In nearly all parts of the world, the consumption of alcohol is increasing, and the morbidity and mortality of diseases induced by alcohol are rising correspondingly. It has been stated that alcohol is consumed because it pro duces intoxication. This effect is due to its toxicological influence on the central nervous system with the resulting functional disturbances. For many years, the concept that alcoholic liver disease was of nutritional origin and only indirectly related to alcohol consumption and metabolism was accepted. Opinion has changed gradually in recent years and tends now to...