WHAT ALCOHOL DOES DO.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1006, 17 June 1909, Page 21

WHAT ALCOHOL DOES DO.

That Alcohol does something, both teetotalers and drunkards are agreed, and any medical man who wants a desired effect in a patient can clearly judge by his clinical sense whether it is or not obtained by a certain dose of alcohol. These considerations ap-

ply to the so-called dietetic as well as to the purely medicinal use of alcoholic beverages. In the former case, however, we must never lose sight of the fact that a certain quantity of fluid must be taken by the body during the day, and that the taste and flavour of this fluid may considerably influence the nutritive value which a given individual can extract from a given diet. There are certainly many people who take the lighter forms of alcoholic beverage, as, for instance wine and beer, not because they want or they like the alcohol, but because they can digest and assimilate their food better with a drink of a specific flavour, only to be obtained as a byproduct of alcoholic fermentation under certain conditions. In these cases the flavour is the essential active principle and the alcohol is the adjuvant.—“ The Hospital.”