d increase the vitality of destructive protoplasm. At
any rate such is the fact. In the presence of these minute
quantities of alcohol, decomposition goes on more rapidly, and
the micrococci and bacilli, thrive and swarm more abundantly.
This is easily demonstrable by the more rapid, and thicker,
cloudiness of any clear decomposable liquor in the course of a
day or two, or in a few days, according to circumstances. But I
have demonstrated the more rapid multiplication of some forms by
means of plate cultivations, of which I show specimens. It is
true of the bacteria of decomposition, of the streptococci, and
staphylococci of pus, and of diphtheria. Time alone has been
wanting to demonstrate this in other cases, which I hope to do."

The _Medical Week_ some time ago contained this paragraph:--

"Dr. Viala, in collaboration with Dr. Charrin, says: 'I have
carried out a series of researches on the toxicity of various
alcoholic beverages in common use, such as wines and brandies of
all brands, from those which are reputed the best to those of
very inferior quality. All these products have been analyzed
with the greatest care. Our experiments were carried out on
fifty animals. Intravenous injections confirm Dr. Daremberg's
statement that liquors considered as the best are the most
toxic, more particularly as regards their immediate effects.'"

Although the foregoing statement directs the reader's attention to the
comparative effects of different alcoholic liquors, it also plainly
implies several facts of great importance. The first is, that all
alcoholic liquors, fermented or distilled, are toxic or poisonous; and
the more pure alcohol they contain, the more poisonous are they, the
qualities of liquor differing only in the rapidity of their injurious
effects.

In the same number of the _Medical Week_, Professor Grehant states that
after injecting a quantity of alcohol into the venous circulation of a
dog equal to one twenty-fifth, or four per cent., of the estimated
weight of the blood of the animal, he found by several analyses at
different times that it required "a little over twenty-three hours for
complete elimination of the alcohol from the blood." If we consider
these results obtained by Viala, Charrin, Daremberg and Grehant, with
those obtained by Dr. A. C. Abbott, showing the direct effect of alcohol
in diminishing the normal vital re