FOOD AND DRINK 107 



half alcohol. Alcohol is also found in all the wines and malt 

 liquors (beer, ale, and porter) in varying proportions. The 

 juices of ripe, sweet fruits will, at seventy degrees Fahren- 

 heit, begin spontaneously to " work " or ferment ; also wheat 

 and other starch-grains, when sprouting, will have their starch 

 changed into sugar, and this, in like manner, will undergo 

 fermentation alcohol being one of the results of this action 

 in both cases. Thus this fermentation, in changing barley, 

 grapes, and apples, into beer, wine, and cider, respectively, 

 transforms valuable foods into most seductive poisons. 



43. Properties of Alcohol. Alcohol is a clear, colorless, 

 volatile, and inflammable liquid of penetrating odor and 

 burning taste. It is lighter than water. As it cannot be 

 frozen, it is used in thermometers for taking low or exceedingly 

 cold temperatures. It is also used in spirit levels. It burns 

 with a pale, bluish flame, without smoke, and with intense 

 heat ; hence its use in the spirit-lamp. 



44. Is Alcohol Food? Some authorities class alcohol among 

 the food substances. Chemically it is allied to the sugars, but 

 the effect of alcohol within the body is very unlike that of the 

 sugars. The latter are nourishing, while the former tends to 

 impair nutrition. It was on the mistaken theory that alcohol 

 had sustaining power, that for two hundred years the armies 

 and navies of certain countries were supplied with rations of 

 rum or some other alcoholic drink, under the name of "grog." 

 During recent years, a systematic inquiry has been made to 

 discover whether the grog-ration was really serviceable or the 

 reverse. Tests have been tried upon considerable bodies of 

 men, under military discipline, by withdrawing that ration; 

 comparisons have been made at home and abroad, in hot cli- 

 mates and in cold, in active service and at rest. The results 

 of these observations have, without exception, been favorable to 

 the non-use of spirits. The proportion of ill-health, the num- 

 ber of sick days, and the incapacity for work have invariably 

 been greater among the men to whom the spirit-ration has been 



48. What are the properties of alcohol ? 

 44. What can you say of alcohol as a food f 



