roper application of water to the
surface, or with the internal administration of sulphate of
quinia, salicylic acid, digitalis, etc. that no one thinks of
using it for antipyretic purposes."--Dr. N. S. Davis in
_Principles and Practice of Medicine_.

PROFESSOR ATWATER'S CONCLUSIONS UPON ALCOHOL AS A FUEL-FOOD.

In 1899 a decided sensation was caused by the announcement that Prof.
Atwater, of Middletown, Conn., had proved that alcohol is a fuel-food
equal in value to carbohydrates and fats. The study later of Prof.
Atwater's report of his investigations led to prolonged discussions
among medical men interested in the alcohol question, and his theory
that alcohol is a food because it is oxidized in the body was vigorously
opposed by many scientists of high standing. Professor Abel, of Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, an investigator of alcohol who worked
with the Committee of Fifty, said on this point:--

"Oxidizability cannot be made the measure of usefulness in
regard to this substance."

Professor Gruber, president of the Royal Institute of Hygiene, Munich,
said:--

"Does alcohol truly deserve to be called a food substance?
Obviously, only such substances can be called food material, or
be employed for food, as, like albumen, fat, and sugar, exert
non-poisonous influence in the amounts in which they reach the
blood and must circulate in it in order to nourish * * * *
Although alcohol contributes energy it diminishes working
ability. We are not able to find that its energy is turned to
account for nerve and muscle work. Very small amounts, whose
food value is insignificant, show an injurious effect upon the
nervous system."

Sir Victor Horsley, the well-known London surgeon, said:--

"We know that alcohol lowers the temperature of the body. It can
only do that by diminishing the activity of the vital processes.
It also diminishes very greatly the power of the muscles, and it
diminishes the intellectual power of the nervous system. To call
an agent that causes such diminution of activity throughout the
whole body a food is ridiculous."

An editorial in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_ said:

"The fallacy of the reasoning which would place alcohol among
the foods is very apparent when we put it in the form of a
syllogism: All foods are oxidized in the body; alcohol is
oxidized in the