For as long as people have been drinking too much, they have been searching for a cure for that dreaded morning after hangover。

只要一个人有过酩酊大醉的时候，他们就一定曾寻找过解决宿醉之后可怕的第二天清晨。

Raw eggs with or without Worcestershire sauce is apparently one cure; others eat chocolate or a bacon sandwich - but the answer could be as simple as to carry on doing what you were doing that caused the hangover – have a drink。

淋上辣酱油的生鸡蛋——也可以不加——无疑是办法之一;还有人选择吃巧克力或者培根三明治。然而真正的解决方法非常简单：是什么导致了你的宿醉——饮酒——而它也是解决你宿醉困扰的办法。

Adam Rogers, the author of Proof: the Science of Booze, is of the opinion that the 'hair of the dog' makes you feel better, but the question is why it does this, and importantly whether it's really a good idea。

《论证：畅饮的学问》的作者亚当·罗杰斯认为醒酒液会让人感到更舒服一些，然而问题在于为什么它会如此起作用，而且喝醒酒液到底是不是个好主意。

Every alcoholic drink contains, as well as ethanol, small traces of the poisonous methanol. In high doses methanol can make people go blind or even die because the body converts it to formaldehyde, a poison used as a preservative in some laboratories. Doctors treat methanol poisoning by giving patients ethanol to prevent its change into formaldehyde。

每种酒精饮料除了包含乙醇，都会有微量的有毒甲醇。甲醇摄入量过高会致盲或致死，因为人的身体会把它转化成甲醛——在实验室里作为防腐剂使用的有毒物质。针对甲醇中毒，医生们通常会开出含有乙醇的处方，以防它转化为甲醛。

'If methanol poisoning is at least in part responsible for a hangover, having a drink the next morning may alleviate symptoms,' said Mr Rogers although he was at pains to point out that the theory was 'hypothetical' at best。

“如果甲醇中毒是宿醉的原因之一，那么第二天早上再喝一杯有可能缓解症状。”罗杰先生如此说道，尽管他仍需要承认该理论尚处于假设阶段。

Lauren Owen, a psychopharmacologist at Keele University and a member of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group, agreed that there was some scientific support for the idea. 'Alcohol acts on a number of chemicals in the brain to increase feelings of pleasure. Reduction of hangover symptoms by "hair of the dog" may also be due to the activity of alcohol on neurotransmitter systems.'

劳伦·欧文是基尔大学的精神药理学家，同时也是宿醉研究小组的成员之一。她认为喝酒解宿醉的方法是有科学依据的，“酒精会使大脑产生化学反应，从而增加愉悦的感觉。通过饮用醒酒液的方法减轻宿醉很可能同样基于酒精对脑神经元的刺激。”

One thing that appears to have no scientific basis is rehydration. Mr Rogers said: 'You can get rid of the dehydration and you are still hungover.'

然而目前并没有科学证据证明喝水可以解酒。罗杰先生说道：“你可能会因此摆脱脱水症状，不过宿醉却不会因此得到缓解。”