The researches of Bouchardat and Sandras,[23] and of Duchek,[24] have rendered it probable that, if alcohol undergoes any digestive transformation, it is first changed into aldehyde, from which are successively formed acetic acid, oxalic acid and water, and carbonic acid.[25] But this transformation, like any other digestive process, cannot go on unless the nervous system is in good working order. Now when a narcotic dose of alcohol is taken, the flow of gastric juice is prevented by local paralysis of the nerve-fibres distributed to the stomach. What then must happen? Solid food may remain undigested, in the stomach;[26] but liquid alcohol is easily absorbable, and has two ways of exit,--one through the portal system into the liver, the other through the lacteals into the general circulation, by which it will be carried chiefly to the organ which receives most blood,--namely, the brain. _It is thus probable that no alcohol can be transformed after narcosis begins._ But the absorbed alcohol, loading the circulation, begins at once to be excreted. Paralysis of the renal plexus of the sympathetic sets up a rapid diuresis, and considerable amounts of the volatile liquid escape through the lungs and skin. In examining, therefore, a drunken man or dog, we need not, on any theory, expect to find the intermediate products of alcoholic transformation; we must expect to find large quantities of undigested alcohol in the circulation, and notably in the brain and liver; and we need not be surprised if we detect unchanged alcohol in the excretions. _Our experiment will not show that alcohol cannot be assimilated; it will only show how serious is the damage inflicted by a narcotic dose, in checking assimilation._ Now all this applies with force to the experiments of Messrs. Lallemand, Duroy and Perrin. In their experiments, these gentlemen always tried intoxicating doses; thus paralyzing at the outset the whole digestive tract, _and preventing the formation of those transformed products which they afterward vainly tried to discover_. As so often happens in experimenting upon the enormously complex human organism, they began by creating abnormal conditions which rendered their conclusions inapplicable to the healthy body. [23] _De la Digestion des Boissons Alcooliques_, in _Annales de Chimie et de Physique_, 1847, tom. xxi. [24] _Ueber das Verhalten des Alkohols im thierischen Organismus_, in _Vierteljahrsschrift für die praktische Heilkunde_, Prague, 1833. [25] See Moleschott, _Circulation de la Vie_, tom. ii. p. 6.