On Food and Cooking

various tissues into which it diffuses. We
value it most for its influence on the central
nervous system, where it acts as a narcotic.
The fact that it seems to stimulate more
animated, excited behavior than usual is
actually a symptom of its depressant effect on
the higher functions of the brain, those that
normally control our behavior with various
kinds of inhibition. As more alcohol reaches
the brain, it interferes with more basic
processes: memory, concentration, and
thinking in general; muscular coordination,
speech, vision. With regard to the idea that
alcohol is an aphrodisiac, modern
investigators continue to cite the authority of
the Porter in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who
says of drink that “Lechery, sir, it provokes,
and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it
takes away the performance.”
The degree to which someone is
intoxicated depends on the concentration of
alcohol in the cells. Once alcohol is absorbed