Notwithstanding the researches of Percy, Strauch, Masing, Lallemand, Duroy, Parkes, Dupré, Anstie, Thudichum, and others, there is still a considerable divergence of opinion as to how alcohol is eliminated from the body. By some of the authorities just named it is affirmed to be eliminated as aldehyd, by others as carbonic acid; as to the latter, the experiments of Dr E. Smith show that the carbonic acid is decreased when brandy and gin are drunk, and increased by rum.
The only probable supposition, which facts support, tends to show that the alcohol is turned into acetic acid in the body, some of which unites with potash and other bases, and some is destroyed. All are pretty well agreed that in the form of spirits alcohol as a food is valueless, but that in the form of beer and wine it is possessed of a slight dietetic power, naturally varying with the amount and nature of the different substances held in solution in these beverages.
The imports of spirits into this country, in the seven years from 1850 to 1857, amounted to 70,740,980 gallons; whilst the imports in the seven years following, viz. from 1857 to 1864, were 78,016,071 gallons, showing an increase of 7,305,091 gallons. The population has, however, increased in the time, and a deduction on that account, as well as correction on one or two other heads, are required; still, that there is an increase is indisputable.
As respects France, a considerable increase in the consumption of spirits has taken place of late years, as the following table by M. Husson will illustrate:
The Mean Consumption of Spirits for each Inhabitant.
| Litres. | Litres. | ||||||
| From | 1825 | to | 1830 | 8·96 | yearly. | ·024 | daily. |
| ” | 1831 | ” | 1835 | 8·74 | ” | ·023 | ” |
| ” | 1836 | ” | 1840 | 10·15 | ” | ·026 | ” |
| ” | 1841 | ” | 1845 | 11·14 | ” | ·031 | ” |
| ” | 1846 | ” | 1850 | 11·03 | ” | ·030 | ” |
| ” | 1851 | ” | 1854 | 14·25 | ” | ·039 | ” |
In the United States, during the period from 1807 to 1828, the average was 27 litres for every inhabitant, which is even greater than the highest of the two sets of figures just quoted.
The demoralisation of the French army during the late Franco-Prussian war has been also unanimously ascribed to the excessive consumption of spirituous liquids.
The following results of an inquiry instituted in 1870 by the Massachusetts Board of Health into the comparative sobriety of different nations are gathered from an able paper which appeared in the ‘Medical Times and Gazette’ of April 15th, 1872, by Dr Druitt, in which he dissects and summarises the results in question. Dr Druitt writes:
“Highest in the scale of temperance come the Turks and Arabs; next the Iberians, Levantines, Greeks, and Latin races; lower down the Japanese, Scandinavians, Belgians, and the Irish Celt; lowest of all the so-called Anglo-Saxon of either continent.”