, and often admits of
substitution.

A declaration like this, coming, as it does, from a body of medical men
representing the most advanced ideas held by the profession, must have
great weight with the people. But we do not propose resting on this
declaration alone. As it was based on the results of chemical and
physiological investigations, let us go back of the opinion expressed by
the Medical Congress, and examine these results, in order that the
ground of its opinion may become apparent.

There was presented to this Congress, by a distinguished physician of
New Jersey, Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, a paper on "Alcohol as a Food and
Medicine," in which the whole subject is examined in the light of the
most recent and carefully-conducted experiments of English, French,
German and American chemists and physiologists, and their conclusions,
as well as those of the author of the paper, set forth in the plainest
manner. This has since been published by the National Temperance
Society, and should be read and carefully studied by every one who is
seeking for accurate information on the important subject we are now
considering. It is impossible for us to more than glance at the evidence
brought forward in proof of the assertion that

ALCOHOL HAS NO FOOD VALUE,

and is exceedingly limited in its action as a remedial agent; and we,
therefore, urge upon all who are interested in this subject, to possess
themselves of Dr. Hunt's exhaustive treatise, and to study it carefully.

If the reader will refer to the quotation made by us in the second
chapter from Dr. Henry Monroe, where the food value of any article is
treated of, he will see it stated that "every kind of substance employed
by man as food consists of sugar, starch, oil and glutinous matter,
mingled together in various proportions; these are designed for the
support of the animal frame. The glutinous principles of food--fibrine,
albumen and casein--are employed to build up the structure; while the
oil, starch and sugar are chiefly used to generate heat in the body."

Now, it is clear, that if alcohol is a food, it will be found to contain
one or more of these substances. There must be in it either the
nitrogenous elements found chiefly in meats, eggs, milk, vegetables and
seeds, out of which animal tissue is built and waste repaired; or the
carbonaceous elements found in fat, starch and sugar, in the consumption
of which heat and force are evolved.

"The distinctness of th