1870 or earlier, it was manifest that this was not the case and the title of earliest morphine addict as the term is currently understood is often given to Pravaz' wife, although habituation through orally ingesting the drug was known before this time, including Friedrich Sertürner and his associates, followers, wife, and dog. To some extent, it was also believed early on that bypassing the lungs would prevent opium addiction, as well as habituation to tobacco. Ethanol in its usual form generally is not injected and can be very damaging by most routes of injection; in modern times, it is used as an alternative or potentiator of phenol (carbolic acid) in procedures to ablate damaged nerves.