390 OF FOOD, AND THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. 



body at its expense. 1 Fourthly, the alimentary value of Alcohol consists merely 

 in its power of contributing to the production of Heat, by aifording a pabulum 

 for the respiratory process ; but for this purpose it would be pronounced on 

 Chemical grounds alone to be inferior to fat ( 401); and the result of the ex- 

 perience of Arctic voyagers and travellers is most decided in regard to the low 

 value of Alcohol as a heat-producing material. Fifthly, the operation of Alcohol 

 upon the living body is essentially that of a stimulus; increasing for a time, 

 like other stimuli, the vital activity of the body, and especially that of the nervo- 

 muscular apparatus, so that a greater effect may often be produced in a given 

 time under its use, than can be obtained without it ; but being followed by a 

 corresponding depression of power, which is the more prolonged and severe in 

 proportion as the previous excitement has been greater. Nothing, therefore, is 

 in the end gained by their use ; which is only justifiable where some temporary 

 emergency can only be met by a temporary augmentation of power, even at the 

 expense of an increased amount of subsequent depression; or where (as in the 

 case of some individuals whose digestive power is deficient) it affords aid in the 

 introduction of aliment into the system, which nothing else can so well supply. 

 These cases, however, will be less numerous, in proportion as due attention is 

 paid to other means of promoting health, which are more in accordance with 

 Nature. The Physiological objections to the habitual use of even small quanti- 

 ties of Alcoholic liquors rest upon the following grounds : First, they are uni- 

 versally admitted to possess a poisonous character, when administered in large 

 doses ; death being the speedy result, through the suspension of nervous power 

 which their introduction into the circulation, in sufficient quantity, is certain to 

 induce. Secondly, when habitually used in excessive quantities, universal ex- 

 perience shows that Alcoholic liquors tend to produce a morbid condition of the 

 body at large, and especially of the nervous system ; this condition being such 

 as a knowledge of its modus operandi on the body would lead the Physiologist 

 to predicate. Thirdly, the frequent occurrence of more chronic diseases of the 

 same character among persons advanced in life who have habitually made use 

 of Alcoholic liquors in " moderate" amount, affords a strong probability that they 

 result from a gradual perversion of the nutritive processes, of which that habit 

 is the cause. Fourthly, the special liability of the intemperate to zymotic dis- 

 eases indicates that the habitual ingestion of alcoholic liquors tends to prevent 

 the due elimination of the products of the disintegration of the system, and thus 

 to induce a " fermentible" condition of the blood ( 210). Fifthly, extended 

 experience has shown that, notwithstanding the temporary augmentation of power 

 which may result from the occasional use of fermented liquors, the capacity for 

 prolonged endurance of mental or bodily labor, and for resisting the extremes -of 

 heat and cold, as well as other depressing agencies, is diminished rather than 

 increased by their habitual employment. On these grounds, the Author has 

 felt himself fully justified in the conclusion, that, for Physiological reasons 

 alone, habitual abstinence from Alcoholic liquors is the best rule that can be 

 laid down for the great majority of healthy individuals; the exceptional cases in 

 which any real benefit can be derived from their use, being extremely few. 3 



1 It is quite true that some persons who consume large quantities of fermented liquors 

 become very fat ; but the material for this fat is probably derived in part from the consti- 

 tuents of the food, and in part from the disintegration of the tissues ; the hydrocarbonaceous 

 matters in the system being prevented from undergoing the combustive process to which 

 they would otherwise be subject, by the superior affinity for oxygen which Alcohol pos- 

 sesses. Much of the fatty deposit in intemperate persons has the character of "fatty 

 degeneration;" the tendency to which is very marked in persons of this class. 



2 See his Prize Essay "On the Use and Abuse of Alcoholic Liquors in Health and Dis- 

 ease," Am. Ed. ; also the important Treatise on " Alcoholiemus Chronicus," by Dr. Huss of 

 Stockholm, of which an abstract is given in the "Brit, and For. Med.-Chir. Rev.," vols. 

 vii. and ix. 



