The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-08-22
Beer is Not Food.


 expert evidence before the Canadian royal commission in regard to the ne, cessity for alcoholic beverages, ,one alone testified that in his opinion intoxicat- ing liquor acts as food, giving this as reason against prohibition. This subject has been so fully discussed by eminent medical men and medical jour nals that the opinion of Dr. Richard son cannot be regarded as of special significance. Dr, E. J. T. Fisher of Toronto replies to him most effectively. He shows that all food is divided into two classes-nitro5 5enous, which goes to the building up of the tissues of the body, and carbonaceous, which supplies the heat by which the body is kept at the proper tempera- ture. Alcohol belongs to neither class It does not belong to the former be cause it contains no nitrogen, and 1t does net belong to the latter because it has been shown by actual experiment that alcohol lowers the temperature of the body. Dr. Fisher gives a long list of quotations from eminent medical authorities which overwhelmingly dis prove the theories of Dr. Richardson These testimonies are nearly all from men who are specialists in this branch of study, and they are clear and strong against the notion that alcohol is food and beneficial. We quote few of the briefer extracts:
 Sir Benjamin Brodie-"Alcoholic stimulants do not create nervous power; they merely enable you, as it were, to use up that which is left, and then they leave you more in need of rest than before"
 Drs. Pocker and Virchou of Vienna say: "Alcohol poisons the blood and arrests the development as well as hastens the decay of the red blood cor puscles."
 Or. Edmund of London Hospital says: Its action in all doses is always that of narcotic and paralyzer."
 Dr. T. K. Chambers says: Alcohol is essentially and primarily lessener of the power of the nervous system"
 Baron Liebig says: Spirits, by their action on the nerves, enable the drinker to make up sufficient power at the expenses of his body. He consumes his capital instead of his interest"
 Prof Perm says: "Ales are not fitted for ordinary use on account of their intoxicating and stupefying qualities "
 Dr. Wilson of Edinburgh says: "No circumstances of ordinary life can ren. der the moderate use of intoxicating fluids beneficial or necessary
 Dr. Edward Smith of London, Eng land, says: "Alcoholics are largely used by many persons in the belief that they support the system and maintain a supply of milk for the infant; but this is serious error, and is not an infre- quent cause of fits and cancellation in the child"
 "Profs. Lallamand and Perm of Paris say: By alcohol muscular power is weakened, and in extreme cases ex- tinguished.
 Baron Liebig says, again: Beer, wine and spirits furnish no element capable of entering into the compost. tion of the blood, muscular tibers or any part which is the seat of the vital principles.
 Dr. Fisher makes good point when he maintains that even if alcohol were food would be right to substitute some other kind of food for anything the use of which produces such bad effects.
 The testimony of science is that beer and other alcoholic beverages can in nc sense be called food.