ACCESSORY ARTICLES OF DIET 155 



milk is given to infants' it should be diluted with water and 

 some sugar added to it. 



Accessory Articles of Diet. These include condiments, flavors, 

 and stimulants. They are usually taken in order to make food 

 more attractive. Flavors and condiments stimulate the psychi- 

 cal secretion. Dogs, it has been said, will refuse to eat food 

 which has been entirely deprived of its flavor and sapidity, 

 and would rather starve. When fed on a diet of ash-free fats 

 and carbohydrates, and meats extracted with water until 

 the salts were much reduced, they were in a moribund condi- 

 tion at the end of thirty-six days. Some of the salts, at least, 

 must be in organic combination. Mice will live well on a diet 

 of dried cow's milk, but if fed on the organic but ash-free con- 

 stituents of milk, namely, sugar, fat, and casein, together with 

 the extracted salts of cow's milk, they died in thirty days. 



Stimulants include alcohol, tea, coffee, chocolate, and meat 

 extracts. The value of the latter lies in the possession of 

 secretagogues that stimulate the gastric glands. The stimulating 

 power of all the stimulants mentioned, except alcohol, depends 

 upon xanthin and its derivatives. Alcohol as an article of 

 diet has aroused tremendous controversy, owing to the disas- 

 trous results often following its consumption. The main 

 physiological aspects may be summed up as follows: 



1. To a certain very slight extent alcohol is a food. It 

 has been proved that it may save protein from decomposition 

 just as carbohydrates and fats do. A small portion is excreted 

 unchanged in the urine and breath. 



2. There is no reason to suppose that the energy of alcohol 

 may not be used as a source of work in the body. It yields 

 heat, but ordinarily, owing to the production simultaneously of a 

 cutaneous dilatation, more heat is lost from the body than is 

 gained. 



3. A certain amount of alcohol seems to be formed normally 

 in the metabolism of sugar. Nevertheless, there seems to be 

 no use in deliberately adding to this amount in healthy indi- 

 viduals. In all hazardous undertakings it should be avoided. 



4. It is no doubt of great value medicinally when its adminis- 

 tration is controlled by a physician. 



5. In strictly moderate doses (one and one-half ounces 

 of absolute alcohol in twenty-four hours), properly diluted 



