246 UNCONSCIOUS NERVOUS OPERATIONS 



an alcoholic drink, not requiring digestion, will supply 

 the necessary energy to sustain life until the diseased 

 organs have time to regain the power to assimilate better 

 food. But to the healthy body there is no need of such a 

 whip and spur, and the stimulus of alcohol upon the secre- 

 tions of the digestive tract, frequently applied, is likely to 

 result in overstimulation of the organs, and consequent 

 weakness, with a long train of evils to follow. 



As a food, alcohol is of little value compared with other 

 substances. It is more expensive than almost anything 

 else that is ever used as food, and cannot by itself sustain 

 life ; for, while it does generate a certain amount of energy, 

 the body is really feeding upon the stored-up proteids, 

 and the cost of the few spoonfuls of whisky or brandy, or 

 the quart of beer which may perhaps be drunk without 

 immediate bad effects, would buy of wholesome bread and 

 meat enough to produce in the body many times the 

 amount of normal force which the alcohol imparts. 



358. Alcohol as a Poison. The beneficent use of alcoholic 

 drink seems to be wholly confined to its application as a 

 medicine to diseased conditions of the system, and with 

 that sort of use we have here nothing to do. It has been 

 demonstrated that a healthy man may consume drink, in 

 twenty-four hours, which contains from two to two and a 

 half ounces of alcohol without apparent injury, when all 

 circumstances are as favorable as possible for the perfect 

 action of all the bodily organs. But it by no means fol- 

 lows that it would be equally safe for a man in the varying 

 and uncertain conditions of ordinary life to incur the risk 

 of disturbing the nice balance of the physical adjustment 

 upon which vigorous health depends by introducing into 

 his organism an element which may, and more likely than 

 not will, disorder the action of some one or more of the 



