2. The potential energy in the alcohol was transformed into heat or
muscular work.
3. The body did about as well with the rations including alcohol as it did
without it.
Footnote 40: Alcohol is made up of carbon, oxygen, and
hydrogen. It is very easily oxidized, but it cannot, as is
shown by the chemical formula, be of use to the body in
tissue building, because of its lack of nitrogen.
Footnote 41: Alcoholic beverages contain the following
proportions of alcohol: beer, from 2 to 5 per cent; wine,
from 10 to 20 per cent; liquors, from 30 to 70 per cent.
Patent medicines frequently contain as high as 60 per cent
alcohol. (See page 294.)
The committee of fifty eminent men appointed to report on the physiological
aspects of the drink problem reported that a large number of scientific men
state that they are in the habit of taking alcoholic liquor in small
quantities, and many report that they do not _feel_ harm thereby. A number
of scientists seem to agree that within limits alcohol may be a kind of
food, although a very _poor_ food.
On the other hand, we know that although alcohol may technically be
considered as a food, it is a very unsatisfactory food and, as the
following statements show, it has an effect on the body tissues which foods
do not have.
Professor Chittenden of Yale College, in discussing the food problem of
alcohol, writes as follows:
"It is true that alcohol in moderate quantities may serve as a food,
_i.e._ it can be oxidized with the liberation of heat. It may to some
extent take the place of fat and carbohydrates, but it is not a
perfect substitute for them, and for this reason alcohol has an action
that cannot be ignored. It reduces liver oxidation. It therefore
presents a dangerous side wholly wanting in carbohydrates and fat. The
latter are simply burned up to carbonic acid and water or are
transformed to glycogen and fat, but alcohol, although more easily
oxidized, is at all times liable to obstruct, in a measure at least,
the oxidative processes of the liver and probably of other tissues
also, thereby throwing into the circulation bodies, such as uric acid,
which are harmful to health, a fact which at once tends to draw a
distinct line of demarcation between alcohol and the two
non-nitrogenous foods, fat and carbohydrates. Another matter must be
emphasized, and it is that the form in which alcohol is taken is of
importance. Port wine, for instance, has more influence on the amount
of uric acid secreted than an equivalent amount of alcohol has in some
other form. To conclude: as an adjunct to the ordinary daily diet of
the healthy man alcohol cannot be considered as playing the part of a
true non-nitrogenous food."--Quoted in _American Journal of
Inebriety_, Winter, 1906.
Effect of Alcohol on Living Matter.--If we examine raw white of egg, we
find a protein which closely resembles protoplasm in its chemical
composition; it is called albumen. Add to a little albumen in a test tube
some 95 per cent alcohol and notice what happens. As soon as the alcohol
touches the albumen the latter coagulates and becomes hard like boiled
white of egg. Shake the alcohol with the albumen and the entire mass soon
becomes a solid. This is because the alcohol draws the water out of the
albumen. It has been shown that albumen is somewhat like protoplasm in
structure and chemical composition. Strong alcohol acts in a similar manner
on living matter when it is absorbed by the living body cells. It draws
water from them and hardens them. It has a chemical and physical action
upon living matter.
Alcohol a Poison.--But alcohol is also in certain quantities a poison. _A
commonly accepted definition of a poison is that it is any substance which,
when taken into the body, tends to cause serious detriment to health, or
the death of the organism._ That alcohol may do this is well known by
scientists.
It is a matter of common knowledge that alcohol taken in small quantities
does not do any _apparent_ harm. But if we examine the vital records of
life insurance companies, we find a large number of deaths directly due to
alcohol and a still greater number due in part to its use. In the United
States every year there are a third more deaths from alcoholism and
cirrhosis of the liver (a disease _directly_ caused by alcohol) than there
are from typhoid fever. The poisonous effect is not found in small doses,
but it ultimately shows its harmful effect. Hardening of the arteries, an
old-age disease, is rapidly becoming in this country a disease of the
middle aged. From it there is no escape. It is chiefly caused by the
cumulative effect of alcohol. The diagram following, compiled by two
English life insurance companies that insure moderate drinkers and
abstainers, shows the death rate to be considerably higher among those who
use alcohol.
[Illustration: Abstainers live longer than moderate drinkers.]
Dr. Kellogg, the founder of the famous Battle Creek Sanitarium, points out
that strychnine, quinine, and many other drugs are oxidized in the body but
surely cannot be called foods. The following reasons for not considering
alcohol a food are taken from his writings:--
"1. A habitual user of alcohol has an intense craving for
his accustomed dram. Without it he is entirely unfitted for
business. One never experiences such an insane craving for
bread, potatoes, or any other particular article of food.
