Alcohol : its place and power / by James Miller.

  • James Miller
Date:
[1858?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alcohol : its place and power / by James Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    But the whole of the oxygen taken in by the hmgs is not thiis acconntecl for. About a fourth passes into tlie system, with the blood, without being spent at all on oxida- tion of the waste. This portion of the oxygen cannot well be traced in its course; but there is good reason to believe that it acts an important part in the change of the mitritious part of the arterial blood into living tissue—supplying re- newal for the waste; and that it is again active in the ciTimbUng down of that tissue—constituting the waste; in both actions evolving caloric. And so here is a third way of maintaining the general temperature. A word as to tlie action of poisons. Applied to a part, poisons have various effects. Some, like potass, acids, and other caustics, destroy all structure; otliers, like alcohol and ammonia, irritate and inflame; others, as prussic acid, im- press mainly the nerves. The constitutional effect is also various. The poison, more or less rapidly absorbed into the blood, might be circu- lated equably over the whole system. According to a strange law, however, such, diffusion does not occm-; but, on the contrary, certain poisons seek out certain parts, and act on them primarily and chiefly—drawn thither by a vital, as if by a chemical attraction. Tobacco, digitalis, and the upas poison, for example, act specially upon the heart; arsenic affects the bowels, and mucous membranes in general; cantharides, the kidneys; iodine, the glands; strychnia, the spLaal cord; alcohol, opium, and all narcotics, the brain. Some kill directly and at once; others more remotely, by the induction of secondary disease. Some exert definite effects, dose by dose; others produce
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