purposes; that they are not needed by young and healthy persons, and are dangerous to them in so far as they tend to create a habit; that in certain cases of disease and weakness they are useful in quantities to be prescribed by physicians; that when taken habitually it should be only at meals, and, as a rule, only with the last meal of the day, or soon after it, and that alcoholic drinks of all kinds are worse than useless to prevent fatigue or the effects of cold, although they may at times be useful as restoratives after the work is done.

It should also be taught that alcoholic drinks are almost always a useless expense, that their use in excess is the cause of much disease, suffering, and poverty, and of many crimes; but that such use is sometimes the result, rather than the cause, of disease.

It should not be taught that the drinking of one or two glasses of beer or wine by a grown-up person is very dangerous, for it is not true, and many of the children know by their own home experience that it is not true.

Signed: JOHN S. BILLINGS, Chairman.

W. O. ATWATER,

H. P. BOWDITCH,

R. H. CHITTENDEN,

W. H. WELCH.

REPORT

ON THE

PRESENT INSTRUCTION ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF ALCOHOL.

BY DR. H. P. BOWDITCH AND DR. C. F. HODGE.

REPORT

ON THE

PRESENT INSTRUCTION ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF ALCOHOL.

OUR sources of information for this report are the following: First. Standard text-books in common use in colleges, universities, and medical schools.

Second. Letters received from prominent physiologists, both in this country and Europe, giving their opinions on this subject.

Third. Text-books "indorsed and approved" by the "Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction" of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for use in the public schools.

Fourth. Answers of public school-teachers in reply to questions as to fitness and value of the books and results of so-called "scientific " temperance instruction.

We shall endeavor to treat data from these sources in the above order and in such manner as to show the present status of teaching of the subject. No attempt will be made in this report to harmonize conflicting opinions.

I. STANDARD TEXT-BOOKS OF PHYSIOLOGY.

We shall consider first the various opinions held by physiolo gists upon the fundamental question of the food value of alcohol and its influence upon the processes and organs of digestion, and shall make but little reference to recent investigations which have not yet found their way into standard text-books, these being fully considered in other reports.

Although his views have not been embodied in a formal textbook, the name of Professor Fick has been long associated with opposition, on physiological grounds, to the use of alcohol.

1

Fick defines a poison as follows: "We may unhesitatingly designate as a poison any substance which, introduced into the blood in comparatively small amounts, causes disturbances in the functions of any organ. That alcohol is such a substance cannot be doubted." He goes on to explain that alcohol differs from other poisons which affect the nervous system in a way which has led to the erroneous opinion ("irrige Meinung ") that alcohol is a food. This difference consists in the fact that alcohol is oxidized in the body. "It is, when introduced into the blood, oxidized like a nutriment, to carbon-dioxide and water, and this oxidation must of course, like the oxidation of albumen, fat, or sugar, produce heat."2 But this, Fick maintains, does not prove that alcohol can be rightly considered a food unless it be proven that the energy derived from its consumption may be useful to the body. This he does not think clearly demonstrated, and therefore concludes: "Although the relations of the oxidation of alcohol to that of the true nutriments in the animal economy have not yet received a complete physiological explanation, it is certain that alcohol, even when taken in moderation, cannot be classed among the useful nutriments.'

Joined with the view of Schmiedeberg, that alcohol exerts only a soothing or narcotic influence upon the nervous system, this position has been adopted by a small group of physiologists, Drs. Gaule, Forel, and Bunge. We have quoted these somewhat guarded statements of Fick, because they are the original

1 "Als ein Gift werden wir ohne Bedenken jeden Stoff zu bezeichnen haben, der, in verhältnissmässig kleiner Menge dem Blute beigemischt, Störungen in der Verrichtung irgend welches Organs verursacht. Dass der Alkohol ein solcher Stoff ist, kann nicht bezweifelt werden."

2 "Er verbrennt nämlich, in das Blut eingeführt, wie die Nahrungsstoffe zu Kohlensäure und Wasser, und diese Verbrennung muss natürlich wie die Verbrennung von Eiweiss, Fett oder Zucker Wärme erzeugen."

8" Wenn auch die soeben berührten Beziehungen der Verbrennung des Alkohols zur Verbrennung der eigenlichen Nahrungsstoffe im thierischen Organismus physiologisch noch nicht vollständig aufgeklärt sind, das ist gewiss zu den nützlichen Nahrungsstoffen kann auch der mässig genossene Alkohol nicht gezählt werden."

All the above quotations are from the following: Adolph Fick, Die Alkoholfrage, 2d ed., Dresden, 1895, pp. 2-6. A further discussion of this question is given on pp. 20, 21, in connection with the opinions of Professors Kühne, v. Voit, and Dastre, as expressed in their letters.