INTOXICATED ANIMALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12260, 2 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

INTOXICATED ANIMALS.

SOME CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS.

Among those who have devoted their professional lifetime to the study of the absorbing question of alcohol and its effects upon the human organism the well-known French savant Professor Grehant, specialist in physiology, must be given a foremost place. His laboratory is close to the Paris Museum of Natural History, and it was there that be received the representative of the Daily Mail, and begged him to witness a practical demonstration, of the effects of alcohol. The professor sent for a stray dog reclaimed from the home for lost dogs, and told one of his assistants to prepare it for an experiment.

The correspondent writes: —

The benevolent old professor looks kindness itself, but he urges that experiments must be made if science is not to stand still. He prefers to make them on dogs and rabbits rather than upon human beings.

"We cannot give pure alocobol to animals," he said; "they cannot retain it. Therefore Ave give them a solution of alcohol and water containing only 10 per cent, of alcohol, about the strength of ordinary red wine (claret). And this is how we administer it."

The dog, a young animal of mongrel breed in a fasting condition, had been, stretched upon his back on a table, and bis legs attached. His mouth was held open with a piece of wood, into which he sank his teeth, and through a long tube 540 cubic centimetres (I3siu) of diluted alcohol was slowly poured into his stomach. The injection lasted four minutes, and when it was at an end and the dog was released he wagged his tail as if alcohol was the best drink in the world. Lifted from the table, he jumped and gambolled about in the most gleeful fashion.

" That is the first stage; he is happy," said the professor. And he added : " You see the effects of alcohol upon dogs, and men are the same. He still has all his intelligence, and is simply exhilarated."

Then we went into an. adjoining room, and the professor exhibited to me the delicate and clever apparatus by which various analytical processes are performed. On returning to the laboratory twenty minutes after the dog had absorbed the alcohol it was impossible to tell that he had been imbibing. A small quantity of blood was taken from him for the purposes of examina-. tion, and he was given his liberty. But when I looked at him again, almost an nour after he had received the alcohol, he was no longer the sprightly doggy of my first acquaintance. His eye was dim, and he wore a sleepy appearance. When he tried to look you in the face his head drooped, and his sad, perplexed expression plainly said: " I've never been like this before"; what is the matter with me?''

" That is stage number two," said the professor. The dog was then placed in a primitive sort of kennel, but after a few minutes' rest he was taken out and given his freedom. Poor doggy ! It was a very restricted freedom. He was clearly intoxicated now, and although ho tried hard not to show it Ids legs betrayed him. His haunches seemed too heavy, and at every few step? Lis hind legs gave under him. Then the furniture got in his way, and he knocked himself against the chairs and table. "Take him into the garden," said Professor Grehant. The fresh air seemed to do the animal good. Pie started running, but he soon grew tired, and after swaying from side to side came down heavily. " He was soon on his feet again, valiantly struggling to maintain his equilibrium. But a few minutes later the alcohol had won the mastery, and the unhappy animal rolled over on his back and lay motionless. When I went over and looked at him the dog was the picture of profound misery. " That is the third stage," was the professor's comment. Then the 3og was picked up and taken inside, where he was put to bed and dropped off into a profound slumber. '" Stage number four," remarked the professor, "and when he wakes up he'll be as right as nmepence. With rabbits," he added, "the results are slightly different. They do not attempt to walk when they have had alcohol, but simply lie down and go to sleep. The kangaroo", on the other hand, who is naturally a pugnacious animal, is doubly so after he has been drinking, and for his own good and the safety of others he ought to be a total abstainer. The effect of alcohol upon guinea-pigs is to send them into convulsions. But come and see the fish," and we walked over to a couple of globes, in one of which was a number cf goldfish and in. the other several tritons cr newts, a small-tailed, lizard-like animal with fish-like lower extremities.

The goldfish were placed in water diluted with ten per cent, of alcohol, the same strength as that given to the dog. At :irst they were exceedingly lively, and circled round the globe in merry fashion. But the unaccustomed element quickly told upon them, {.nd from their ordinary upright position they fell over on their sides. When the work of intoxication was complete they sank to the bottom of the jar and lay upon their sides motionless. Had they been allowed to remain they would soon'have been dead. But that was not the professors intention, so they were restored to pure water and in half an hour were completely sober. The tritons were given twenty per cent, cf alcohol., which quickly stupefied them. Their tails curled up. their eyes closed, and they showed unmistakable signs of alcoholic poisoning. When in their natural condition they dart from side to side of the glass like lightning, but after absorbing the alcohol they huddled together at the bottom of the globe, and did not move. They, too, were drunk, and had to be put back in clean water to revive them.

The aim of the professor's experiments was to prove that when alcohol is absorbed by animals it has the same effect as on men ; it is quickly distributed through the blood and tissues, and permeates the whole organism. "I am convinced," said the professor, "that if you examine the bloodten hours after taking alcohol you will rind traces of it and if 3-011 examine it again ten hours later—i.e., twenty hours after it has reached the stomach, a chemical analysis will still reveal the presence of Ucohol. ' So that those who are given to the frequent consumption of spirituous liquors must necessarily accumulate a quantity of alcohol in the system which may have the most disastrous consequences." I asked the professor how much alcohol a healthy man might safely take per day. "You may drink without danger," ne replied. " a litre [1% pint) of wine (claret) \-iiday, half a litre at each meal. But it: is advisable to add to it the same quantity of water."