\'OL. XXIII. No. 2. J 



I'OPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



n 



And how can the amvlaccous foods — the fats, 

 starches and sugars — be brought into a condition to 

 l)e burnt up so that the body can maintain its heat? 

 Tlie answer is. they tiiiist all be convefted into 

 blood. Here is the process, briefly stated: Food 

 is first taken into the mouth and mixed with the 

 saliva during mastication. It is then passed down 

 the gullet into the stomach, where it is dis.solved by 

 I he gastric juice and converted into a liquid called 

 I liyme. When properly chymified it is passed 

 tlirough the pylorus into the duodenum, a name 

 applied to the first twelve inches of the intestinal 

 (anal. Here it receives bile from the liver, and 

 pancreatic juice from the pancreas, and is converted 

 into a milky liquid called chvle. It is then taken up 

 by numerous little vessels called absorbents and 

 conveyed in the venous current of the blood, as it 

 is passing on its way from all parts of the bodv to 

 the heart. It enters the heart at the right auricle, 

 which contracts and forces its contents down into a 

 lower chamber called the riglit ventricle, from which 

 it is forced into the pulmonary arteries and conveved 

 to the lungs. Here it comes into contact with the 

 ]Hiritying and revivifying oxygen of the air, is con- 

 verted into red or arterial blood, and fitted to supply 

 tlie material which the body requires to repair the 

 waste continually going on in all its tissues. It is 

 now conveyed from the lungs to the heart again, 

 entering the left auricle, which, contracting, forces 

 the new-made blood into the left ventricle, from 

 w liich it is conveyed by the arteries to every part of 

 I he human system. Every organ and every struc- 

 ture of the body absorbs from the blood exactlv that 

 material which it requires, and so the body is con- 

 stantly supplied with fresh material and the old 

 worn-out matter is carried away in the venous cur- 

 nnt of the blood to be eliminated from the s^'stem. 

 It is by this process only that the living temple can 

 1)0 rebuilt and warmed. Food must be converted 

 into blood before it can be used for the sustenance 

 of the body. It will prevent serious mistakes and 

 ilolusion to remember distinctly that the appropria- 

 tion of food from the blood is the exclusive fountain 

 of the vital forces. Health and life depend abso- 

 lutely on the conversion of food into blood and its 

 further conversion from blood into the various sub- 

 stances of which the body is eomposcd. 



Bearing this fact in mind, we shall be prepared to 

 sec clearly that any substance that cannot be con- 

 verted into blood and become part of the body is not 

 a true food. Carbonate of lime, chloride of sodium 

 (common salt) are constituent parts of the blood 

 and become part of the substance of the body. 

 They are therefore foods. Arsenic and strychnia 

 are not constituent parts of the blood or any part ot 

 the body, and therefore they are not foods. 



Into this latter class of substances must be placed 

 the agentalcohol, with which we are nowconcerned. 

 Just as much as arsenic or strychnia it is a foreign 

 substance, which cannot be converted into any part 

 of the body or blootl. 



Alcohol is a siiJisiance foreiyu to the human system. 



For this first clear verdict of science I propose to 

 quote high medical authority. 



Justus Von Liebeg, (Letters on Chemistry) : 

 "Beer, wine, spirits, etc., furnish no element capa- 

 ble of entering into the composition of the blood, 

 muscular fibre, or any part which is the seat of the 

 vital principle." 



Prof. Von Moleschott : "Alcohol does not effect 

 anv direct restitution nor deserve the name of an 

 alimentary principle." 



Dr. Edward Smith, V. R. S. : "Alcohol is not 

 true food, and it neither warms nor sustains the 

 body by the elements of which it is composed." 



Dr. T. K. Chambers, (Renewal of Life) : "It is 

 ■clear that we must cease to regard alcohol as in anv 



sense an aliment, inasmuch as it goes out as it goes 

 in, and does not, so far as we know, leave any of 

 its substance behind i,t." 



Dr. Markham (British Medical Journal. 1861) : 

 "It is to all intents a foreign agent, which the body 

 gets rid of as soon as possible. * • * Part, and 

 probably the whole, of it escapes from the body, and 

 none of it, so far as we know, is assimilated or 

 serves for the purposes of nutrition. It is therefore 

 not a food, in the eye of science." 



If, therefore, alcohol is a substance entirely for- 

 eign to the human body, and can never become a 

 constituent part of it, the idea of nourishing or 

 building up the body with it is a mere delusion. 

 Various parts of the body require starch, sugar, lime, 

 iron, but no part ever requires alcohol. To dream 

 of building up the body with alcohol is as unscien- 

 tific and irrational as to attempt to make bread with 

 sand or to build a brick house with smoke. 



.The testimony of science, deduced from the most 

 careful observation and experiment, warrants the 

 further proposition that 



The sole and unvaried action of alcohol in the 

 human system is that of a disturber and destroyer. 



There is no structure in the body that it does 

 not injure. It alters the chemical composition of 

 the blood and other fluids, destroying the blood 

 corpuscles and precipitating the pepsin of the 

 gastric juice ; it inflames every membrane, irritates 

 every tissue, deadens nervous filament and kills 

 molecular life. It interferes with the regular and 

 healthy performance of every function, its presence 

 everywhere in the system causing excitement and 

 necessitating extra work in every organ for its ex- 

 pulsion from the body. It passes out of the system 

 as it went in, unchanged, its passage through caus- 

 ing that wasteful expenditure of power by those 

 organs that are engaged in expelling it. which is 

 sometimes so fatally mistaken for increased strength. 