"2. By continuous use the body acquires a tolerance for
alcohol. That is, the amount which may be imbibed and the
amount required to produce the characteristic effects first
experienced gradually increase until very great quantities
are sometimes required to satisfy the craving which its
habitual use often produces. This is never the case with
true foods.... Alcohol behaves in this regard just as does
opium or any other drug. It has no resemblance to a food.
"3. When alcohol is withdrawn from a person who has been
accustomed to its daily use, most distressing effects are
experienced.... Who ever saw a man's hand trembling or his
nervous system unstrung because he could not get a potato or
a piece of cornbread for breakfast? In this respect, also,
alcohol behaves like opium, cocaine, or any other enslaving
drug.
"4. Alcohol lessens the appreciation and the value of brain
and nerve activity, while food reenforces nervous and mental
energy.
"5. Alcohol as a protoplasmic poison lessens muscular power,
whereas food increases energy and endurance.
"6. Alcohol lessens the power to endure cold. This is true
to such a marked degree that its use by persons accompanying
Arctic expeditions is absolutely prohibited. Food, on the
other hand, increases ability to endure cold. The
temperature after taking food is raised. After taking
alcohol, the temperature, as shown by the thermometer, is
lowered.
"7. Alcohol cannot be stored in the body for future use,
whereas all food substances can be so stored.
"8. Food burns slowly in the body, as it is required to
satisfy the body's needs. Alcohol is readily oxidized and
eliminated, the same as any other oxidizable drug."
[Illustration: Experiment (by Davison) to show how the nicotine in six
cigarettes was sufficient to kill this fish. The smoke from the cigarettes
was passed through the water in which the fish is swimming.]
The Use of Tobacco.--A well-known authority defines a narcotic as a
substance "_which directly induces sleep, blunts the senses, and, in large
amounts, produces complete insensibility_." Tobacco, opium, chloral, and
cocaine are examples of narcotics. Tobacco owes its narcotic influence to a
strong poison known as nicotine. Its use in killing insect parasites on
plants is well known. In experiments with jellyfish and other lowly
organized animals, the author has found as small a per cent as one part of
nicotine to one hundred thousand parts of sea water to be sufficient to
profoundly affect an animal placed within it. The illustration here given
shows the effect of nicotine upon a fish, one of the vertebrate animals.
Nicotine in a pure form is so powerful a poison that two or three drops
would be sufficient to cause the death of a man by its action upon the
nervous system, especially the nerves controlling the beating of the heart.
This action is well known among boys training for athletic contests. The
heart is affected; boys become "short-winded" as a result of the action on
the heart. It has been demonstrated that tobacco has, too, an important
effect on muscular development. The stunted appearance of the young smoker
is well known.
[Illustration: The amounts of alcohol in some liquors and in some patent
medicines. _a_, beer, 5 %; _b_, claret, 8 %; _c_, champagne, 9 %; _d_,
whisky, 50 %; _e_, well-known sarsaparilla, 18 %; _f_, _g_, _h_,
much-advertised nerve tonics, 20 %, 21 %, 25 %; _i_, another
much-advertised sarsaparilla, 27 %; _j_, a well-known tonic, 28 %; _k_,
_l_, bitters, 37 %, 44 % alcohol.]
Use and Abuse of Drugs.--The American people are addicted to the use of
drugs, and especially patent medicines. A glance at the street-car
advertisements shows this. Most of the medicines advertised contain alcohol
in greater quantity than beer or wine, and many of them have opium,
morphine, or cocaine in their composition. Paregoric and laudanum,
medicines sometimes given to young children, are examples of dangerous
drugs that contain opium. Dr. George D. Haggard of Minneapolis has shown by
many analyses that a large number of the so-called "malts," "malt
extracts," and "tonics," including several of the best known and most
advertised on the market, are simply disguised beers and, frequently, very
poor beers at that. These drugs, in addition to being harmful, affect the
person using them in such a manner that he soon feels the need for the
drug. Thus the drug habit is formed,--a condition which has wrecked
thousands of lives. A number of articles on patent medicines recently
appeared in a leading magazine and have been collected and published under
the title of _The Great American Fraud_. In this booklet the author points
out a number of different kinds of "cures" and patent medicines. The most
dangerous are those headache or neuralgia cures containing _acetanilid_.
This drug is a heart depresser and should not be used without medical
advice. Another drug which is responsible for habit formation is _cocaine_.
This is often found in catarrh or other cures. Alcohol is the basis of all
tonics or "bracers." Every boy and girl should read this booklet so as to
be forearmed against evils of the sort just described.