358 AN AMERICA X TEXT- BO OK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



sidered a true food-stuff, capable of replacing a corresponding amount of fats 

 or of carbohydrates in the daily diet. The evidence is partly for and partly 

 againsl such a use of alcohol. A number of observers' contend 

 that when the body is brought into a condition of nitrogenous equilib- 

 rium on a given diet of proteids, hits, and carbohydrates, and a certain pro- 

 portion of the carbohydrates or fats is then replaced by an isodynamic 

 amount of alcohol — that is, by an amount of alcohol that on combustion would 

 yield the same amount of heat — the body does not remain in nitrogenous equi- 

 librium, but, on the contrary, loses in nitrogen, thus indicating that the oxida- 

 tion of alcohol in the body does not protect the proteid from consumption as 

 in the case of the non-nitrogenous food-stuffs, fats, and carbohydrates. 

 Miura, for example, brought himself into a condition of nitrogen equilibrium 

 upon a mixed diet. Then for a certain period a portion of the carbohydrates 

 was omitted from the diet and its place substituted by an isodynamic amount 

 of alcohol. The result was a loss of proteid from the body, showing that the 

 alcohol had not protected the proteid tissue as it should have done if it acts 

 as a food. In a third period the old diet was resumed, and after nitrogen 

 equilibrium had again been established the same proportion of carbohydrate 

 was omitted from the diet, but alcohol was not substituted. When the diet 

 was poor in proteid, it was found that less proteid was lost from the body when 

 the alcohol was omitted than when it was used, indicating that, so far from 

 protecting the proteid of the body by its oxidation, the alcohol exercised a 

 directly injurious effect upon proteid-consumption. Atwater, 2 on the con- 

 trary, as the result of elaborate experiments in which the heat production was 

 determined calorimetrically and the body metabolism was determined also 

 from an examination of the excreta, finds that alcohol, when substituted for 

 the non-nitrogenous food-stuffs, does protect the proteid of the body from 

 consumption just as the fats and carbohydrates do, and is, therefore, entitled 

 scientifically to the designation of a food-stuff. So also Geppert and Zuntz 

 found that alcohol in small doses caused no increase in the oxygen consumed, 

 in spite of the fact that it was burnt in the body; the supposition in this 

 case was that the burning of the alcohol saved some of the body material from 

 consumption. Numerous other researches might be quoted to show that the 

 effect of moderate quantities of alcohol upon body-metabolism is not yet satis- 

 factorily understood. Before making any positive statements as to the details 

 of its action it is wise, therefore, to wait until reliable experimental results 

 have accumulated. The specific action of alcohol on the heart, stomach, and 

 other organs has been investigated more or less completely, but the literature 

 is too greaf and the results are too uncertain to permit any extended 

 resume to be given here. When alcohol is taken in excess it produces the 

 familiar symptoms of intoxication, which may pass subsequently into a con- 

 dition of stupor or even death, provided the quantity taken is sufficiently 



1 Zefochrift f. Uin. Medicin, 1892, Bel. xx. 8. 1M7. See also Rosemann : Archiv fur die ges- 

 ammte Physiologic, 1899, Bd. 77, S. 40."), for references. 



2 American Journal of Physiology, 1900, vol. 3, p. xii. 



