RELATION OF FOOD TO NUTRIMENT. 



271 



really takes place. The intestinal secretion and the pancreatic 

 juice act energetically on the starch, soften and break up the 

 granules and convert the particles into sugar. 



Sugar is so easily diffused that it requires no preliminary di- 

 gestive process to prepare it for assimilation. It passes without 

 change into the circulation. If, however, it is supplied in excess 

 of the requirements of the system, when it reaches the stomach it 

 undergoes lactic-acid fermentation and thus occasions the acidity 

 from which some dyspeptics suffer. When not in excess, the sugar 

 is carried on to the liver where it undergoes certain changes which 

 lead us to conclude that it contributes to the production of fat, but 

 not to the production of force. 



Alcohol Alcohol is very rapidly diffused through the sys- 

 tem. Some portion of what is taken is evaporated through the 

 lungs and expired with the breath ; some is eliminated by the liver 

 and kidneys, and the rest remains for a long time diffused through 

 non-excreting organs where it is transmuted into new compounds. 

 Its actual dietetic position is scarcely determined, although many 

 researches have been made, and much has been written on the sub- 

 ject. Recent researches show that alcohol acts chiefly as a stimu- 

 lant, with variable advantage or injury to the constitution. It con- 

 tains no nitrogen, and has therefore none of the qualities of tissue- 

 forming foods, nor is it capable of being transformed into them; 

 hence it is not a food in the sense of being a constructive agent in 

 building up the body. It is very doubtful whether it produces 

 fatty matter, except by an indirect and injudicious interference with 

 natural processes, though there is reason to suppose that it lessens to 

 some extent the elimination of fat already existing. If there be 

 any fattening, it is not confined to the external development of fat, 

 but extends to a degeneration through the minute structures of the 

 vital organs, including the heart, inducing what is termed its " fatty 

 degeneration." Alcohol does not produce warmth nor sustain it; 

 the glow which is felt is deceptive, for that is due to congestion, 

 like the warmth of inflammation ; hence the serious error of taking 

 it in cold weather, when the alcohol and cold act in combination, 

 producing congestion of the lungs and other vital organs and often 

 leading to fatal consequences. Nor does alcohol give and sustain 

 strength; there is muscular excitement, which is mistaken for 

 muscular power, produced at the expense of the tissue and drawing 

 upon its reserve force; there is, in fact, nervous stimulus, but 

 muscular enfeeblement. There are unquestionably occasions when 

 it is necessary to produce the stimulus, even at the cost of subse- 

 quent reaction and debility; when, for instance, an enfeebled or 

 fainting heart is temporarily relieved by that relaxation of the 

 arterial vessels which the diffusion of alcohol through the blood 

 induces, or when the flagging circulation of approaching death needs 

 to be quickened that life may be maintained. But the impression 

 that alcohol gives permanent strength for sustained work is as 



