132 



Alcohol — is it a Food. 



Among his inferences, deduced from the results of hundreds 

 of experiments which he conducted upon St. Martin, the 

 thirteenth is that the use of ardent spirits always pro- 

 duces disease of the stomach if persevered in." ^ Now the 

 term ^disease' is somewhat vague, but whether we accept 

 Beaumont's statement or not, we need not stop to argue 

 that digestion and assimilation can never proceed to advan- 

 tage if the functions of the stomach be interfered with, 

 even if it be not actually diseased. But supposing that 

 alcohol is so taken as not even to interfere with the process 

 of stomach digestion there is every reason for believing 

 that it not only fails to act as an alimentary principle, but 

 that it seriouslj^ interferes with the assimilation of those 

 true nutrients which should constitute our food. Flint, 

 in his Physiology of Man ^ says: "alcohol diminishes the 

 activity of nutrition. If it be long continued the assimihv 

 tive powers of the system become so weakened that the 

 proper quantity of food cannot be appropriated, and alcohol 

 is craved to supply a self-engendered want." ^ Again he 

 says: "the effects of its continued use, conjoined with 

 insufficient nourishment, show that it cannot take the 

 place of assimilable matter. These effects are too well 

 known to the physician, particularly in hospital practice, 

 to need further comment."^ 



It must be admitted, however, that such statements rest 

 more upon the general results gained from experience than 

 upon absolute experimental proof, and that it is difficult to 

 judge accurately of the rapidity and nature of the repa- 

 rative processes which are going on within the body, so 

 that while we may entertain no doubt as to the influence 

 of alcohol upon them, we may not find it easy to demonstrate 



' Ibid, p. 300. 



' Flint, Physiology of Man, New York, 1873, vol. ii, p. 108. 

 3 Ibid, p. 109. 



