Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-08-21
James Parton on the Use of Wine
Effects of Alcohol on the Stom-
aeh and BraIn-The folly and Stu
pidity of Drinking.

We have already reproduced a portion
ofla remarkable essay by James Par
ton, entitled, "WiIl the Coming Man
Drink Wine 2' The following addition
al extracts viii be found instructive:
NO NoURIsHAEENT IN ALCOHOL.
There cannot be nourishment, in the
ordinary acceptation of that word, be-
cause the quantity of nutritive matter
in them is so small. Liebig, no enemy
of beer, says this: 1--WE can prove, with
mathematical certainty, that as much
-four and meat as can lie on the point
of table knife is more nutritious than
nine quarts of the best Bayarian beer ;
that a man who is able daily to consume
that amount of beer, obtains from it in
a whole year, in the most favorabl ease,
exactly the amount of nutritive consti-
tuents which is contained in a FIVE
pound loaf of bread, or in three pounds
of flesh" So of wine; when we have
taken from a glass of wine the in
gradients known to be innutritious,
there is scarcely anything left but a
grain or two Of sugar. Pure alcohol,
though a product of highly nutritive
substances, is q mere poison, an abso-
Lutte poison, the mortal foe of life in eV-
cry one of It's forms, animal and veget-
able. If, therefore, these beverages do
us good, it is not by supplying the body
NO AID TO DIGESTION.
Nor can they aid digestion by assist
ing to decompose food. When we have
taken too much shad for breakfast, we
find that a wineglass of whisky instant
ly mitigates the horrors of Indigestion,
and enables us again to contemplate the
future without dismay. But If we catch
a curious fish or reptile, and want to
keep him from decomposiug, and bring
him home as a contribution to the mus
cum of Prof. AgassiZ, we put him in
bottle of whisky. Several experiments
have been made with view to ascer-
tain whether mixing alcohol with the
gastric Juice increases or lessons its
power to decompose food, and the
results of all of them point to the con-
clusion that the alcohol retards the pro-
cess of decomposition. A little alcohol
retards it a little, and much alcohol re-
tards it much. It has been proved by
experiments that any portion
of alcohol, however small, diminishes
the power of the gastric juice to decom-
pose. The digestive fluid has been mix
ed with wine, beer, whisky, brandy and
alcohol diluted with water, and kept at
the temperature of the body, and the
motions of the body initiated during
the experiment, but, in every instance,
the pure gastric juice was found to be
the true and sole digester, and the alcoS
hol retarder of digestion. This fact,
however, required little proof. We are
all familiar with alcohol as a preserVer,
and scarcely need to be reminded that,
if alcohol assists digestion at all, it can
not be by assisting decomposition,
IT DOES NOT PRODUCE HEAT,
nor Is II a neat-produc1ng nuid. On the
contrary, it appears in all cases to .di-
minish the efficiency of the heat-pro-
ducing process. Most of US who live
here in the North, and who are occas-
ionalIy subjected to extreme cold for
hours at a time, know this by personal
experience, and all the Artic Voyagers
attest it. Brandy is destruction when
men have to face a temperature of 60 de-
grees below zero +; they want lamp oil
then, and the rich blubber of the whale
and walrus. DR.. Rae, who made two or
three pedestrial tours of the polar re-
gions, and whose powers of endurance
were put to as severe a test as mans eV-
er were, is clear and emphatic upon this
point. Brandy, he says, stimulates but
for few minutes, and greatly lessons
mans power to endure cold and fa-
tigue. Occasionally we have in New
York cold breeze from the north
which reduces the temperature below
zero-to the sore discomfort of omnibus
drivers, who have to face it on their way
mp town. On certain Monday night,
y
drivers on one line were disabled by the
cold, many of whom had to be lifted
from the cars and carried in. It is
fact familiar to persons in this business,
that men who drink freely are more
likely to be benumbed and overcome
by the cold than those who abstain. It
seems strange to us, when we first hear
it, that a meager teetotaler should be
safer on such night than bluff, red
faced imbiber of beer and whisky, who
takes something at each end of the line
to keep himself warm. It nevertheless
appears to be true. A traveller relates
that when Russian troops are about 10
start upon a march in very cold re-
gion, no grog is allowed to be served TO
them I; and when the men are drawn
up, ready to move, the corporals smell
the breath of every man, and send
back to quarters all who have been
drinking. The reason is, that men who
start under the influence of liquor are
first to- suceumb to the cold, and the
nkeliest to be frost bitten. 1t is is the
uniform experience of the hunters and
trappers of the northern provinces of
North America, and of the Rocky
Mountains, that alcohol diminishes their
power to resist cold. This whole mag
azine could be filled with testimony on
this point.