166 EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON THE HUMAN BODY. 



results of practical tests on a large scale elsewhere coincide with 

 those of general observation in implying that the use of any con- 

 siderable quantity of alcoholic beverages as part of the diet for 

 muscular labor is generally of doubtful value and often positively 

 injurious. 



In closing the consideration of the question " Is alcohol food ?" 

 Prof. Atwater says : " If I may be permitted the expression of a 

 personal opinion it is that people in health, and especially young 

 people, act most wisely in abstaining from alcoholic beverages, but 

 I cannot believe that the cause of temperance in general, or the 

 welfare of the individual, is promoted by basing the physiologic 

 argument against the use of alcohol on anything more or less than 

 attested fact." 



If, with the results of these experiments in mind, we now turn 

 back to the definition of food, we shall see that alcohol is a food. 

 We have dwelt to a considerable extent upon this subject for the 

 reason that many of the text-books used in the grammar and high- 

 schools of the country deal with the effects of alcohol upon the 

 human body by reason of laws which have been enacted requiring 

 them so to do. Unfortunately, many of these books do not repre- 

 sent the physiologic facts as we believe them to be. The ten- 

 dency of these books, to say the least, is to teach that alcohol is 

 not a food, but a poison. That it is a food we think has been 

 abundantly proved ; that it is a poison is also true, but whether it 

 is the one or the other depends upon the amount taken. There 

 are many things which, in certain quantities, are not only not 

 harmful, but are absolutely essential. The process of stomach 

 digestion requires that the gastric juice should contain hydrochloric 

 acid, and normally this is present to the amount of 0.2 per cent., 

 and yet given in a sufficiently large quantity it would produce 

 death. 



The experiments of Prof. Atwater and his colleagues mark a 

 new era in the history of this most important subject, the effect 

 of alcohol upon the human body ; and in all future discussions 

 arguments should not be based upon the experiments which pre- 

 ceded theirs, unless they were conducted with similar precaution*. 



