soda or potash, it readily dissolves. It is also soluble in a strong solution of nitrate of potash. Nitrogen.-The nitrogen is usually deter- | addition of a very minute portion of caustic mined by subtracting the aqueous vapours, oxygen and carbonic acid, from the volume of air examined, and if the foregoing principles have been accurately determined, the sources of error are immaterial. The Ammonia and Organic Matter are best determined by drawing a known volume of air through absolutely pure water, water, i.e., free from organic matter and ammonia. To obtain this, it is best to redistil distilled water, rejecting the first portions, then adding an alkaline solution of permanganate, and rejecting any portions of the distillate which give the least trace of colour to the Nessler test; the water through which the air is drawn should be kept cool, and afterwards submitted to the process described under WATER ANALYSIS. Solid bodies, such as vibriones, germs, fungi, dust, &c., may be obtained by using an aspirator, and drawing the air either through a drop of glycerine or water. Organic matter may also be obtained by suspending glass vessels filled with iced water over or in the places to be investigated and submitted to the microscope. High powers, such as immersion lenses, are requisite for the investigation of germs, &c. See also CLIMATE, &c. -- Albumen This word literally means white of egg, which is its most convenient source. It is a nitrogenous substance of highly complex chemical composition, existing in large quantity in all animal bodies, in eggs, in certain vegetables, especially carrots, turnips, cabbages, green stems of peas, and oleaginous seeds. There are slight but marked differences in most of the albumens found naturally. The albumen of the egg, the albumen in the blood, the albumen found in the urine of persons suffering from disease, and vegetable albumen, all exhibit a slight difference in their reactions; probably they are all united with bases, and are albuminates. Pure albumen, as obtained by precipitating white of egg with hydrochloric acid, dissolving the precipitate in water, then again precipitated by chloride of ammonium, and when freed from fat by alcohol and ether, has a slight acid reaction in solution, is tasteless and colourless, and exerts a left-handed rotatory power on polarised light. Its composition, according to Lieberkuhn, is as follows: When submitted to distillation, first with hydrate of potash, and then with an alkaline solution of permanganate of potash, the albumen of hen's egg gives in every 100 c.c. A hundred parts of dry albumen give about ten parts of NH3. One of the most remarkable properties of albumen is its coagulation by heat; this takes place at a temperature varying from 145° to 165° F. It is then white and opaque, and when dried, horny and brittle. Albumen in solution gives precipitates with most acids (except acetic and phosphoric), with corrosive sublimate, and many other metallic salts, and alcohol. Uses. It is of great value as an article of diet; it is employed in photography as a varnish, and has various other uses, such as a clarifier for wines, syrups, &c.; and for fixing the colours in calico-printing, in the prepara tion of gloves, &c. Preparation.-In France it is prepared on some considerable scale at the abattoirs, by separating it from the blood of slaughtered animals, and spreading it in thin layers to dry. See FooD. Albuminates in Food-See FOOD. the It Albuminose The pepsin of gastric juice, acting in presence of an acid, turns nearly every description of animal and fibrinous matter into a liquid called albuminose by Mialhe, but by Lehmann peptone. differs from albumen in the following important particulars: it is not coagulable by heat, and the slight precipitate which falls upon the first addition of an acid is dissolved in an excess of acid; it does not easily decompose, and is capable of dialysis, i.e., transudation through animal membrane. See FOOD. Albuminous Matters of Food FOOD. See BATH. Alcohol-The term alcohol, in its ordinary acceptation, means the volatile, inflammable spirituous liquid which is the intoxicating principle of wines, beers, and spirits; but in a chemical sense it is applied to all neutral compounds of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, which by the action of acids form ethers. Each term of the series becomes denser, so that at one end we have a light volatile fluid, and at the other a waxy-looking solid. Ordinary vinous alcohol (the second in the table) is the most important. It is formed during the fermentation of the saccharine principles contained in the fruits, stalks, or roots of certain plants, especially the raisin, the sugar-cane, the red-beet, the cereals, the potatoes, and other amylaceous substances. It is most usually obtained from malt. When perfectly pure, and unmixed with water, it is called absolute alcohol; when mixed with 16 per cent. of water, it is called rectified spirit; when with 51 per cent. of water, proof-spirit. on the addition of water; it should be entirely volatilised with heat, leaving no stain behind, and should not give a blue colour with anhydrous sulphate of copper. If all these tests are satisfactory, the liquid is free from oily matters and other impurities. Rectified Spirit should be of the specific gravity 0-838. If of any other specific gravity, the amount of water present can be seen by the table. On applying a light to a small portion, when pure, it burns with a pale-blue flame, without smoke; it does not give a red colour with sulphuric acid. Four fluid ounces, to which half a grain of crystallised nitrate of silver in solution has been added, on exposure for twenty-four hours to a bright light, and then decanted from the black powder which forms, undergoes no further change. Absolute Alcohol is a most powerful solvent of alkaloids, volatile oils, iodine, and its specific gravity should be 0-795. Its purity is easily ascertained. A small portion of the liquid should be digested on common salt, which should be insoluble in it. If any dissolves, there is water with the alcohol. It should not become cloudy PROPORTION of ABSOLUTE ALCOHOL by WEIGHT in 100 parts of Spirit of different specific The proportion of alcohol to water, in any mixture of pure spirit and water, may easily be ascertained by taking the specific gravity, and referring to the following table: PROPORTION of ABSOLUTE ALCOHOL by WEIGHT in 100 parts of Spirit of different specific gravities at 60° F. (155 C.)