more simple experiment as to the action of
alcohol, take the white of an egg (which consists of albumen,
and is very similar to bioplasm), put it into alcohol, and
notice it turn white, coagulate and harden. The same experiment
can be made with blood with the same result--killing the blood
bioplasts. Raw meat will turn white and harden in alcohol.
Alcohol acts the same on food in the stomach as it does on the
same substances before introduced into the stomach, and acts
just the same on blood and all the living tissues in the system
as out of it; and this alone is enough to condemn its use as a
medicine." From _Alcohol, Is It a Medicine?_ by W. F. Pechuman,
M. D., of Detroit, Michigan.

ALCOHOL AND STOMACH DIGESTION.

The nitrogenous portions of the food are the only ones digested in the
stomach. The oily and fatty, as well as the starchy portions, are
digested in the small intestines.

Very little was known about digestion until 1833, when Dr. Beaumont
published the results of his investigations upon the stomach of Alexis
St. Martin. St. Martin received a severe wound in the left side from a
shot-gun. The wound in healing left an opening into the stomach about
4/5 of an inch in diameter, closed on the inside by a flap of mucous
membrane. Through this opening the interior of the stomach could be
thoroughly examined. Dr. Beaumont made hundreds of observations upon
this young man, who was in his home several years. He says:--

"In a feverish condition, from whatever cause, obstructed
perspiration, _excitement by alcoholic liquors_, overloading the
stomach with food, fear, anger or whatever depresses or disturbs
the nervous system, the lining of the stomach becomes somewhat
red and dry, at other times pale and moist, and loses its smooth
and healthy appearance, the secretions become vitiated, greatly
diminished or entirely suppressed."

One day after giving St. Martin a good wholesome dinner, digestion of
which was going on in regular order, Dr. Beaumont gave him a glass of
gin. The digestive process was at once arrested, and did not begin again
until after the absorption of the spirit, after which it was slowly
renewed, and tardily finished.

Gluzinski made some conclusive experiments with a syphon. He drew off
the contents of the stomach at various times with and without liquor. He
concluded that alcohol entirely suspends the transformation