CONTINUED DRINKING OF ALCOHOL IN LOW CONCENTRATIONS: SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

¹ From the Department of Pharmacology, Stanford University School of Medicine, San Francisco, California

1. The successful use of pigeons in experiments on voluntary drinking of alcohol in the comparatively low concentrations of 2 and 4 per cent, resulting in very large daily consumptions of absolute alcohol, during long periods (thirteen months and two years) is reported. The results obtained are reported with the view of indicating the feasibility of the method rather than their finality.

2. The essential results indicated a loss of body weight from which recovery was slower than in the controls, despite the large number of calories obtained from the alcohol; cultivation of appetite for alcohol; possible species preference for 2 per cent alcohol; no significant change in food consumption; and no demonstrable gross and histological changes in the heart, kidneys and liver, the latter confirming the negative results of others using stronger alcohol in other animals.

3. From the results obtained, it is tentatively suggested that the continued use of weak alcohol does not act as food on stimulate appetite for, or the consumption of, food, since it does not restore or maintain body weight, thus acting in this sense as a poison, but injury to viscera is not demonstrable after drinking weak alcohol for about one-seventh to two-sevenths the span of life. Hence, the other constituents of weak alcoholic beverages may be responsible for the clinical effects on vegetative functions and on viscera.