HYGIENE OF DIGESTION 



Scientific men generally continue to classify it as a poison 

 and not as a food. Morphine, mushroom poison, strych- 

 nine, and other dangerous poisons are oxidized in the 

 body and yield up their energy, yet they are recognized 

 as poisons. A substance cannot be classified as a food 

 simply because it is oxidized in the body. 



468. Leading scientists define a food as follows : A food 

 is a substance of such a nature that, when absorbed into the 

 blood, it nourishes the body without injuring it. 



469. Sugar is a food but a solution of sugar can undergo 

 a change caused by the growth of millions of yeast plants 

 and the food is lost. The change is called fermentation, 

 and alcohol is one of the poisonous products of this process 

 of decay or fermentation. 



The condition of the body after it has oxidized alcohol 

 is quite different from its condition after it has oxidized 

 sugar or bread. Benzine is very easily oxidized. If 

 poured upon the fire of a locomotive, it would make the 

 water boil so rapidly that there would be danger of strain- 

 ing or bursting the boiler. It would burn so rapidly as 

 almost to make an explosion, and a very large part of the 

 heat caused by the oxidation would be lost. A stove 

 needs a slower burning substance than gunpowder or ben- 

 zine. A locomotive needs a slow-burning fuel which 

 will develop heat at such a rate that it will be possible to 

 utilize it. The body needs even slower burning substances 

 than the locomotive, such as sugar, starch, and fat ; not a 

 more rapidly burning substance, such as alcohol, which in 

 burning will weaken the tissues and shock and injure the 

 delicate cells of the one who drinks it. In the chapter on 

 the blood it was learned that alcohol does not even cause a 

 gain of heat in the end, since the paralysis of the capillaries 

 resulting from a drink, causes the warmth to be taken to 

 the surface and escape, so that the body is cooler than 

 before the drink. 



