152 ALIMENTATION 



place of assimilable matters. These effects are too well known to the 

 physician, particularly in hospital-practice, to need further comment. 

 Notwithstanding these undoubted physiological facts, alcohol, in some 

 form, is used by almost every people on the face of the earth, civilized 

 or savage. Whether this be in order to meet some want occasionally 

 felt by and peculiar to the human organism, is a question on which 

 physiologists have found it impossible to agree. That alcohol, at certain 

 times, taken in moderation, soothes and tranquillizes the nervous system 

 and relieves exhaustion dependent on unusually severe mental or physical 

 exertion, can not be doubted. It is by far too material a view to take of 

 existence, to suppose that the highest condition of man is that in which 

 the functions, possessed in common with the lower animals, are perfectly 

 performed. Inasmuch as temporary insufficiency of food, great exhaus- 

 tion of the nervous system, and various conditions in which alcohol 

 seems to be useful, must of necessity often occur, it is hardly proper 

 that this agent should be absolutely condemned ; but it is the article, 

 par excellence, which is liable to abuse ; and its effects on the mind and 

 body, when habitually taken in excess, are most serious. 



Although alcohol imparts a certain warmth when the system is 

 suffering from excessive cold, it is not proved that it enables men to 

 endure a very low temperature for a great length of time. This end 

 can be effectually attained only by an increased quantity of food. 

 The testimony of Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, is very strong upon 

 this point. He says : " While fresh animal food, and especially fat, is 

 absolutely essential to the inhabitants and travellers in Arctic countries, 

 alcohol is, in almost any shape, not only completely useless but positively 

 injurious. ... Circumstances may occur under which its administra- 

 tion seems necessary ; such, for instance, as great prostration from 

 long-continued exposure and exertion, or from getting wet ; but then it 

 should be avoided, if possible, for the succeeding reaction is always to be 

 dreaded ; and, if a place of safety is not near at hand, the immediate 

 danger is only temporarily guarded against, and becomes, finally, greatly 

 augmented by reason of decreased vitality. If given at all, it should be 

 in very small quantities frequently repeated, and continued until a place 

 of safety is reached. I have known the most unpleasant consequences 

 to result from the injudicious use of whiskey for the purpose of tempo- 

 rary stimulation, and have also known strong able-bodied men to have 

 become utterly incapable of resisting cold in consequence of the long- 

 continued use of alcoholic drinks." In a paper by General Greely 

 (1887) is the following, which confirms the results of the experience of 

 Hayes : " It seems to me to follow from these Arctic experiences that 

 the regular use of spirits, even in moderation, under conditions of great 



