es the
dose fatal to controls. (Controls are the animals fed in the
ordinary way without alcohol or in this case dextrose.--Ed.)
While these facts are not sufficient to justify the conclusion
that in many cases alcohol has not a true food value, yet they
are sufficient to indicate caution in applying, without further
consideration, the brilliant and very exact results on the
proteid sparing power of alcohol to practical dietaries."

Various other experiments were made, but there is not room here for a
record of them.

In the summary Dr. Hunt says:--

"It is believed that these experiments afford clear experimental
evidence for the view that extremely moderate amounts of alcohol
may cause distinct changes in certain physiological functions,
and that these changes may, under certain circumstances, be
injurious to the body. The results also afford further evidence
that in some respects the action of alcohol as a food is
different from that of carbohydrates, and finally that in all
probability certain physiological processes in 'moderate
drinkers' are distinctly different from those in abstainers."

Professor Chittenden, of Yale University, has made extensive researches
upon alcohol and digestion. A full report of these may be found in the
"Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem." In the _Medical News_,
vol. 86, page 721, Professor Chittenden says of the theory that alcohol
is a food similar to sugar and fats:--

"It is, I think, quite plain that while alcohol in moderate
amounts can be burned in the body, thus serving as food in the
sense that it may be a source of energy, it is quite misleading
to attempt a classification or even comparison of alcohol with
carbohydrates and fats, since, unlike the latter, alcohol has a
most disturbing effect upon the metabolism or oxidation of the
purin compounds of our daily food. Alcohol, therefore, presents
a dangerous side wholly wanting in carbohydrates and fats. The
latter are simply burned up to carbonic acid and water, or are
transformed into glycogen and fat, but alcohol, though more
easily oxidizable, is at all times liable to obstruct, in some
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 inimical to
health; a fact which at on