-continued. The gastric juice, and thus may in small doses, and no doubt does, promote the appetite. In excess, all these effects are turned to evil, an inflammatory condition of the stomach supervenes, compression of the gland-ducts, from thickening of the tissue around it, excessive mucous secretion, and great loss of appetite. When carried into the circulation, it greatly increases the force of the heart's action, and at the same time paralyses, as it were, the inhibitory nervous supply to the arteries and small vessels, so that they no longer oppose themselves to the blood-current, but dilate. This action, to a small degree, occurring in persons of a weak and languid circulation, is no doubt beneficial; on the other hand, when in excess, it is the most dangerous, and is a cause of a greater portion of the diseases of the heart and great vessels. Alcohol, Effects of; Alcoholism- the stomach, stimulates the secretion of the 1. Effects of Alcohol in Health. amount of absolute alcohol taken by temperate people, in the twenty-four hours, in the different forms of beer, wine, and spirits, varies generally from one to two ounces. More than this, at all events in the great majority of people, causes slight alcoholic symptoms. If the excess of this quantity is small, the symptoms will be in no way evident to others, but may be appreciated by the individual himself, and consist in firstly a slight excitement of the faculties of the brain, a feeling of warmth and pleasure, followed by a general feeling of torpor and transient drowsiness, with a slight blunting of the sensibilities. The couple of pints of beer, four or five glasses of wine, or two ounces of brandy, that men and women engaged in the ordinary business of life take daily, have not been proved to exercise the slightest injuryin most people, indeed, digestion is aided, and more work done, by these moderate doses. On the other hand, the slightest habitual excess, that excess which we have spoken of, the symptoms of which are not perceptible to others, all evidence-historical, pathological, and physiological-shows to be injurious. The experiments of Anstie, Parkes, and Count Wollowicz, appear to show that any quantity of alcohol exceeding an ounce and a half taken by an adult, showed itself in the urine, which these writers consider a sign that the system has taken more alcohol than can be used in the body itself. The action in slight doses is, that it has a sedative effect upon the nerves, and reddens slightly the lining membrane of There appears to be a slight fall of temperature with moderate doses of alcohol, a very decided fall with excessive doses; the muscular and nervous system are transitorily stimu lated, and may do more work when small doses are given in cases of fatigue, but in other cases there is a marked torpor of the nervous, and a want of co-ordination of the muscular system. The pathological changes have been well studied by Dickinson and others. Dickinson, in a paper "On the Morbid Effects of Alcohol in Persons who trade in Liquor," gave the results of an examination of 149 traders in liquor, as compared with 149 persons of various trades. The general results were, diseases of the liver, mostly cirrhosis, more common in the alco holic. In the lungs, tubercle affected sixtyone persons of the alcoholic, forty-four of the non-alcoholic. Tubercle in the brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, bowels, mesenteric glands, and peritoneum was twice as common in the alcoholic as in the non-alcoholic. The conclusion is therefore inevitable, that alcohol engenders tubercle in the brain, inflammations, atrophy, hæmorrhages; in the heart and vessels, atheroma, hypertrophy, and other affections, were all more common in the alcoholic than in the non-alcoholic series. The evidence in kidney disease was not so conclusive, but some forms of kidney disease appear to be increased. The author sums up thus: Alcohol causes fatty infiltration and fibroid encroachment; it engenders tubercle, encourages suppuration, and retards healing; it produces untimely atheroma, invites hæmorrhage, and anticipates age. The most constant fatty change, replacement by oil of the material of epithelial cells and muscular fibres, though probably nearly universal, is most noticeable in the liver, the heart, and the kidney. There would appear also to be special diseases produced by alcohol besides the more common and generally-known ones of delirium tremens, alcoholism, &c. &c., e.g. M. Galezowski has described a peculiar affection of the eyes, which he calls "alcoholic amblyopia," especially prevalent during the siege of Paris. In the five months of the siege fifty patients presented themselves, while during the twelve months preceding the siege only nineteen were met with. The disease was ascribed to the habit of taking alcoholic drinks in the morning, fasting. The The Effects of Alcohol in Disease.