164 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE HUMAN BODY. 



furnish materials for the growth and repair of the tissues and fluids 

 of the body and to yield energy for maintaining the healthful 

 bodily temperature and for its muscular work. The proteids in 

 the main perform the former function, and while they also yield 

 energy, yet this is principally due to the fats and carbohydrates. 

 Alcohol, containing no nitrogen, is not a tissue builder, its value to 

 the body, therefore, if it possesses any, must be that of a fuel, sup- 

 plying energy. Food serves as fuel by being oxidized in the body ; 

 in this oxidation potential energy becomes kinetic; part of this 

 kinetic energy appears as heat and another part as muscular work. 

 Besides, in supplying energy the foods protect the body from con- 

 sumption, for energy must be produced, and if there is nothing else 

 to produce it from, the body tissues must undergo oxidation. The 

 question, then, which Prof. Atwater proposed to settle was : " Is the 

 energy of alcohol transformed like that of ordinary food materials ?" 



In determining this question a respiration calorimeter was used ; 

 this served to measure the materials received and given off from 

 the body, including the products of respiration, and also to measure 

 the heat given off by the body. 



In conducting the experiments pure ethyl alcohol was used, 

 generally to the amount of two and one-half ounces a day, about 

 as much as would be contained in a bottle of wine with 10 per 

 cent, alcohol, or three or four glasses (6 or 8 ounces) of whisky. 

 In some of the experiments whisky or brandy was used. The 

 alcohol given was divided into six doses three given with meals 

 and three between meals the object being to avoid any special 

 influence of the alcohol upon the nerves, and thus test its action as 

 food under normal bodily conditions. 



Without dwelling further upon the experiments we will quote 

 the results : 



1. Alcohol in moderate amounts tended to very slightly increase 

 the digestibility of the protein, but did not materially alter the 

 digestibility of the other nutrients. While this is the statistical 

 result of these experiments, the extent to which it would be true 

 in general experience is by no means certain. 



2. In the average of the experiments at least 98 per cent, of the 

 alcohol taken was actually oxidized in the body. Other experi- 

 ments show that in ordinary diet about 98 per cent, of the carbo- 

 hydrates, 95 per cent, of the fats, and 93 per cent, of the protein 

 are burned in the body. Accordingly, the alcohol is more com- 

 pletely oxidized than are the nutrients of an ordinary mixed diet. 



3. The law of the conservation of energy obtained with the 

 alcohol diet as with the ordinary diet. The potential energy of the 

 alcohol oxidized in the body was transformed completely into kinetic 

 energy and appeared either as heat or as muscular work, or both. 

 To this extent, at any rate, it was used like the energy of the pro- 

 tein, fats, and carbohydrates of the food. 



