BEVERAGES IN WAR-TIME 61 



tissues; but here it must be explained that energy is 

 used in the technical sense and not in the popular 

 ohe. A man may be supplied with energy by 

 alcohol, but he is not on that account an energetic 

 man. 



Alcohol thus serves as a source of heat and work in 

 the human tissues just as sugar and starch and bread 

 and most of our foods. And, if you wish, you may 

 describe it as a food, or as having food value like these 

 other substances. I do not know that this is a safe 

 thing to do, however, for then the question arises 

 whether it is a good food or not. Now the criteria of 

 a good food are not very easily satisfied, because the 

 best foods are those which only serve as a source of 

 heat and work, and have no other action either on 

 the digestion or elsewhere. For example, ripe apples 

 and bread act only as sources of energy, and are 

 palatable, and are thus first-class foods ; green apples 

 are almost as valuable as sources of energy as ripe 

 ones, and appear to suit youthful tastes, but upset the 

 digestion, and are therefore not first-class foods, but 

 only second- or third-class, and may even be regarded 

 as poisons. Alcohol is a valuable source of energy, 

 and also appeals to many tastes, but it upsets the 

 brain. It cannot be regarded as in the first class of 

 foods, but I leave it at that somewhere between 

 bread and green apples as a food. It is not only a 

 food in the strict sense, but also a drug or poison, 

 and if alcohol is to be classed as a food you must 

 also accept such things as green apples, glycerine, 

 vinegar, and even morphine in the same category, 

 for these also undergo oxidation in the body, and 

 become a source of heat and work in the same 

 way. 



The ordinary foods on which we draw for power 

 are bread-stuffs (carbohydrates), fats, and meat-stuffs 



