use in tissue building can be effected without the
presence of free oxygen and nuclein, or corpuscular elements of
the blood. And without the presence of the same elements we can
have no natural tissue disintegration and removal of the waste.
The processes of tissue building and tissue disintegration, are
therefore, so intimately related, and dependent upon the same
materials and forces, that neither can be hastened or retarded
from day to day without influencing the other. When alcohol or
any other substance, introduced into the blood, retards the
tissue waste, as shown by the diminished amount of excretory
products, it must do so by either diminishing the amount of free
oxygen in the blood, by impairing the vasomotor and trophic
nerve functions or by direct impairment of the properties of the
nuclein or protogen elements of the blood and tissues. The
popular idea, both in and out of the profession is, that the
alcohol, by further oxidation in the blood, lessens the amount
of oxygen to act on the tissues, and generates heat or 'some
kind of force.' Those who advocate this theory of saving the
tissues by combining the oxygen with alcohol seem to forget that
in doing so they are diverting and using up the only agent,
oxygen, capable of combining with, and promoting the elimination
of, all natural waste products as well as the various toxic
elements causing disease.

"But the theory that alcohol directly combines with the oxygen
of the blood by which it would be converted into carbonic acid
and water with evolution of heat is completely refuted by the
well-known fact that its presence in the blood diminishes both
temperature and elimination of carbonic acid as already stated.
Physiologists of the present day very generally agree that the
capacity of the blood to receive oxygen from the lungs, and
convey it to the systemic capillaries and various tissues,
depends chiefly on its hemoglobin (red coloring matter),
protein, or albuminous and saline elements.

"Both experimental and clinical facts in abundance show that
alcohol at all ordinary temperatures displays a much stronger
affinity for these elements of the blood and tissues, than it
does for oxygen. And when present in the blood, it rapidly
attracts both water and hemoglobin from the corpuscular and
albuminoid eleme