using
them to stop physical pain; but that they sive
strength, that they supply material for the con
© struction of fine tissue, or throw force into tissues
ALCOHOLIC MEDICATION, 87
supplied by other material, must be an error das
solemn as it is widespread” “To resort for
force to alcohol is to my mind equivalent to the
act of searching for the sun in subterranean
gloom until all is night.”—Dr. W. B. RICHARD-
SON.
Is Alcohol Useful as a Stimulant ?
If by a stimulant we are to understand some-
thing which imparts force to the body when weak-
ened by disease, then it is evident that alcohol
oan be of no service in this direction; for, as al-
ready shown, it is incapable of supplying force,
undergoing no change in the body. All force
arises from changes in matter. The forces man-
ifested by the living system are the result of vi-
tal changes occurring in its tissues.
If by a stimulant is meant something which
excites nervous action, which calls out the mani-
festation of force, then alcohol is certainly a stim-
ulant. And it is in this sense only that it is a
stimulant. The lash is a stimulant to a tired
horse. It does not increase his force, or make
him any less tired. It only compels him to use
a little more of his already depleted strength. A
goad, a spur, a red-hot iron, would have the same
effect. So with alcohol. It arouses the vital in-
stints by its presence in contact with some of the
tissues, and, in obedience to the law of self-pres-
ervation, the vital organs are excited to increased
action for the purpose of expelling the poison.
This increased activity is what is called stimula-