384 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



give us a representation of them. It may be that analogous cause within our power to compare 



the supreme reasons of the order of Nature are with the Supreme Cause is intelligence. The art 



in that farthest and unattainable plane which all of Nature, then, proceeds from a cause which is 



theology conceives to be at the background of its at least an intelligence, if it be not soinethiu" 



mysteries. All that we can say is, that the most more. 



BEIEF NOTES. 



■ Alcoholic Drinks and Diet. — In an address to 

 the London Medical Society, Dr. Alfred Carpen- 

 ter treats with judicial fairness of the use of alco- 

 holic drinks as diet, as medicine, and as poison. 

 In the first place, he remarked that alcohol is not 

 a necessary of life, but a luxury only. But is it 

 a beneficial luxury — is it God's gift, or the "dev- 

 il's draught ? " It has been asserted that there is 

 no utilization of alcohol in the animal economy, 

 but this opinion Dr. Carpenter could not accept, 

 because it was contrary to almost universal thera- 

 peutical experience. Alcohol maybe transformed 

 into force, and as such it might be useful without 

 danger as a luxury. It is objected that alcohol, 

 administered in potent doses, may have fatal re- 

 sults ; but the same effect is produced under sim- 

 ilar circumstances by sodium, potassium, phos- 

 phorus, and other substances, which nevertheless 

 are normal constituents of the human body. 

 Like lime or salt, alcohol might be beneficial if 

 rightly used at the proper time. Dr. Carpenter 

 is inclined to believe that alcohol occurring in the 

 blood in the proportion of 1 : 500 interferes with 

 the power of the corpuscle to absorb oxygen ; 

 also, that it causes coagulation of the fibrinous 

 part of the blood, so producing very serious com- 

 plications. But it has not been shown, he said, 

 that a similar result follows from the smaller 

 quantities which are found in the weaker drinks, 

 as light wines and beers. But the habitual use 

 of strong drink, even in a diluted form, is neces- 

 sarily hurtful. There are occasions when stimu- 

 lants may be useful and even necessary, but as 

 habitual drinks they must be hurtful unless more 

 diluted than they usually are. Dr. Carpenter next 

 considered alcoholic drinks as medicine. He said 

 that there are conditions of the body in which al- 

 cohol performs a duty more satisfactory than any 

 other stimulant. It serves to preserve the body 

 from decay. The therapeutic effects of alcohol 

 in certain fevers is most marked. The aged may 



be greatly benefited by its use. As for the inju- 

 rious effects of alcohol, they are undoubtful. To 

 sum up : " Alcohol in any of its forms might be 

 a good medicine, but it is a bad diet, and its ac- 

 tion as a poison is visible among all ranks of so- 

 ciety." 



Muscles as Machines. — From experiments made 

 by Frankland, it appears that muscle is a machine 

 for the conversion of potential energy into me- 

 chanical force, and that the mechanical force of 

 the muscles is derived chiefly if not entirely from 

 the oxidation of matters either contained in the 

 blood or deposited ai'ound the muscular fibres, 

 and not from the oxidation of the muscles them- 

 selves. In man the chief materials used for the 

 production of muscular power are non-nitroge- 

 nous, though nitrogenous matters can also be em- 

 ployed for the same purpose. Like every other 

 part of the body, the muscles are constantly being 

 renewed, but this renewal is scarcely perceptibly 

 more rapid during great muscular activity than 

 during comparative quiescence. According to 

 Frankland, after the supply of sufficient albumi- 

 noid matters in the food of man to provide for 

 the necessary renewal of the tissues, the best 

 materials for the production, both of internal 

 and external work, are non-nitrogenous matters, 

 as oil, fat, sugar, starch, gum. All the non-ni- 

 trogenous matters of food which find their 

 way into the blood yield up all their potential 

 energy as actual energy, while on the other 

 hand the nitrogenous matters leave the body 

 with at least one-seventh of their potential en- 

 ergy unexpended. Finally, the transformation 

 of potential energy into muscular power is nec- 

 essarily accompanied by the production of heat 

 within the body, even when the muscular power 

 is exerted- externally. This is doubtless the 

 chief, and probably the only source of natural 

 heat. 