-This subject has not been scientifically investigated. Dr. Wilks has prescribed it, however, in the form of rectified spirit, but the cases as yet are too few to form a correct estimate. truth really is that it has been prescribed, even by the most eminent men, under the forms of beer, wine, and spirits, the strength, adulterations, and composition of which are seldom in any given sample known, in the most opposite affections, and as a result, it has been on the one hand extravagantly given, and lauded to a most unwarrantable degree, while on the other hand, by another class of observers it has been entirely withheld. These facts, no doubt, prompted the following document, which was published in 1871, and signed by a long Handfield Jones and Wilks have also de- list of some of the most eminent members in scribed cases of alcoholic paraplegia. the profession; others, however, equally eminent, refused, and withheld their signature on various grounds : As it is believed that the inconsiderate prescription of large quantities of alcoholic liquids by medical men for their patients has given rise, in many instances, to the formation of intemperate habits, the undersigned, while unable to abandon the use of alcohol in the treatment of certain cases of disease, are yet of opinion that no medical practitioner should prescribe it without a sense of grave responsibility. They believe that alcohol, in whatever form, should be prescribed with as much care as any powerful drug, and that the directions for its use should be so framed as not to be interpreted as a sanction for excess, or necessarily for the continuance of its use when the occasion is past. They are also of opinion that many people immensely exaggerate the value of alcohol as an article of diet; and since no class of men see so much of its ill effects, and possess such power to restrain its abuse, as members of their own profession, they hold that every medical practitioner is bound to exert his utmost influence to inculcate habits of great moderation in the use of alcoholic liquids. Being also firmly convinced that the great amount of drinking of alcoholic liquors among the working classes of this country is one of the greatest evils of the day, destroying more than anything else the health, happiness, and welfare of those classes, and neutralising to a large extent the great industrial prosperity which Providence has placed within the reach of this nation, the undersigned would gladly support any wise legislation which would tend to restrict within proper limits the use of alcoholic beverages, and gradually introduce habits of temperance. It is still a matter of dispute as to how alcohol is eliminated from the body, and whether any of it is destroyed, notwithstanding the researches of Percy, Strauch, Masing, Lallemand, Duroy, Parkes, Dupré, Anstie, Thudichum, and others. Among the most recent are those of Subbotur on rabbits. The general result is contradictory. Some affirm that it is eliminated as aldehyd, others as carbonic acid; but the former supposition is almost disproved, and the experiments of Dr. E. Smith show that the carbonic acid is decreased by brandy and gin, 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 pretty well agree that in the form of spirits alcohol is of no value whatever as a food; but in the form of beer and wine it has slight dietetic powers, naturally varying with the amount and nature of the different substances held in solution in these beverages. See ALCOHOLIC Beverages. Drunkenness and the consumption of spirits would appear to be on the increase by the different returns in our own country and abroad. The imports of spirits in the seven years from 1850 to 1857 amounted to 70,740,980 galls., whilst the imports in the seven years following-viz., from 1857 to 1864-amounted to 78,016,071 galls., showing an increase of 7,305,091 galls. The population has, however, increased in the time, and a deduction on that account, and a correction in one or two other heads, are required; still, that there is increase is indisputable. litres for every inhabitant, which is even greater than the highest of the above figures. The demoralisation also of the French army in the late Franco-Prussian war is almost unanimously ascribed to the excessive use of spirituous liquors. Drunkenness, as modified by Race.-The Massachusetts Board of Health in 1870 undertook an elaborate inquiry into drunkenness as it existed in different parts of the world, and issued a report on it which has been analysed and summarised by Dr. Druitt (Medical Times and Gazette, April 15, 1872). The answers they obtained as to the effects of drink from the 164 physicians in Massachusetts were extremely conflicting, but the information gained as to the comparative sobriety was instructive. Dr. Druitt thus summarises the evidence : We may arrange the various populations, concerning whom the correspondents of the Massachusetts Board sent reports under four categories in descending scale, beginning with (1) those who abstain; (2) those who drink, but in such moderation that drunkenness forms no feature of the place or people; (3) populations amongst whom drunkenness is pretty common, but of an innocent, jolly, and not criminal character; and (4) populations disgraced by drunkenness, accompanied with brutality and crime. 1. Under the total abstinence head we may arrange the Mussulman populations of Constantinople, Alexandria, Zanzibar, and the people of Hayti. 2. The population is shown to drink, but without any features of excess, by the answers received from Ancona and Florence, Athens, Cadiz, Teneriffe, Funchal, Fayal, Malta, Beerut, Geneva, Vienna, Bremen, Leipsic, Nicaragua, Pernambuco, St Juan, Pare, Trinidad, Lima, and Honolulu. 3. People are shown to drink too freely, but innocently and without violence, by the answers from Trieste, Basel, Berne, Zurich, Frankfort, Copenhagen, Elsinore, Yokohama, Hiojo, and Santa Cruz. 4. In the lowest category rank the answers from Liverpool, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Odessa, Toronto, Cologne, Colombo. So that highest in the scale of temperance come the Turks and Arabs; next the Iberians, Levantines, Greeks, and Latin races; lower down, the In France, the following figures by M. Hus- Japanese, Scandinavians, Belgians, and the Irish son show a remarkable increase: Celt; lowest of all, the so-called Anglo-Saxon of either continent. It would seem from this that a great deal depends upon the nature of the liquid imbibed, whether wine, beer, or spirits. See ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. It therefore appears unhappily too true that there is really an increase in the consumption of spirituous liquors in most countries, and as a natural, though not inevitable, sequence, an increase of drunkenness. Pro |