e tissues to
liberate the energy used by the tissue in its normal activity,
then alcohol is not a real food.

"But, if alcohol is not a real food, what is the significance of
its oxidation? It has been long known that the liver produces
oxidases and that it is the site of active oxidation of
mid-products of katabolism of toxins and of other toxic
substances. Alcohol, usually formed as an excretion of the yeast
plant, is also found as a mid-product of tissue katabolism. On a
priori grounds we should expect alcohol to be oxidized in the
liver along with leucin, tyrosin, uric acid, xanthin bodies, and
various amido bodies. There have recently appeared two most
important papers based upon extended researches upon man and
lower animals. These researches practically clear up this knotty
question."

Dr. Hall then reviews the work of Dr. Reid Hunt and Dr. S. P. Beebe, and
continues:--

"The value of this work can hardly be over-estimated. In the
first place the rapid oxidation of the alcohol in the liver is
explained. _Alcohol itself being one of the toxic substances
which reach the liver from the alimentary canal is at once
attacked by the liver, and if the oncoming tide of alcohol is
not too great it will practically all be oxidized._

"But the liver oxidation of other toxic substances is impaired
in the meantime so that they get past the liver to the tissues,
where they may do injury. Some of these toxins are excreted
unoxidized by the kidneys. There are three ways of accounting
for this condition: (1.) The oxidation capacity of the liver is
limited. The physiological limit of alcohol ingestion is that
amount which taxes the oxidation capacity of the liver to its
limit. When thus taxed all other toxic substances including uric
acid and the xanthin bodies pass through the liver unoxidized to
appear in the urine. (2.) The presence of alcohol in the blood,
through its toxic action upon the liver cells, impairs the
hepatic oxidation capacity and thus permits toxic substances to
pass unoxidized. (3.) A combination of these conditions may
represent the real situation. It is hardly conceivable that the
relation of alcohol to the liver activity is not covered in the
hypotheses above formulated.

"We may therefore accept it as practically demonstrated by the
researches of Beeb