-Ji',S MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES; 



simply accidental. It might, however, be interpreted as indicating that the subject worked to 

 better advantage on the ordinary diet than on the diet of which a part was alcohol. This would 

 accord with the conclusions drawn by Chauveau from experiments on dogs a and by Parkes from 

 extended observations on marching soldier.- and workingmen." 



Summary. —In interpreting these experiments two things are to lie considered. One i- that 

 the differences between the amounts of nitrogen excreted with and without alcohol are generally 

 very small. The other is that there is good ground for the belief that with persons little 

 accustomed to the use of alcohol it may have a tendency to increase nitrogen metabolism, which 

 may counteract, to greater or less extent, the tendency to protect protein, though, with some 

 persons at least, this action appears to be temporary. The results with the individual subjects 

 may be briefly recapitulated as follows: 



With E. O., who was accustomed to the use of moderate quantities of alcoholic beverages, the 

 protein protecting power of the alcohol was apparent, but seemed to be somewhat inferior to 

 that of fats and carbohydrates. 



With A. W. S., an abstainer, there was an increase of nitrogen excretion during the first 

 days after the beginning of the alcohol diet, with a resulting loss of body protein, but this action 

 ceased after 5 or 6 days, and thereafter the alcohol apparently protected protein, though the 

 experiments do not show how its efficiency in this respect compared with that of the carbohydrates 

 and fats. 



With J. F. S.. who was also an abstainer, there was. in each case, an increase of nitrogen 

 excretion and loss of body protein during the 3-day periods in which the alcohol replaced fat or 

 sugar. There was thus a marked inferiority of alcohol in protecting power. The result is 

 similar to that observed with A. W. S. during the first days with alcohol, but the experiment- 

 do not show what the effect of continuing the alcohol diet would have been, and they are. 

 therefore, not decisive. 



Taking the results of all the experiments together, it may be said that — 



1. They offer no evidence to imply that alcohol can not protect protein, though they imply 

 in some cases it may. at least for a time, fail to do so. 



2. On the other hand, they give very marked indications of its protein protecting power. 



3. Thev implv clearly that in this respect it was in some cases nearly or quite equal and 

 in others decidedly inferior to the isodynamic amounts of carbohydrates and fats which it 

 replaced. 



Other experiments "j""i tht protection of protein by alcohol. — It is clear that the experiment- 

 above described are not conclusive regarding the action of alcohol in protecting protein from 

 consumption. They were not planned for the study of this subject. To make the results decisive 

 the alcohol periods should be lone- enough to eliminate the more or less temporary action of 

 alcohol as a drug; the available energy of the ration of the nonalcohol periods should equal in 

 some cases the total available energy of the alcohol ration, while in other cases it should equal 

 only that of the ordinary food of the alcohol ration, and finally, the experiments should lie 

 repeated with different persons and under different conditions. These facts we did not fully 

 understand when the experiment- were begun, nor would it have been practicable with the means 

 at our disposal to make such experiments with men in the respiration calorimeter as would be 

 needed for the comprehensive study of the question. Experiments of from twenty to thirty con- 

 secutive days seem necessary for the most satisfactory results. For a man to spend so long a 

 time in the respiration chamber of our apparatus would be. to say the least, very tedious, and the 

 cost of such experiments, in labor and money, would have exceeded our available resources. 

 Fortunatelv, the result- obtained by a number of other investigators, while our experiments wen 

 being made and since, have done much to clarify the situation a- regards the effects of alcohol 

 upon protein metabolism. 



C pi. rend. Acad. d. Sc. Par. 132, pp. 65 and lie. 



Proc. Roy. Soc. 20 (1871-72), 402, and monograph "tin the issue of a spirit ration during the Ashantee campaign, 



1S74," etc. 1... n. 1. hi, 1875. 



