3. Intoxicants are beverages, such as a cider, beer, ale, wine, brandy, etc., the active principle of which is ethyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol possesses several characteristics in common with the carbonaceous foods - e.g., (1) it is composed of C, H, and O; (2) it is readily oxidized in the liver, yielding CO2 and H2O, which are excreted; (3) it yields heat incident to its oxidation, and this heat naturally augments the body income of heat; (4) ingestion of ethyl alcohol leads to a decrease in the catabolism of carbonaceous foods, and may even "spare" proteins.

In this connection one must not lose sight of the following facts:

1. All vegetable toxins and alkaloids are composed of the same kind of chemical elements as enter into foodstuffs - viz., C, H, O, and N.

2. Toxins and alkaloidal poisons in general are oxidized in the liver through the agency of oxidases, whose function is to oxidize, and thus make harmless substances which would act as protoplasmic poisons on all cells with which they come into contact. When moderate amounts of such toxins are taken the defenses of the system are sufficient to reduce them to a harmless condition, and no immediate injury results. If larger quantities are ingested the full drug effect (narcotic in the case of alcohol) is immediately experienced, the oxidases of the system being unable to defend it against a large dose.

3. All oxidation yields heat, whether it is a normal catabolism or a protective oxidation. That the heat from the oxidation of alcohol is not a normal catabolism for the purpose of heat liberation is evident from the fact that, notwithstanding the liberation of heat on oxidation of alcohol, the temperature of the body falls, because of increased loss of heat from the surface. This increased loss is due to dilatation of the peripheral vessels.

4. Decreased catabolism of carbonaceous or nitrogenous foods following ingestion of a narcotic is a universal fact, depending upon the drug effect and giving to the oxidized narcotic no significance as a food. It may be said without reservation that ethyl alcohol is not a food in the full scientific significance of the word.

Intoxicants can, therefore, have no rational place in the menu or among the beverages of a normal healthy individual. Of its use as a drug adjuvant to various food preparations in the sick room more will be said in a subsequent chapter.