the nutrients (F.M.W.). The alcohol
thrown off as waste is unoxidized and yields no energy.

*Why Alcohol is not a Food.*--If the passage of alcohol through the body is
followed, it is seen, in the first place, that it is a simple liquid and
undergoes no digestive change; and in the second place, that it is rapidly
absorbed from the stomach in both weak and concentrated solutions. This
introduces it quickly into the blood, and once there, it diffuses rapidly
into the lymph and then into the cells. Since the body cannot store
alcohol or convert it into some nutrient that can be stored (Fig. 80),
_there is no way of_ _regulating the amount that shall be present in the
blood, or of supplying it to the cells as their needs require_. They must
take it in excess of their needs, regardless of the effect, at least until
the organs of excretion can throw off the surplus as waste. Compared with
proteid, carbohydrates, or fats, alcohol is an _unmanageable_ substance in
the body. Attempting to use it as a food is as foolish as trying to burn
gasolene or kerosene in an ordinary wood stove. It may be done to a
limited extent, but is an exceedingly hazardous experiment. Not being
adapted to the body method of using materials, alcohol cannot be classed
as a food.

*Assimilation.*--Digestion, absorption, circulation, and storage of foods
are the processes that finally make them available to the cells in the
different parts of the body. There still remains another process for these
materials to undergo before they serve their final purposes. This last
process, known as _assimilation_, is the appropriation of the food
material by the cell protoplasm. In a sense the storage of fat by
connective tissue cells and of glycogen by the liver cells is
assimilation. The term is limited, however, to the disposition of material
with reference to its final use. Whether all the materials used by the
cells actually become a part of the protoplasm is not known. It is known,
however, that the cells are the places where most of the oxidations of the
body occur and that materials taking part in these oxidations must, at
least, come in close contact with the protoplasm. Assimilation, then, is
the last event in a series of processes by which oxygen, food materials,
and cell protoplasm are brought into close and _active_ relations. The
steps leading up to assimilation are shown in Table II.

TABLE II. THE PASSAGE OF MATERIALS TO