Ethyl Alcohol and Myocardial Metabolism

SIR HANS KREBS delivered the Penn Lectureship in 1969 on the subject of "Alcohol Dehydrogenase." He commenced his talk with some observations about the distribution of this enzyme throughout the animal kingdom. He asked the questions: Why is this enzyme so ubiquitous? What function does it serve in animals that have not become expert brewers? Sir Hans pointed out that questions by suggesting that alcohol may have lethal toxicity were it not for alcohol dehydrogenase. The enzyme is in greatest abundance in the liver, and, therefore, may "protect" the animal from poisoning from this route of entry. It is of interest that the heart contains no alcohol dehydrogenase and perhaps this fact tells a story. How is alcohol metabolized?