Alcohol — is it a Food. 



135 



Again, it is urged, and with some show of reason, doubt- 

 less, that if alcohol is not a direct tissue-forming food, it 

 may at least retard tissue change and diminish ihe wear 

 and tear of the system. I say with some show of reason, 

 for there is no doubt that, under certaia circumstances, 

 when alcohol is imbibed, either less food is required, or 

 the body gains in weight while the excretions diminish. 

 The experiments conducted by Dr. Hammond^ prove tliis. 

 But the question then arises, why is less food required, 

 wh}' are the excretions diminished ? Surely alcohol cannot 

 create force. Is not the system then debilitated and un- 

 fitted for doing its ordinary amount of work, and is not 

 this the reason why it requires less food to support it ? 

 An engine run at tifty strokes a minute needs less fuel, 

 but furnishes less power than if the number of strokes be 

 doubled. 



Dismissing then the farther consideration of alcohol as a 

 tissue-former or a preservative agent, let us now inquire 

 whether it may act as a respiratory or heat-producing food. 

 The impression that until quite recently has very generally 

 obtained is that part at least of the alcohol absorbed after 

 inorestion is carried with the blood to the luns^s, where it 

 is rapidly oxidized with the production of carbonic acid 

 and water which are thrown off with the expired air, and 

 that during this chemical change heat is evolved and the 

 temperature of the body raised. Indeed this view is still 

 pretty generally held by those who have failed to keep pace 

 with the advances which physiological science has during 

 late years been making. The idea that alcohol increases 

 bodily heat was for so long a time taken for granted, — state- 

 ments to that effect were so long allowed to pass unchal- 

 lenged, — that thebelief probably gave rise to the theory that 



^ Hammond, The Physiological Effects of Alcohol and Tobacco upon the 

 Human System, Physiological Memoirs, Phila., 1863, p. 48. 



