Treatise on Poisons by Sir Robert Christison

OF POISONING WITH ALCOHOL, ETHER, AND EMPYREUMATIC OILS. The last group of the narcotico-acrids comprehends _alcohol_, _ether_, and the _oleaginous products of combustion_. _Of Poisoning with Alcohol._ _Of its Action on Animals, and Symptoms in Man._—Alcohol has been generally believed, since the experiments of Sir B. Brodie,[2511] to act on the brain through the medium of the nerves, and to do so without entering the blood. This may be doubted. At least in some experiments performed several years ago by Dr. C. Coindet and myself it appeared not to act so swiftly, but that absorption might easily have taken place before its operation began. At all events, through whatever channel it may operate, there is no doubt that it enters the blood; for in man the breath has a strong smell of spirit for a considerable time after it is swallowed; and it has been found in the tissues and secretions after death from large doses. Professor Orfila found that alcohol is a violent poison when injected into the cellular tissue; and that it produces through that channel the same effects as when taken into the stomach.[2512] In the course of our experiments Dr. C. Coindet and I found that it acted with great rapidity when injected into the cavity of the chest. Authors who have treated of the action of alcohol and spirituous liquors on man, have distinguished three degrees in its immediate effects.