The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-04-25
FOOD OR PoISON7
More Light on the Action of Alcohol
A Thorough Treatment of
the Subject.

can destroy animal or vegetable pro-
toplasm; that if taken in large doses
it produces disease and has a paralyz-
ing action, and like all other poisons,
if taken in small doses, it has a slim
ulating effect. The question, there
fore, ought to read: Can alcohol, de-
spite its unquestionable toxic proper
ties, also act as a food? This is what
we shall endeavor to discuss here on
the basis of the facts hitherto estab-
lished. But we shall also consider
the more general questions of the ma
ture of the nutritive and paralyzing
qualities of substances, and whether
it is possible for a substance to act
at the same time as food and poi
son."
DIR. Kassowitz, the author of this
paper, then goes on to consider the
facts in regard to alcohol which have
been established by long and thor
ough and scientific experiment, quot
ing fVom known and recognized au-
thorities on the subject. After hold
ing up both sides of the question, he
declares: 1.-THE paramount question
remains, therefore, Is it true that al
cohol, which is poison, is at the
same time food-or in other words,
are the tissue-saving and the nour-
ishing properties attributed to alco-
hol based upon undeniable facts, or
only upon theoretical constructions ?"
After thorough and careful consider
alton of this paramount question:"
he concludes as follows:
at is, therefore, wholly inappro-
pirate to speak of alcohol as fat
saving, and there is still less sense in
regarding toxic substance as food,
because the protoplasm it has de-
stroyed is no longer capable of taxi
ing part in the vital processes and
the oXidations associated with them.
Nor is there any reason for speaking
of a desirable saving, or, indeed, of a
nourishing function of alcohol, if by
benumbing the brain centers it low
ers the functional activity of the or
gans innervated by them, and thus
causes a diminution of the oxidation
processes accompanying their activ-
ity. Probably a combination of these
two factors causes the diminution in
the consumption of oxygen, which
has been noted; but neither in the
one case nor the other can the lower
ing of oxidation and of the consump-
ton of fat be attributed to a nOurish-
ing, but only to the toxic action of al
cohol.
eve are thus freed from the di-
lemma in which we were placed by
admitting on the one hand that alco-
hol has no Misunderstanding properties,
as was proven by many experiments,
and, on the other hand, by claiming
For it the power to save fat. For the
two facts from which these contra
dictory assumptions have been de-
duced, namely, the absence of a dimi-
mutton in the breaking up of fat, far
from being contradictory, are simply
the necessary results of the toxic and
deleterious action which alcohol ex-
erts upon the protoplasm.
I'm this statement, our final sem
tence against alcohol is pronounced.
For the animal and human organism
alcohol is not both food and a poi
son, but only poison, which, like ali
other poisons, is eXcitant when taken
in small doses, while in larger ones
it produces paralysis and death
THE practical consequences of this
view now obtained are a matter of
course. We can no longer think of
administering the toxin of the yeast
germ as food, or with the idea of re-
30, - e ~.
or wasting diseases. For it would
be strange procedure to introduce
substance into the body for the pur-
pose of retarding waste, which itself
attacks and destroys living proto-
plasm. Nor is there any sense in rec
ommending the toxic alcohol as heat
and energy-producing agent on the
ground that it is oXidized in the body.
Fever patients engender heat in
abundance, and they, as well as we,
their counselors, ought to employ
every means possible to relieve them
of that injurious superabundance. 1t
only remains to ask whether in case
of fevers we should make use of the
stimulating and antipyretic action of
oiSOhOi' Oh VI pI dSIlSdl
perience, as well as from my theo-
retic standpoint, I should answer this
question most decidedly in the mega.
tive" Further on DR.. Kassowitz says:
Pneumonia especially subsidies with
out alcohol to perfect satisfaction.
And l rejoice to agree in this respect
with Aufrecht, one of the best au-
thorities on this disease, who, in his
monograph in Nohtnagels manual,
acknowledges himself hostile to the
use of alcohol in Treatment of pneu.
monia, and hopes that its use may be
speedily abolished. For the reasons
specified above, 1 should like to see
that extended to all use of alcohol in
therapeutics. However, that can come
to pass only when all thinking ply
sicians clearly appreciate the fact
that no substance is able to under
take the double role of food and
a poison, and also, that for alcohol.
no nutritive but only toxic proper
ties can be laimed.-Translated for
Journal of Inebriety from paper by
DR.. Kassowitz, Professor in Univer-
sity of Vienna.