in some respects similar, and, in the words of Dr. B.W. Richardson, the
great English authority on hygiene: "To say this man only drinks ale,
that man only drinks wine, while a third drinks spirits, is merely to
say, when the apology is unclothed, that all drink the same danger. * *
Alcohol is a universal intoxicant, and in the higher orders of animals
is capable of inducing the most systematic phenomena of disease. But it
is reserved for man himself to exhibit these phenomena in their purest
form, and to present, through them, in the morbid conditions belonging
to his age, a distinct pathology. Bad as this is, it might be worse; for
if the evils of alcohol were made to extend equally to animals lower
than man, we should soon have, none that were tameable, none that were
workable, and none that were eatable." Researches have shown that the
proportion of half a drachm of alcohol to the pound weight of the body,
is the quantity which usually produces intoxication, and that an
increase of this amount to one drachm immediately endangers the life of
the individual. The first symptom which attracts attention, when alcohol
commences to take effect upon the body, is an increase in the number of
the pulsations of the heart. Dr. Parkes and Count Wolowicz conducted a
series of interesting experiments on young adult men. They counted the
pulsations of the heart, at regular intervals, during periods when the
subject drank only water; and then they counted the beats of the heart
in the same individual during successive periods in which alcohol was
drunk in increasing quantities.

The following details are taken from their report:

"The highest of the daily means of the pulse observed during the first
or water period was 77.5; but on this day two observations were
deficient. The next highest daily mean was 77 beats.

If instead of the mean of the eight days, or 73.57, we compare the mean
of this one day, viz., 77 beats per minute, with the alcoholic days, so
as to be sure not to over-estimate the action of the alcohol, we find:

On the ninth day, with one fluid ounce of alcohol,
the heart beat 430 times more.
On the tenth day, with two fluid ounces, 1,872 times more.
On the eleventh day, with four fluid ounces, 12,960 times more.
On the twelfth day, with six fluid ounces, 30,672 times more.
On the thirteenth day, with eight fluid ounces, 23,904 times more.
On the fourteenth day, with eight fluid ounc