The Republican., 1899-07-20
DOES WINE MAKE BLOOD?
Tests and Arguments Going to show
That 1t Does Not, Nor Does 1t
Aid in the Process.

Wine is simply mixture of alcohol
and water, with some flavoring sub
stance added. The proportion of alco-
hol is sometimes as low as seven or
| eight per cent, and again as high as 20
per cent.
Can blood be made from alcohol?
This is very important question, and
one on which there is great diversity
of opinion. Paracelsus first made use
of pure alcohol for the preparation of
his elixir vitae. Thousands of physi-
clans to-day recommend that mothers
| invalids and other feeble persons drinB
wine and beer, with the idea that thes4
liquors make blood. Perhaps this no.
ton grew out of the similarity in color
| of wine and blood; at any rate, it is the
red wines that are largely consumed for
this purpose.
But wine cannot make blood; wine
interferes with the bloodmaking proc
ess. To be converted into blood, a sub
stance must contain some of the prop
critics of blood. Wine does not resemble
| blood; it is diluted alcohol. Hence it
cannot be converted into something so
radically different from itself as
blood is.
Blood is just as much flesh as any
other part of the body; it is liquid tis-
sue; it is liquid flesh; it is a vitalized
| fluid, and is as much alive as the brain
or nerve.
Alcohol is lifeless, consequently it
cannot be changed into blood. Moth
ing but good food-fruits, grains and
nuts-can make pure blood. These
foods become blood through digestion.
Let us test it: Suppose a man eats
bread, apples and potatoes one day,
and the next day you examine him;
| you find none of these substances.
| They have been dissolved, converted
into blood and organized into tissue.
On the other hand, if you should dis
sect this man, and discover bread, ap-
| Piles and potatoes in his muscles, you
would rightly conclude that that food
had not made blood and tissue.
This is precisely what happens when
alcohol is taken into the system. Ex-
aminations of men who have drunk al
cohol have revealed the liquor in the
brain, liver and muscles; indeed, the
whole body was saturated with alcohol
as a sponge with water. The poison has
been detected in the perspiration and
in the secretions of the kidneys. By
distilling the breath of such persons it
has been possible to obtain the alcohol
| again. So alcohol does not make blood
and tissue.
Another natural question is: Can it
be used in any other way for the benefit
of the body? Investigations have an
swered this in the negative. We have
devised an instrument by which we
can determine just how long it takes
man to see, and experiments with it
have shown that it takes a person
longer to see the letter A, for instance,
after taking alcohol than before. Not
only does alcohol render mans sight
less keen, but it retards all his other
sensibilities.
We h9's experimental to find out the
effect OF liquor on digestion, by giving
a wing man test breakfast to which
four ounces of simple claret of wine
! had been added. As a consequence, his
| record was down in the "hypo" terri
tory. Then he was given two ounces
of brandy with his test breakfast, and
the record showed almost apepsia, or
no digestion whatever. This agrees
with the experiments of Sir William
Roberts, an eminent English physiolo-
gist. He put food into a test tube and
added little hydrochloric acid and
pepsin, making an artificial gastric
juice. Next he tried alcohol with the
test breakfast, also tea and coffee and
various allied substances. His conclu-
sion was that alcohol certainly does in
| terfere with igestion.-Good Health.