Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-06-22
Alcohol MS n Food.

Prof. w. o. Atwater of the Wesleyan
University, Middletown, Conn.,. whose
recent experiments as to the'nutritive
effects of alcohol on the human system
have attracted wide interest, has re-
ported to the Middletown Scientific
Association the results of experiments
regarding the effects of alcohol, which
were lately carried out under his
direction upon man in respiration
calorimeter.
The calorimeter is an air-tight cham
Der in which the man is kept for
several days while accurate account is
kept of the ingredients Of the food he
eats and the air he breathes.
The special object of the recent ex.
periments was to study the nutritive
effect of alcohol. In these experiments
pure alcohol was administered with
water or coffee. In others, which will
be reported later, 1t was given in the
form Of whisky or brandy. Still others
are planned in which beer and wine will
be used. The alcohol is taken with an
ordinary diet of meat, bread, butter,
sugar and the like. The amount per
day has been equal to about two and
one-half ounces of absolute alcohol.
This is divided into six doses, three
with meals and three between meals,
the object being to avoid an especial
influence OF the alcohol upon the nerves,
and thus test its action as food under
normal bodily conditions. For each
comparative test two experiments were
made, One was with ordinary food,
Just sufficient to meet the wants Of the
body. In the other, part of the sugar,
starch and fat of the food, the ingre-
dients which supply the body with fuel
for warmth and work, we're taken out,
enough to be chemically equivalent to
the two and half ounces of alcohol, as
the latter was used in their place.
In explaining the experiments Prof.
Atwater called attention to the fact
that food has two chief Uses. One is
to build up the body and keep it in
repair; the other is to supply it with
energy for warmth and work. Certain
ingredients Of food, like lean meat,
casein of milk, white of an egg and
gluten of wheat serve the body for the
building and repairing tissue. Others.
like fat, sugar and starch, cannot form
tissue, their functions being to serve
as fuel.
Alcohol, he said is similar to the
fats, starch and sugar in this respect.
1t cannot form tissue, but it does yield
energy. 1t cannot be used to build the
bodily machine or to repair it as it is
worked out by constant use. but it can
and does serve as fuel. This fact has
been known in general way for years,
but there has been moro or less ques-
tion regarding the extent to which
alcohol serves this purpose.
Reference was made in the report to
the alleged errors in the teachings OF
so-called temperance physiology in the
public school, the Sunday school and
the pulpit, as well as on the temperance
platform. Many who are earnestly in
terested in temperance reform feel it
necessary to insist that alcohol ia not a
food, but poison; that in any guam
tity, large or small, is necessarily
harmful and not useful.
Thesetheories, it was shown, are based
in part upon the results of experiments
made years ago by imperfect methods,
and since shown to be incorrect. They
are directly opposed to the results Of
the latest and most reliable research
and to the opinions of the leading
authorities the world over.
Three important results have been
developed by Prof. Atwater's expert
ments. First, the alcohol was oxidized
~ that is, burned as completely as bread,
meat or any other food. Second, in the
| oxidation all of the potential energy of
the alcohol was transformed into heat
and muscular power. In other words,
the body made the same uss of the
energy of the alcohol MS that of sugar,
starch and other ordinary food ma
terials. Third, the alcohol protected
the mauerial Of the body from con.
sumption Just as effectively as the cor
responding amounts of sugar and
starch. That is to say, whether the
body was at rest or at work, it held its
own Just as well with the one as with
the other.
While alcohol unquestionably has its
function as a medicine, and. rs Prof.
Atwater shows, a certain food value,
it does not follow, to employ his own
phrase. THAT it is desirable food for
common use.r Men in good health can
easily get their energy from some other
source. There is always the danger
when men resort to alcohol for energy
that they may get too large supply Of
energy. Temperance, not abstinence.
it is true, is the golden rule with regard
to eating as well Us drinking. but it is
best to avoid any form of indulgence