Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-07-20
is ALCOHOL A FOOD 2

The w e. T. U. feels that one of
the great crises in our national life
for which that organization was
born is now upon it. For nearly a
year the newspapers have freely
printed reports of Professor Atwat-
ers alcohol experiments by which
it was claimed he has proved alcohol
to be as much food as sugar, starch
and fat and the school text books on
physiology inaccurate because they
teach that alcohol is a poison and
not food. This accusation which
has to great extent permeated the
minds of the people and done i'm
meuse harm is thus refuted.
Professor Atwater's slcohol ex-
periments reported last June have
turned the thought of medical cir
cles to the scientific side of the al
cohol question as never before.
Since January 1, 1900. these expert
meuts and conclusions have been
widely discussed by the standard
medical journals of the country.
The journal of the American Med.
ical Association, the organ of the
national society of allopathic physi-
cans, contaius an exhaustive discus
sion by Professors Woodbury. and
Egbert, of the Wedico Chirurgical
College, of Philadelphia, on the At.
water experiments. This discussion
shows tha6 the tables of these exper-
iments givjog the gain ard loss of
the body do not prove that alcohol
acted as a food aid that, in short,
there is nothing Whatever in these
experiments to show those socialists
wrong who declare alcohol to be
poison and not food.
Wjndfied S. Hall, Professor of
Physiology in U11vorsity Medical
School in Chicago, shows the fallacy
of calling a substance 'to a limited
extent a food" or "sometimes a
food" on the gro0nd that it has one
characteristic of a food, by the fol
lowing syllogism Foods are oxi
died in the body alcohol is oxldiz-
ed in the body therefore alcohol is
a food We might rs we'll say
Horses breathe oxygen; the yeast
plant breatbes oxygen therefore the
yeast plant is a horse."
Articles and editorials in the New
York Medical Record, st Lo1is Med.
ical Erief, the Bulletin of The North.
western University Medical School,
the Therapist, the Pratical Dtdggist
and others are in line with the Bos.
ton Medical and Surgical Journa
which says:
"To demonstrate the facs thai
alcohol is a food it must be proved
that the sum total of the effects Of
the iugested alcohol is useful rather
than harmful in the maiutainence o.
the animal economy. And this DIR
Atwater has not proven And it hal
not yet, so far as we know, been de
monistrated. In fact, the weight o
experimental evidence is decidedly
against it."
The Practical Druggist says :'Ev
cry standard work on toxlcology ant
medical Jurisprudence classifie
alcohol with other poisons; and i
alcohol is not poison because it il
possible to use it in ways and dose
to which poisonous OF fatal conse
quences can not be directly attribut
ed, then we should be compelled t
admit there is no such thing as
poison on earth, for whatever ma
be true of alcohol in this respec
may prove to be true of every poi
: sonous drug known
Such opi1ions from standard med
} ical authorities show that Professo
Atwater has not proved the presen
Temperance erroneous.
MARY H. Hunt,
Worlds and National Superir
tendant of the Department of Sciec
! t;fic Temperance distraction of til
: Woman's Christian Temperate
Union.