284 MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



but tlic difference in favor of the ordinary food was very small indeed, hardly enough to be of 

 practical consequence. From this it follows that the energy of the alcohol was utilized very 

 nearly or quite as well as that of the other fuel ingredients which it replaced. 



4. That the alcohol contributed its share of energy for muscular work is a natural hypoth- 

 esis and very probable, but not absolutely proven. The hypothesis that the energy of the 

 alcohol was not so used, is not called for as an explanation of any fact observed in these 

 experiments. 



It should not be forgotten that the desirability of alcohol as part of a diet for muscular work 

 is not decided by the narrower questions here discussed. There is a very essential difference 

 between the transformation of the potential energy of alcohol into the mechanical energy of 

 muscular work and the advantage or disadvantage of alcohol in the diet of people engaged in 

 muscular labor. Even with the small doses in these experiments there were indications that the 

 subjects worked to slightly better advantage with the ordinary rations than with the alcohol. 

 The results of practical tests on a large scale elsewhere coincide with those of general observation 

 in implying that the use of any considerable quantity of alcoholic beverages as part of the diet 

 for muscular labor is generally of doubtful value and often positively injurious/' Aside from 

 the question of the power of alcohol to protect protein and fat and supply energy to the body for 

 various useful purposes, there are the far weightier considerations of the general effect of alcohol 

 upon the muscular and especially the nervous system and upon health and welfare. Upon these 

 most serious hygienic, economical, and ethical problems the experiments here reported throw no 

 special light. 



"For a summary of results of experiments upon various phases of this subject by different investigators, see 

 article by Prof. J. H. Abel in the Report of the Physiological Subcommittee of the Committee of Fifty for the 

 Investigation of the Drink Problem. (See page 261 of this memoir.) 



