Foods give force to the body.
Dr. Richardson says :—
"We learn in respect to alcohol that the temporary excitement is produced at the expense of the animal matter and animal force, and that the ideas of the necessity of resorting to it as a food, to build up the body or to lift up the forces of the body, are ideas as solemnly false as they are widely disseminated."
Dr. Benjamin Brodie says in Physiological Inquiries:—
"Stimulants do not create nerve power; they merely enable you, as it were, to use up that which is left."
Dr. E. Smith :—
"There is no evidence that it increases nervous influence, while there is much evidence that it lessens nervous power."
Dr. Wm. Hargreaves, of Philadelphia :—
"It is sometimes said by the advocates and defenders of alcohol, that by its use force is generated more abundantly. This it certainly cannot do, as it does not furnish anything to feed the blood or to store up nourishment to replenish the expenditure. For by their own theory, the increase of action must cause an increase of wear and tear; hence alcohol instead of sustaining life or vitality, must cause a direct waste or expenditure of vital force."
Dr. Auguste Forel, of Switzerland :—
"All alcoholic liquors are poisons, and especially brain-poisons, and their use shortens life. They cannot therefore be regarded as sources of nourishment or force. They should be resisted as much as opium, morphia, cocaine, hashish and the like."
