1872.] 



Alcohol and Exercise on the Body. 



403 



varied, so that the difficulty of properly estimating the nitrogen was still 

 more increased. 



The following experiments were made on a soldier, W. D., aged 30. 

 He is a powerfully built man, 5 feet 6 inches in height, and measuring 40 

 inches round the chest. As a young man, he had been employed in a 

 distillery near Glasgow, and at that time drank largely of whisky, some- 

 times taking half a pint before breakfast. For the last ten years, since he 

 has been in the army, he has been very temperate, taking chiefly beer in 

 moderate quantities, and only occasionally spirits. He bears the character 

 of a very steady soldier, and has always had perfect health, with the excep- 

 tion of an attack of " spotted typhus " six years ago. He has never served 

 abroad. 



As he is a Scotchman and had been brought up on oatmeal and milk, I 

 placed him on a diet entirely composed of these two substances ; and after 

 a preliminary trial to see how much he required, he received every day 28 

 ounces of Scotch oatmeal and two pints of milk, the whole of which he 

 took at regular hours. The oatmeal was all purchased at the same time 

 and was well mixed, so that he received daily precisely the same amount of 

 nitrogen. It would be impossible to keep the ingress of nitrogen more 

 uniform than was done in this case. The milk was very good in quality ; 

 but to ensure, as far as possible, that it should be of equal nutritive value 

 every day, water was added until its specific gravity, which was usually 

 1*032, was reduced to 1'028. He drank only water except on the days 

 when brandy was added, and, with the exception of salt, took no other 

 solid food for sixteen days except the oatmeal and milk. The daily amount 

 of water (including that in the milk) was 135 fluid ounces ; but some was 

 lost in cooking the oatmeal. He was perfectly well and vigorous on this 

 food, and his weight remained unchanged. 



The oatmeal, burnt with soda-lime, was found to contain 2*023 percent, 

 of nitrogen ; and the milk contained from '35 to '3/ per cent, of nitrogen, 

 and is taken at a mean of -36. In the milk and the oatmeal together he 

 received daily 20 grammes, or 308*G grains, of nitrogen. The brandy con- 

 tained 45 volumes per cent, of alcohol. 



The course of experiment was as follows : — 



For six days he remained quiet, taking only slow walking exercise to 

 keep him in health ; for three days he then worked hard at digging 

 ground from eight to nine hours daily. It was intended that he should 

 march thirty miles daily in heavy marching order ; but after marching 

 for eight miles he became footsore, and I was obliged to change his work 

 to digging. He worked as hard as he could and felt fatigued in all his 

 muscles, but it was impossible to calculate the exact amount of work : as 

 far as could be done, he made it as uniform as he could from day to day. 



After three days' exercise he was kept at rest for three days, and then 

 resumed exercise of the same kind for three days, taking, however, during 



