Food and Drink 95 



by the scientific world assume that a food, when properly 

 taken, serves to build up and repair the body and to supply 

 it with energy for its warmth and work, without injury to 

 the tissues, 



Until it is proved that the sum total of the effect of 

 ingested alcohol is useful rather than harmful to the main- 

 tenance of the animal economy, it seems more logical, 

 certainly less misleading, to accept -the classification of 

 standard authorities and class alcohol as a powerful drug, 

 a narcotic poison rather than a food. 



In fact, when we stop to think of the possibilities 

 involved in the ingestion of even a very small quantity 

 of alcohol, the idea of calling it a food appears like a con- 

 tradiction of terms. 



146. Alcohol as a Poison. Alcohol, the product of vinous 

 fermentation, the deleterious element, the "toxin," of minute 

 germs known as the saccharomycetes, is a poison. The chief 

 toxic element in all kinds of alcoholic liquors is ethylic or 

 ordinary alcohol, although amylic alcohol, or "fusel oil," 

 is found in raw whisky. 



Ethylic alcohol is a distinct substance of definite chem- 

 ical composition and affinities, and as a poison is second to 

 none in its subtle and profound effect upon the bodily 

 tissues. The chemical nature of ethylic alcohol cannot be 

 lost in the smallest quantity, but must in every qualitative 

 analysis remain the same, so long as by progressive division 

 its substance as such still exists, even down to the last 

 molecule. 



In brief, let us then remember that alcohol acts as a true 

 poison, whether we breathe in its vapor, swallow the liquid 

 in dilute form, or have it injected into the cellular tissue 

 by means of a hypodermic needle. It does not alter the 

 inherent poisonous property of alcohol because when taken 



