The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

48 The Phy'siological Effects of A co hot.
advocates of a traditional bias, but as diligent searchers
after truth.
(I.) Evidence exists that alcohol is not int any sense a
food, and hat it is not assizila!ed with the vital structure,
but elii;iiinatedfromz it unzchanged, and the fresence of such a
forezin substance cannot fail to be ferniczous. The doctrine
here stated rests for support upon the numerous experiments of the French savants before adverted to (page 38),
and repeated by Dr. Edward Smith, F.R.S., with very
interesting additions. These experiments prove that
immediately and for hours after swallowing even weak
alcoholic drinks the spirit passes from the excretory
organs unchanged. The objection raised by M. Baudot
in France, and by Drs. Anstie, Dupre6, and Thudicum in
England-that the major part of the alcohol imbibed
cannot be re-collected-is inconclusive. To gather up
the whole or chief part of a volatile fluid, after circulating
through the system, and while in course of elimination
for many hours by the skin, lungs, and other organs, is
obviously a task next to impossible. That some sensible
and not inconsiderable portion has been collected is presumptive evidence that the substance, as such, is not
changed within the body; for there is not an instance on
record of a substance being partly ejected unchanged,
and partly transformed in the living organism. If any
part of alcohol is changed, its derivatives (such as aldehyde) would be discoverable, but they have never been
detected. Were alcohol oxidized so as to supply heat,
according to Liebig's theory, the quantity of carbonic
acid emitted would be increased, but a diminution instead
of an increase is invariably perceived.* As it therefore
* Besides the directly irritant effect of alcohol on the nervous system, the
stimulating effect ascribed to it may probably arise, in a large degree, from
the effort put forth by the organism to eject it as rapidly as possible. Voluntarily, however, to bring about and sustain a state of intestine war is not an
indication of wisdom on the part of bodies corporate or corporeal.
'I'