THE METABOLISM OF ALCOHOL 301 



is a certain proportion of carbohydrate and fat being burned, and alcohol 

 is ingested, it will be burned in preference to either up to about forty 

 per cent of the total caloric expenditure of the body, and the ratio of 

 carbohydrate to fat displaced in the combustion will be greater than the 

 ratio of carbohydrate to fat previously being burned (Mellanby(e), 1919). 



Alcohol and Muscular Work 



While experiments have definitely proven that alcohol is burned in 

 the body, and that it displaces carbohydrate and fat, but not protein, yet 

 whether the potential energy of alcohol can be changed into the kinetic 

 energy of muscular work in the body is still a matter of conjecture (At- 

 water and Benedict, 1902; Chauveau(a-) (6), 1901). Experimental evi- 

 dence is not at all conclusive, although it is generally believed probable, in 

 the absence of evidence to the contrary, that alcohol can be converted into 

 muscular energy. It is true that when alcohol is added to the diet of a 

 person doing heavy muscular work, the work is not so efficiently nor so 

 easily done (Van Hoogenhuyse and Xieuwenhuyse, 1913; Durig(a), 

 1906). 



Definite and rather startling feats of endurance can be performed after 

 alcohol is taken ; thus one can hold the breath a longer time after taking 

 alcohol than before, or one can hold on a bar longer or lift one's weight 

 from the floor oftener at a given rate, etc. (McKenzie and Hill, 1910). A 

 patient has been observed to be able to hold his breath fifty-three seconds 

 before and one hundred and five seconds after alcohol (L. Higgins(fr), 

 1917). This is probably to be explained on the basis of the dulling of 

 the nervous centers by alcohol so that the brain does not react to fatigue 

 so readily as normally, and it is not due to the energy yielded from the 

 alcohol. But the fact stands out that alcohol gives one the power to per- 

 form certain feats of endurance of short duration. 



Alcohol in Diabetes 



Alcohol has been recommended in certain diseases, notably in diabetes. 

 The diabetic person apparently can utilize alcohol much as the normal 

 person, and can obtain a food value from it. Alcohol does not, however, 

 act as an antiketogenie agent, i.e., in being burned, it does not act to pre- 

 vent the formation of the acetone bodies as do carbohydrates (Higgins, 

 Peabody and Fitz, 1916). However, if a diabetic has a change made in 

 his diet so that a given amount of fat is substituted by an isodynamic 

 quantity of alcohol, less acetone bodies will be formed in the body; i.e., 

 alcohol does not form acetone bodies in its intermediary metabolism (Bene- 

 dict and Torok, 1906). 



