382 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



scientific order, and has stated that the sooner scientific order and 

 method are introduced the better. 



Alcohol is frequently used as a flavor for food. Pure alcohol itself 

 is never taken, but the various alcoholic beverages are prized on account 

 of their various flavors. There is no more powerful stimulant to the 

 flow of the gastric juice than alcohol. Introduced directly into the 

 small intestine or even into the rectum, alcohol may produce a flow of 

 gastric juice. However, it has been shown that a single glass of wine 

 containing between five and ten per cent, of alcohol is as effective as a 

 stomachic as when much larger quantities are ingested. Indeed there 

 can be no doubt that the healthy stomach needs no such stomachic 

 whatever. This is known, because the materials of which ordinary food 

 consists are perfectly digested and perfectly absorbed without recourse 

 to anything beyond the ordinary flavors of the table. 



In cases where there is no appetite, it may be that a single glass of 

 wine may help the digestion of food. So Pawlow describes that when 

 he was convalescent from a fever and could digest nothing, a glass of 

 sherry brought about an initial flow of his gastric juice and with its aid 

 digestion of the food was possible. It is stated that the value of a 

 liqueur which is taken with after-dinner coffee, lies merely in its irri- 

 tant action upon the wall of the stomach — an action which promotes a 

 discharge of material from the probably too weU-filled stomach of the 

 individual who has been dining. 



Alcohol is also a nutrient material. The publication by Atwater 

 and Benedict showing that alcohol could replace other foodstuffs in 

 nutrition, hd Mr. Dooley to remark that his saloon was really a restau- 

 rant. In normal nutrition the cells of the body are provided with fuel 

 by fat or by sugar. When protein is given, most of it is converted into 

 fat or into sugar within the organism. So, in the ultimate analysis, it 

 is found that the motions of the cells, which motions constitute life, are 

 maintained at the expense of fat and carbohydrates. When these are 

 oxidized, energy is liberated which impels to motion the particles of 

 protoplasm, and these motions constitute the machinery of life. 



Atwater and Benedict gave a man ordinary food for thirteen days. 

 The food contained 2,496 calories, and the man destroyed materials 

 within himself, so that he daily produced 2,221 calories. On this diet, 

 he retained within his body 33.7 grams of fat daily. Then the same 

 man was given a diet for ten days which had the same number of 

 calories as before, but only 1,996 of these were in the ordinary food 

 materials, whereas 600 calories were in alcohol. This quantity of alco- 

 hol is what would be found in a bottle of claret. The alcohol was given 

 in six small doses daily. The alcohol was almost completely burned, 

 only a small quantity appearing in the urine and breath. The heat 

 production during this second period, amounted to 2,221 calories daily 



