It is now conceded that alcohol is not a real brain stimulant, but acts by narrowing the field of consciousness. By gradually overcoming the higher brain elements the activities of the lower ones are released, hence the so-called stimulation and the lack of judgment and common sense often shown by those even slightly under the influence of alcohol. The man who wakes up under alcohol is really going to sleep, as far as his judgment and reason are concerned. Complete abolition of consciousness is brought about by sufficient doses as when ether or chloroform is taken. Under moderate doses, muscular efficiency is at first increased a little and then lowered, the total effect being a loss in working power, as shown by the experiments of Dubois, Schnyder,[13] Hellsten,[14] and others. [Sidenote: Influence on Bodily Resistance to Disease] Muller, Wirgin and others[15] have shown that alcohol restricts the formation of antibodies (the function of which is to resist infection in the blood) in rabbits, and Laitinen[16] has shown that the prolonged administration of small doses in men (15 cc.) is sufficient to lower vital resistance, especially to typhoid fever. Rubin[17] has demonstrated that alcohol, ether and chloroform, injected under the skin, render rabbits more vulnerable to streptococcus (blood poison) and pneumnococcus infection (pneumonia); Stewart,[18] that small amounts lower the resistance to tuberculosis and streptococcus infection; Craig and Nichols,[19] that moderate doses of whisky were sufficient to cause a negative Wassermann reaction in syphilitic subjects; Fillinger[20] found the resistance of red blood cells much reduced after the administration of champagne to healthy human subjects. Similar results were found in dogs and rabbits. Weinburg[21] confirmed these results by the same methods, showing that 20 per cent. of the red cells lose their resistance after the administration of 450 cc. of champagne. Parkinson,[22] in a series of careful tests, failed to establish any influence on phagocytosis (capacity of the white blood cells to destroy bacteria), except when large doses or continuous moderate doses were taken. [Sidenote: Effect on Circulation] On the heart and circulation, alcohol acts as a depressant, increasing the rate, but not the force, of the pulse. It causes depression of the nerve center controlling the blood vessels and thus lowers blood pressure. Large doses cause paralysis of these nerves and of the heart. Miller and Brooks[23] found from small doses (6 to 12 cc. absolute alcohol) an increase in blood pressure in conscious (unanesthetized) animals, contrary to the findings of Crile,[24] Cabot,[25] Dennig,[26] Hindelang and Grünbaum, Alexandroff[27] and others, _in man_; but the amounts were small and variable, according to individual susceptibility, _thus showing the drug to be, even on such evidence, uncertain and unserviceable as a heart stimulant_. [Sidenote: Food Value]