To TEE EDITOR OF TUB "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—No clearer demonstration of the folly of using alcoholic drinks as food—i.e., as a source of the energy for work produc- tion—could be afforded than the statement in the letter of Mr. C. Bailey, published in last week's Spectator, "that a quart of good beer is nearly equivalent to a quarter of a pound of bread." The bread costs id., the beer costs 12d. (Bass No. 1), or, accepting the statement as he makes it, energy costs twenty-four times more in beer than it does in bread. His statement is, however, unfair to beer. A quart of ale may yield 620 calories of energy, while a quarter of a pound of bread yields 304.* Taking those figures, energy costs in beer twelve times what it costs in bread. The beer, of course, is valueless for the growth and repair of • the body. Surely at such a time as the present it is foolish, if not criminal, to pay twelve times more than is necessary for the energy for work. But it is nonsense to pretend that beer or any other alcoholic drink is taken as a source of energy. We take such drinks because we like them, as a luxury which has become a habit, or for the effect upon the nervous system of the alcohol they contain.—I am, Sir, &c., D. NOEL PATON. University of Glasgow.
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