172 



EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



the treatment of foul brood, on account of its moderate price, and especially on 

 account of the simplicity of the treatment. It is only necessary to place from 15 to 

 20 drops of the essence of rosemary in one corner of the hive and allow the substance 

 to volatilize. 



FOODS— NUTEITION. 



An experimental inquiry regarding the nutritive value of alcohol, W. O. 

 Atwater and F. G. Benedict {Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., 8 {1902), VI ( U. S. Senate, 57. 

 Cong., 1. sess.. Doc. 2S3), pp. 231-397). — Twenty experiments are reported, in some 

 of which alcohol was substituted for an isodynamic quantity of fats and carbody- 

 drates. The experiments were made with the aid of the respiration calorimeter 

 with three subjects, one of whom had used alcohol with great moderation since his 

 youth, while the other two had always been abstainers. The amount of alcohol 

 used per day was about 2\ oz., or as much as would be supplied in a bottle of claret, 

 6 oz. of whisky, or 5 oz. of brandy. The principal conclusions drawn follow: The 

 quantities of alcohol eliminated by the lungs, skin, and kidneys, averaged 1.3 gm. 

 per day. In other words, over 98 per cent of the injested alcohol was oxidized in the 

 body. The average coefficients of digestibility and the fuel values of protein, fat and 

 carbohydrates of ordinary diet as compared with diet containing alcohol are shown 

 in the following table: 



Comparison of digesiibiliti/ and fuel values of nutrients of food in ordinary diet with those 



of alcohol. 



"The isodynamic values of alcohol, carbohydrates, and fats are thus in the ratios 

 of 6.9 : 4 : 8.9, and 1 gm. of alcohol would be isodynamic with 1.73 gm. carbo- 

 hydrates or 0.78 gm. of fats of ordinary food materials. The proportions of food 

 and of the several kinds of nutrients digested and made available for use in the body 

 were practically the same in the experiments with and those without alcohol in the 

 diet. . . . The potential energy of the alcohol was transformed into kinetic energy 

 in the body as completely as that of the ordinary nutrients. The income and outgo 

 of energy were equal in the experiments without alcohol; the same was true in the 

 experiments with alcohol. In all the experiments the body obeyed the law of con- 

 servation of energy. 



''"With the exception of the energy of the external muscular work in the work 

 experiments, all of the energy of the food, including that of the alcohol, left the 

 body as heat, and must therefore have been transformed into heat within the body. 

 Part of this total energy must have been used for the internal mechanical ( muscular) 

 work; the energy thus used was therefore transformed into heat before leaving the 

 body. 



"The radiation of heat from the body was very slightly greater with the alcohol 

 diet than with the ordinary diet, but the difference was extremely small — enough to 



