128 



Alcohol — is it a Food. 



substance or ferment into alcohol and carbonic acid, andtbat 

 it is the most important constitutent in all liquids classed 

 as intoxicating. It matters not whether they be the 

 lightest fermented liquors or the strongest distilled spirits, 

 they all owe their excitant properties to the alcohol which 

 they contain in quantities varying from two to fifty-five 

 parts in one-hundred by volume. These liquids, if imbibed 

 in quantities proportional to the amount of alcohol con- 

 tained in them, would produce precisely similar effects were 

 not to the properties of the alcohol added those of the other 

 substances with which it is combined. Thus champagne 

 is doubly stimulating from the free carbonic acid gas which 

 it contains; port possesses astringeucy which it owes to 

 its tannic acid ; gin the power of affecting the kidneys, 

 due to its juniper; whiskey is regarded as slightly aperient, 

 while brandy is believed to produce a contrary effect. Fer- 

 mented liquors containing hops are held to possess tonic pro- 

 perties, while the sugars, starchy matters and albumenoid 

 substances which they contain are undoubtedly, so far as 

 they go, true nutrients. Such differences as these are 

 however secondary and of comparatively little importance. 

 The primary constitutional effects produced by different 

 liquors depend upon the alcohol, are essentially the same 

 in all cases, and proportional to the amount contained in 

 any given volume. The idea that pure alcohol, when 

 properly diluted, is poisonous, or that its properties are 

 materially altered by the other substances with which in 

 wines and spirits it is blended, and which give to thes e 

 liquors their delicate odors and fine flavors, is entirely 

 wrong. If some liquors are especially deleterious, it is 

 not because the alcohol in them is ranker, but it is due to 

 the fact that the fusel oil or other impurities have not 

 been properly separated from them, or that they have been 

 purposely adulterated. Wines and distilled liquors are 

 mellowed and improved by age, but the process depends 



