ALCOHOL. 187 



become so weakened that the proper quantity of food cannot he appropriated, and alcohol 

 is craved to supply a self-engendered want. The organism may, in many instances, be 

 restored to its physiological condition by discontinuing the use of alcohol ; but it is gen- 

 erally some time before the nutritive powers become active, and alcohol, meanwhile, 

 seems absolutely necessary to existence. 



Under ordinary conditions, when the organism can be adequately supplied with food, 

 alcohol is undoubtedly injurious. When the quantity of food is insufficient, alcohol may 

 supply the want for a time and temporarily restore the powers of the body^ but the 

 effects of its continued use, conjoined with insufficient nourishment, show that it can- 

 not take the place of assimilable matter. These effects are too well known to the 

 physician, particularly in hospital-practice, to need farther comment. Notwithstand- 

 ing these undoubted physiological facts, alcohol, in some form, is used by almost every 

 people on the face of the earth, civilized or savage. Whether this be in order to 

 meet some want occasionally felt by and peculiar to the human organism, is a ques- 

 tion upon which physiologists have found it impossible to agree. That alcohol, at 

 certain times, taken in moderation, soothes and tranquillizes the nervous system and 

 relieves exhaustion dependent upon unusually severe mental or physical exertion, cannot 

 be doubted. It is by far too material a view to take of existence, to suppose that the 

 highest condition of man is that in which the functions, possessed in common with the 

 lower animals, are most perfectly performed. Inasmuch as temporary insufficiency of 

 food, great exhaustion of the nervous system, and various conditions in which alcohol 

 seems to be useful, must of necessity often occur, it is hardly proper that this agent 

 should be utterly condemned ; but it is the article, par excellence, which is liable to abuse, 

 and the effects of which on the mind and body, when taken constantly in excess, are 

 most serious. 



Although alcohol imparts a genial warmth when the system is suffering from ex- 

 cessive cold, it is not proven that it enables men to endure a very low temperature for a 

 great length of time. This end can be effectually accomplished only by an increased 

 quantity of food. The testimony of Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, is very strong upon 

 this point. He says : " While fresh animal food, and especially fat, is absolutely essen- 

 tial to the inhabitants and travellers in Arctic countries, alcohol is, in almost any shape, 

 not only completely useless but positively injurious. . . . Circumstances may occur 

 under which its administration seems necessary; such, for instance, as great pros- 

 tration from long-continued exposure and exertion, or from getting wet; but then it 

 should be avoided, if possible, for the succeeding reaction is always to be dreaded ; and, 

 if a place of safety is not near at hand, the immediate danger is only temporarily 

 guarded against, and becomes, finally, greatly augmented by reason of decreased vitality. 

 If given at all, it should be in very small quantities frequently repeated, and continued 

 until a place of safety is reached. I have known the most unpleasant consequences to 

 result from the injudicious use of whiskey for the purpose of temporary stimulation, 

 and have also known strong able-bodied men to have become utterly incapable of resist- 

 ing cold in consequence of the long-continued use of alcoholic drinks." 



It is not demonstrated that alcohol increases the capacity to endure severe and pro- 

 tracted bodily exertion. Its influence as a therapeutic agent, in promoting assimilation 

 in certain conditions of defective nutrition, in relieving shock and nervous exhaustion, in 

 sustaining the powers of life in acute diseases characterized by rapid emaciation and 

 abnormally active disassimilation, etc., is undoubted; but the consideration of these 

 questions does not belong to physiology. 



Coffee. 



Coffee is an article consumed daily by many millions of human beings in all quarters 

 of the globe. In armies it has been found almost indispensable, enabling men on moderate 

 rations to perform an amount of labor which would otherwise be impossible. After 



