Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-11-25
Is Alcohol Il Food?

Under this heading we lind some Gu
| rious facts i'll relation to alcohol This
mysterious agent Is ever ready to enter
the animal system. 1t can be intro
duced under The skin or into vein; il
may be inhaled by man or other ami
mai, when it will, through the various
chaunels, go direct TO the lett side OF
| the heart, thence into the arterial Ca
mails, and 50 throughout the entire
body. When taken into the stomach,
the greater portion of it is absorbed into
the course OF the blood, another portion
finds its way through the spinal co.,
umn, joining the returning blood from
lett SIDE of the head to the heart. 1t is
50 greedy Tor water thatit will pick it
up from all the watery textures of the
body. When We dilute alcohol with
water we quicken the absorption; il
We do not So dilute it, it is diluted by
the transudaIion of water in the stom-
ach..
Alter very elaborate Investigation,
Dr. AnStle and DTS. Thudichun and
Dupre have satisfactorily proved that
only very small portion of the spirit
which Is taken into living body is
expelled out of that body as alcohol in
the secretiOns, and that there must be
some other means by which the spirit
is disposed of in the system. DIR.
AnStie relates the case of an old soldier
who was under his care at the West
minister Hospital in 1861, who haG
lived for twenty-five years on diet
consisting of bottle of unsweetened
gin and one small finger-length of
toasted bread per day. DR.. Robert
LalOr tells that he subSistei for two
years upon wine aud brandy, with very
little solid food. LabOrers and Others
who take no beer eat nearly as much
again as tlIoee who consume a moderate
allowance, and everyone knows how
little the druukard eats.
DIR. Anstie's conclusions from many
cases quoted, and from very large
hospital experience, is that, beyond all
possibility of doubt, pure alcohol, with
the addition of only small quantity OF
water, will prOlOng life greatly beyond
the period at which it would cease if
no nourishment is given that, during
the progress of acute diseases, it very
commonly supports not Only life but
also the bulk of the body during many
days abstinence from the common
foods; and that, although the physician
and Psychologist fail to explain chem
jcally low it is that the result is
brought about, it may, nevertheless,
be safely affirmed that the influence
exerted over the body by alcohol is es- /
sentially a food character.
DR.. Dupre, in the course of his in
vestieatiOns, discovered that alcohol is |
found in small quantities in the excre-
tions even of persons who do not touch
fermented beverage in any form; that
is, the healthy system of the teetotal-
Ter brews, so to speak, little drop for
itself.
II it has been shown that alcohol Is
capable of supporting few persons, it
is certain that it kills i'm its own way
10, 600 persons year in Russia, and
$4,000 in England; but its method of
killing is slow, indirect, and by pain
full disease.
Finally, two things must always be
borne in mind. First, we use alcohol
not on account of its importance as a
nntriment, but on account of its effects
as stimulent or relish; and secondly,
the border line between its use and
abuse is so hard to be defined that it
becomes a dangerous instrument even
in the hands of the strong and wise,
muderous instrument in the hands of
the foolish and weak.