rt base their
estimates on the amount _of blood the heart passes through its
cavities into the arteries in a given time_. This is the
physiological function of the heart; i.e. to aid in circulating
the blood. Professor Martin's experiments were admirably
contrived to determine, not how frequently the heart beat, but
the amount of blood it delivered per minute under the influence
of alcohol and without alcohol.

"He, and all others who take this basis of work, found that
alcohol in any dose diminished the efficiency of the heart in
circulating the blood in direct ratio to the quantity taken.

"My own original experiments, made fifty years ago, uniformly
showed that alcohol quickly increased the number of heart beats
per minute, but at the same time diminished the efficiency of
the circulation generally. Every experienced practitioner knows
that the weaker the _heart_ becomes, the _faster_ it beats.
Consequently, the number of times the heart contracts per minute
is no measure of the efficiency of its work in circulating the
blood. Indeed the mechanism of the heart is such that there must
be sufficient time between each of its contractions for its
_cavities_ to _fill_, or it is made to contract on an
insufficient supply, and the efficiency of the circulation is
diminished.

"Yours respectfully,
"N. S. DAVIS."

The International Medical Congress of 1876 adopted as its reply to the
Memorial of the National Temperance Society, and of the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union respecting "Alcohol as a Food and as a
Medicine," the paper by Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, one conclusion of which was,
"Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant."

As experiments conducted since that time show that it is not a cardiac
stimulant, but a direct cardiac paralyzant, what excuse is there for
using it as a medicine now?

"Whenever the heart is compelled to more rapid contraction than
is natural, it has less time to rest. Although it seems to be
constantly at work, it really rests more than half the time, so
that, although the periods of relaxation are very short, they
are so numerous that the aggregate amount of rest in a day is
very great. Now, if the rapidity of the contractions is
increased materially and continuously, although the aggregate
amount of time for rest may be the same a