ALIMENTARY ENERGETICS. 137 



directly in the blood and in the lymph, without inter- 

 vening in the vital functions other than by the heat 

 it produces. From the point of view of the energetic 

 theory these are not real foods, because their potential 

 energy is not transformed into any kind of vital 

 energy, but passes at once to the thermal form. On 

 the other hand, other physiologists look upon alcohol 

 as really a food. According to them everything is 

 called a food which is transformed in the organism 

 with the production of heat ; and they measure the 

 nutritive value of a substance by the number of 

 Calories it can give up to the organism. So that 

 alcohol would be a better food than carbohydrated 

 and nitrogenous substances. A definite quantity of 

 alcohol, a gramme for instance, is equivalent from 

 the thermal point of view to 1.66 grammes of sugar, 

 1.44 of albumen, or 0.73 of fat. These quantities 

 would be isodynamic. 



Experiment has not entirely decided for or against 

 this theory. However, the first tests have not been 

 very favourable to it. The researches of C. von 

 Noorden and his pupils, Stammreich and Miura, have 

 clearly and directly established that alcohol cannot 

 be substituted in a maintenance ration for an exactly 

 isodynamic quantity of carbohydrates. If the sub- 

 stitution is effected, a ration only just capable of 

 maintaining the organism in equilibrium becomes in- 

 sufiicient. The animal decreases in weight. It loses 

 more nitrogenous matter than it can recover from 

 its diet, and this situation cannot be sustained for 

 long. On the other hand, the celebrated researches 

 of the American physiologist, Atwater, would plead, 

 on the contrary, in favour of almost isodynamic sub- 

 stitution. Finally, Duclaux has shown that alcohol 