 Bv its influence on the organs of nutrition it pre- 

 vents the creation of blood and the assimilation of 

 food, and also retains in the body the waste matter 

 that nature could eliminate : that is to say, it arrests 

 that vital metamorphosis on which the health and 

 vigor of the body entirely depends. 



In i86o the distinguished physiologists Tallemand 

 and Ferrin and the chemist Duray carried on a 

 series of careful experiments, with admirable appa- 

 ratus, on men and dogs, the details of which are 

 given in the great French work, "On the Role of 

 .\lcohol and Other Aniesthetics in the Organism." 

 The conclusion at which they arrive is thus ex- 

 pressed: "Facts establish, from a physiological 

 point of view, a line of demarcation between alcohol 

 and foods. These latter restore the forces without 

 the organism betraying, by disturbed function or by 

 outward agitation, the labor of repair, which is 

 accoiuplished silently in the woof of the tissues. 

 Alcohol, on the other hand, immediately provokes, 

 even in a moderate do.se. an excitement which ex- 

 tends through the entire economy." 



Dr. Chambers: "On the whole, we may conclude 

 that the effect of continued small doses of alcohol is 

 to diminish vital metamorphosis, to make it irregu- 

 lar, and to induce in healthy people the necessity 

 for crises of evacuation." 



Dr. Edward Smith: "Since alcohol in every 

 form acts as a disturbing agent in health, its use 

 must tend to injury." 



Dr. C. B. Williams, in his Principles of Medicine, 

 says it "predisposes to attacks of fever and many 

 other diseases, and causes manv a victim to sink 

 after accidents and operations which would have 

 been trifling affairs in more sober subjects." 



Liebig, referring to the poorly-clad laborer, says : 

 "Spirits, by their action on the nerves, enable him 

 to make up the deficient power at the expense of 



his body — to consume today that quantity which 

 ought naturally to have been employed a day later. 

 He draws, so to speak, a bill on his health, which 

 must alw.ays be renewed, because, for want of means, 

 he cannot take it up; he consuines his capital in- 

 stead of his interest, and the result is the inevitable 

 bankruptcy of his body." 



The conclusions of science may be briefly sum- 

 marized : Alcohol never assists assimilation or the 

 building up of the body, like food ; it never warms, 

 like oil or sugar; it never aids circulation, like 

 water; it never promotes healthy elimination, like 

 exercise; it never restores, like rest and sleep. On 

 the other hand, it injures and destroys structure, 

 interferes with function, retards digestion, and pre- 

 vents assimilation and elimination, diminishing the 

 normal amount of power generated in the body and 

 wasting its forces for its own expulsion. On enter- 

 ing the stomach, it undergoes none of the processes 

 to which food is subjected, but flies immediately to 

 the nervous centres and the brain, and by deadening 

 the nervous sensations induces the delusive feelings 

 of warmth or strength, which are really the lessened 

 sensations of cold or fatigue. It is probably quite 

 accurate to say that any supposed benefits attributed 

 to alcohol are hypothetical, while its injurious 

 effects are matters of .scientific demonstration. LTn- 

 questionably, in the human system, nature treats it 

 as an intruder and an enemy, and nature will not 

 accommodate herself either to our ignorance or 

 our prejudices. 



lOrij^iniii in Tlic Popular Science Neivs.\ 

 THE VITAL SPARK: WHAT IS IT.? 



nv IVI. J. GASTON. 



What is the vital spark which animates or- 

 ganic life.' The origin of vitality is as truly one of 

 Nature's dark secrets, utterly hidden from the eve of 

 the scientific man of today, as from the perceptions 

 of the earnest inquirers of four thousand years ago. 



There is more known of the method of its mani- 

 festations and growth than they knew, but whether 

 a correlative, or a substantive of heat, light or elec- 

 tricity, whether measurable or immeasurable, there 

 is one thing pretty well ascertained, and that is that 

 there is a fixed quantity apportioned to things and 

 to manl-ind, and that vitality is an individual allot- 

 ment, a .separate characteristic, so to speak, be- 

 stowed upon each individual member of the organic 

 creation, no two things of the same variety and ge- 

 nus receiving the same quantity. 



The albuminous elementary matter which forms 

 the cells and the body substance of protozoa, is so sim- 

 ilar in structure to the vescicles of which plants are 

 composed, and which is a cell, followed by a multi- 

 plication of cells of mucilaginous matter, so great 

 is the resemblance of each substance to each, that it 

 is with the greatest difficulty that it can be deter- 

 mined which is plant and whicli is animal. To this 

 day it is a matter of doubt wb.ether it is scientifically 

 correct to classify the sponge with the animal or the 

 vegetable kingdom. It is from the action of the 

 vitalizing principle, and in consequence of deductions 

 drawn from rational indications, that this organism 

 is classed as an animal at all. It is the lowest form 

 of animal life, gelatine supported bv horny fila- 

 ments, or by chance, by a calcareous or silicious 

 skeleton framework, with less individuality than the 

 monad. 



While the sponge itself presents a distinct form, 

 to our view, there is no means of detecting the 

 builders of the.se subinanne structures. The.se frag- 

 ile Polypi, which construct the large as also the 

 smallest of the sponge tribe, are such delicate tissues 

 as to be imperceptible, but shrunk into the'r holes 

 they build the wonderful structures which reveal 



