Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1909-06-25

| NOUS LldL Wlleu well anu proper
ly made it is a beverage contain
ing a very small amount Of alco-
hol and a relatively large amount
Of nutritive material. Says 1.-THE
Hospital" London May l in nsedi.
torial about the report:
1T is time that the erroneous
view that beer has no nutritive
value in itself and merely consists
of a beverage upon which certain
portion Of the community intoxi-
Gates itself should be exposed and
discredited. The results Of our
Commission show that beer is par
excellence the nutritive alcoholic
beverage. All beverages because
they contain alcohol should not be
regarded in the same light. The
spirit nipper is committing quite
a different act from the beer
drinker; in fact beer is much far
Their removed from the point of
view of its alcohol content from
some wines and all spirits than
it is from ginger beer.
when a man drinks good beer
he drinks and eats at the same
time just as when he eats bowl
of soup. The terms eat and
drink are curiously but inconsis-
tently used as connecting the differ
ence between what is merely
quenching our thirst and what is
actually consuming nourishament.
Our Commissioners point out a
man might more properly be said
to eat beer than to eat certain
kinds of soup or indeed waterme-
lon. Their report will enable
members of the medical profession
and the public TO understand
clearly what constitutes good beer
and where and how they obtain it.
Beer drinkers the numbers of whom
we hope will increase considerably
as the result of the researches of
our Commissioners are now in a
position to protect themselves
from bad beers and we hold the
view that it would be infinitely
better for the we'll being of the
people of these islands as a
whole if they were to select beer
as their habitual drink rather than
wines or spirits. Climatic condi-
lions have good deal to do with
the dietetic value of substances
used for allaying thirst. Our COM
missioners properly drive home
that when man drinks beer or
stout habitually he is not only
drinking but eating fact which
had not been sufficiently recog-
nized in recent years. These bev-
erages contain all the elements Of
a typical diet with the exception
of fat and in a proportion app
proximately physiological. Our
commissioners remind US that If
the worth of food is measured by
its calorimetric value the fact is
that a glass of good ale is approx.
imately as nourishing as a glass
of milk and that quart of good
beer is nearly equivalent to
quarter of pound Of beef. =
Beer and stout the writer goes on
to say are ofcourse not suitable for
the obese or for those with5renal
disorders, glycosmuria, OF dia-
betes; but where there is no coun-
ter Indication their iiabitual use
in moderate quantities is certainly
more beneficial than that of wines
or spirits. We read further:
Another important medicinal as
pect Of beer and stout, and espe-
cially of the latter, isttheir hyp-
motto action. Stout is one of the
most harmless and best hypnotics
we possess, and is often far more
efficacious in the treatment of in
somnia than drugs. Part ofstheir
action is due our commissioners
remind us, to the hypnotic princi-,
pie contained in hops, and the more
heavily these beverages are hoped
the more marked is their hypnotic
action. Another point in favor
Of beer and stout as beverages is
that the likelihood of their con-
tanning pathogenic organism is too
extremely remote. This gives
them like tea and coffee. a great
advantage over milk, for they are
all prepared under condi tions
which render pollution BY infec-
tive bacteria extremely improb-
able.
These remarks must not be
misconstrued. We are quite alive
as our commissioners are to the