According to Dr. Richardson, alcohol will need to be diluted with water in order for it to be absorbed in the body. It has also been found out that alcohol is greedy for water which makes the drinker thirsty. When it has exhausted its power of reception, it will then diffuse into the circulating fluid.
When the alcohol passes in the lungs, some of it will be raised into a vapor by natural heat then expelled via expiration. If the quantity is large we can be able to detect alcohol odor in the breath.
After it has passed through the lungs, and has been driven by the left heart over the arterial circuit, it passes into what is called the minute circulation, or the structural circulation of the organism. The arteries here extend into very small vessels, which are called arterioles, and from these small vessels they go to the veins which become the great rivers bearing the blood back to the heart. In its passage through this minute circulation the alcohol finds its way to every organ.
All the organs in the body will be saturated with alcohol through the blood. In some of these parts which are not excreting, it remains for a time diffused, and in those parts where there is a large percentage of water, it remains longer than in other parts. From some organs which have an open tube for conveying fluids away, as the liver and kidneys, it is thrown out or eliminated, and in this way a portion of it is ultimately removed from the body. The rest passing round and round with the circulation, is probably decomposed and carried off in new forms of matter.
The red corpuscles of the blood perform the most important functions in the body as they absorb the oxygen which we inhale in breathing, and carry it to the tissues of the body, the carbonic acid gas which is produced in the combustion of the body in the extreme tissues, and bring that gas back to the lungs to be exchanged for oxygen there; in short, they are the most important instruments of the circulation. And when they are affected by alcohol they undergo changes plus their abilities are impaired.