Driven to the wall.
Not finding that alcohol possesses any direct alimentary value, the medical
advocates of its use have been driven to the assumption that it is a kind of
secondary food, in that it has the power to delay the metamorphosis of tissue.
"By the metamorphosis of tissue is meant," says Dr. Hunt, "that
change which is constantly going on in the system which involves a constant
disintegration of material; a breaking up and avoiding of that which is no
longer aliment, making room for that new supply which is to sustain life."
Another medical writer, in referring to this metamorphosis, says: "The
importance of this process to the maintenance of life is readily shown by the
injurious effects which follow upon its disturbance. If the discharge of the
excrementitious substances be in any way impeded or suspended, these substances
accumulate either in the blood or tissues, or both. In consequence of this
retention and accumulation they become poisonous, and rapidly produce a
derangement of the vital functions. Their influence is principally exerted upon
the nervous system, through which they produce most frequent irritability,
disturbance of the special senses, delirium, insensibility, coma, and finally,
death."
"This description," remarks Dr. Hunt, "seems almost intended
for alcohol." He then says: "To claim alcohol as a food because it
delays the metamorphosis of tissue, is to claim that it in some way suspends
the normal conduct of the laws of assimilation and nutrition, of waste and
repair. A leading advocate of alcohol (Hammond) thus illustrates it: 'Alcoholretards the destruction of the tissues. By this destruction, force is
generated, muscles contract, thoughts are developed, organs secrete and
excrete.' In other words, alcohol interferes with all these. No wonder the
author 'is not clear' how it does this, and we are not clear how such delayed
metamorphosis recuperates.
Not an originator of vital force.
Which is not known to have any of the usual power of foods, and use it on
the double assumption that it delays metamorphosis of tissue, and that such
delay is conservative of health, is to pass outside of the bounds of science
into the land of remote possibilities, and confer the title of adjuster upon an
agent whose agency is itself doubtful.
Having failed to identify alcohol as a nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous food,
not having found it amenable to any of the evidences by which the food-force of
aliments is generally measured, it will not do for us to talk of benefit by
delay of regressive metamorphosis unless such process is accompanied with
something evidential of the fact something scientifically descriptive of its
mode of accomplishment in the case at hand, and unless it is shown to be
practically desirable for alimentation.
There can be no doubt that alcohol does cause defects in the
processes of elimination which are natural to the healthy body and which even
in disease are often conservative of health.
[PLR]
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