III. Further experiments on the Effect of Alcohol and Exercise on the Elimination of Nitrogen and on the Pulse and Temperature of the Body.”

Abstract

In the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society’ (xviii. p. 362, xix. p. 73) are some observations by the late Count Wollowicz and myself on the effect of alcohol, brandy, and claret on the elimination of nitrogen. As the experiments were on one man, I have taken an opportunity of repeating them on another person; and as the late observations of Dr. Austin Flint (junior) on a man who walked 317 miles in five days have appeared to some persons to run counter to the now generally accepted view that exercise produces either no change or only insignificant changes in the urea, I have combined experiments on exercise with those on alcohol. With respect, however, to Dr. Austin Flint’s experiments, it would appear that while the egress of nitrogen was determined with the greatest accuracy, the amount taken in was for the most part merely estimated by reference to Payen’s Tables, and therefore there is no certainty that the ingress was what it is assumed to have been. The food also was very varied, so that the difficulty of properly estimating the nitrogen was still more increased. The following experiments were made on a soldier, W. D., aged 30. I He is a powerfully built man, 5 feet 6 inches in height, and measuring 40 inches round the chest. As a young man, he had been employed in a distillery near Glasgow, and at that time drank largely of whisky, some times taking half a piut before breakfast. For the last ten years, since he t has been in the army, he has been very temperate, taking chiefly beer in moderate quantities, and only occasionally spirits. He bears the character of a very steady soldier, and has always had perfect health, with the exception of an attack of “spotted typhus” six years ago. He has never served abroad.