Absolute alcohol is only for chemical purposes, as a rule. The Pharmacopoeia recognizes alcohol containing 94 per cent. by volume of absolute alcohol, and having the specific gravity of 0.820. Deodorized alcohol contains 95.1 per cent. alcohol by volume, with a specific gravity of 0.816. Dilute alcohol, U. S. P., contains 48.6 per cent. by volume of absolute alcohol with a specific gravity of 0.936.

Alcohol comes from sugar by fermentation, as is well known, or from the destructive distillation of organic bodies. Chemically it is an ethylhydrate, C2H5OH.

Whiskey is distilled from fermented grains, and brandy is distilled from fermented grape juices, and each undiluted should hold from 48 to 56 per cent. of absolute alcohol. As sold in the markets, whiskey and brandy carry from 35 to 45 per cent. of alcohol. Port wine carries from 18 to 20 per cent. of alcohol; Madeira about the same; sherry about 16 per cent.; champagne, 10 to 11 per cent.; Burgundy, 10 per cent.; claret, 6 to 8 per cent.; Rhine wines the same; porter, 5 to 6 per cent., and beers and ales, from 3 to 6 per cent.

According to Horatio Wood, alcohol increases the frequency of the pulse and increases blood-pressure. It is a cardiac stimulant, and in overdoses is a heart depressant. There is one thing well to remember; there is an apparent contradiction in the effect of alcohol on bodily temperature. When a man takes just sufficient to slightly increase his heart's action, there is a very slight rise in temperature. After a full dose there is a slight fall in temperature, and when a man is fully intoxi-cated, his temperature may fall as much as 30 Fah. The explanation here is simple. The full dose drives the blood to the surface, where it is cooled, and the temperature of the whole body falls. It then follows, actually, that a man may take a drink to warm him up and may take several drinks to cool him off, and science supports him in both.

A drink of spirits makes the breathing freer and fuller. An overdose weakens respiration, and this often is seen in the case of drunken men, exclaiming they cannot get their breath. There is here a tendency to centric respiratory paralysis from alcohol poisoning.

I have always been taught to believe from my own experience that alcohol was not directly a food, but that a man could live longer with it than without it, because he did not die so rapidly; that is to say, with a certain amount of alcohol daily, destructive change of his tissues did not go on so rapidly as when that certain amount of alcohol was withheld; but the recent experiments of Atwater and Benedict, particularly, appear to give to alcohol direct food value. After careful and prolonged actual experiments with individuals, most carefully and scientifically conducted, Atwater and Benedict have reached the following conclusions, which I give in their own words:

In our experiments the whole amount per day was only about one gram per kilogram body weight; the individual doses were only about one-sixth of a gram per kilogram, and half of them were taken with meals. This fact doubtless accounts for a not inconsiderable share of the difference between the results of our experiments and those found by a number of other investigators. While the quantities of alcohol were small, the energy sufficed to make about one-fifth of the total energy of the diet in men at "rest," and one-seventh of the total energy of the diet in the men at "work," experiments. It is to be especially noted that these experiments were not made to test the effects of alcohol upon muscular or nervous activity or power, nor do they lead to any conclusions regarding the effects of alcohol, when taken habitually or in large quantities.

The Observed Results

The results as shown by the statistics of the experiments may be briefly stated as follows:

1. The quantities of alcohol eliminated by the lungs, skin, and kidneys varied from 0.7 to 2.7 grams, and averaged 1.3 grams per day. This corresponds to an average of 1.9 per cent. of the whole alcohol ingested. Accordingly over 98 per cent. of the ingested alcohol was oxidized in the body. There is, however, reason to believe that 99 per cent. would more nearly represent the proportion actually oxidized.

2. The experiments give data for comparing the availability and fuel value of alcohol with those of the nutrients of ordinary food. The word "availability" as here applied to the ordinary nutrients, expresses the proportion which is digested and made available for the building and repair of tissue and the yielding of energy. This proportion is the difference between the total amount and that excreted by the intestines. In like manner the available alcohol would be the difference between the total amount ingested and the amount excreted by the lungs, skin, and kidneys, practically none being excreted by the intestines. The available energy of the ordinary nutrients is the total energy (heat of oxidation) less that of the material unoxidized. For fats, carbohydrates, and alcohol, it is the heat of oxidation of the total available material. For the protein it is the same, less the heat of oxidation of the unoxidized residue excreted by the kidneys. The available energy is taken as the measure of the fuel value.

The following table compares the coefficients of availability and the fuel value of the proteids, fats, and carbohydrates of ordinary diet, as found by a considerable number of experiments, with those of the alcohol as shown by the experiments here reported.

Comparison of availability (digestibility) and fuel values of nutrients of food in ordinary diet with those of alcohol

The isodynamic values of alcohol, carbohydrates, and fats are thus in the ratios 6.9:4:9, and one gram of alcohol would be isodynamic with 1.73 grams carbohydrate, or 0.78 gram of fats of ordinary food materials.

3. The proportions of food and of the several kinds of nutrients digested and made available for use in the body were practically the same in the experiments with and those without alcohol in the diet. The only difference worthy of mention was in the proportions of protein made available. These were slightly larger with the alcohol. In all the experiments, both those with and those without alcohol, the results agree very closely with those commonly found in the digestion of food in ordinary mixed diet of healthy men, but the difference was too small to be of practical importance.