THERE is no subject respecting which such opposite opinions have been expressed as on the value of alcohol as an article of diet; and there is also no subject on which it is more difficult to express an unbiassed opinion, based on the clear and unmistakable evidence of science.

Is Alcohol A Food?

This has been seriously denied by some scientists, who have sought to prove, in support of their assertions, that all the alcohol taken could be recovered again in the breath, the perspiration, and the excretions; and hence that it played no part in tissue change. This, however, is not the fact. Only a small amount of the alcohol taken can be recovered, and the question remains - What becomes of it in the body? Dujardin-Beaumetz, the French physician and pharmacologist, gives the following answer to this question, basing his opinions on practical experiments. He states that if alcohol is taken in small quantities it passes into the blood, where it acts upon the red blood corpuscles, which are, as is well known, the oxygen-carriers of the body, and it obliges them to part with their oxygen. By this action, alcohol diminishes the oxidation of the tissues, and is therefore, though not a true food itself, a substance which lessens the necessity for food, thus being what he calls un aliment d'epargne, or, as we may translate it, an economiser of food, or a tissue waste-preventer. If taken in large quantities, too much oxygen is extracted from the blood corpuscles and the temperature of the body falls, owing in part to deficient oxidation. If taken in still larger quantities, the whole of the alcohol does not undergo combustion, but, circulating freely in the blood, acts directly on the cerebrospinal system, producing excitement, narcotism, and the symptoms of intoxication.