FOODS AND THEIR PHYSIOLOGICAL VALUE. 323 



cease as soon as the food has passed the tongue. Even 

 the hundred and one varieties of flavors of our fruits, and the 

 artificial flavors of our desserts share the same fate. Salt, 

 of course, which is sometimes viewed as a seasoning sub- 

 stance figures as a food, but the peppers, or spices, and the 

 mustards are foods in no sense. We derive no nourishment 

 from them, and they serve merely to give gist to the taste, 

 and sometimes by their stimulating action to arouse the 

 often too dormant digestive organs. To this same class 

 belong the teas and coffees. These now almost universal 

 drinks owe their popularity to peculiar organic compounds 

 called theine and caffeine, respectively, which, while of no 

 nutritive value, have a slight stimulating effect. In addition 

 to this a cup of hot tea or coffee during meal time is fre- 

 quently quite potent to arouse the stomach to secretion, a 

 result which might, however, be equally well brought about 

 by drinking a glass of hot water. The rather baneful 

 effects which follow from an excessive use of these are too 

 well known to need mention here. 



ALCOHOL. 



Almost .as far back as history carries us, man has more 

 or less generally added alcohol in some of its forms to the 

 articles of his daily consumption,. and even at this present 

 day the wines and beers are in many places regular dishes 

 at the table, and the question naturally arises, what the nu- 

 tritive value of this substance is. Alcohol is, of course, 

 never taken in its pure form, but in varying grades of dilu- 

 tion as given in the table below: 



Rums and whiskies from 60 to 80 per cent. 

 Brandies " 40 to 60 " 



Wines ranging from 40 down to 5 per cent. 

 Beers " " 4 " i 



Ordinary commercial alcohol is a colorless liquid of a 

 peculiar penetrating odor and of a very inflammable nature. 

 It is used in the arts very extensively as a solvent for in- 

 iminerable substances, and in the sciences it is used in 



