alimentary substances to have been elaborated and incorporated in the living cells. It is supposed that an appreciable time is required for this complete assimilation. The products of alimentary digestion are therefore in all probability still in the blood, and in the interstitial liquids in communication with it. The increase of oxygen consumed would show that a considerable portion of these nutritive substances absorbed and passed into the blood would be oxydized and then and there destroyed. But this interpretation, however probable it may be, does not really fit in with the facts in such a way that we may consider it as proved. Certain experiments by Zuntz and Mering are opposed to the idea that combustion in the blood is easy. These physiologists injected certain oxydizable substances into the vessels without being able to detect any instantaneous oxidation. It is only fair to add that against these fruitless attempts other more fortunate experiments may be quoted.
Category of Purely Thermogenic Foods, with Accelerated Evolution. Alcohol. Acids of Fruits.—The accelerated evolution of foods—an evolution which takes place in the blood, that is to say outside the really living elements—remains, therefore, very uncertain as far as ordinary food is concerned. It has been thought that it was a little less uncertain as far as the special category of alcohol, acids of fruits, and glycerine is concerned.
Some authors consider these bodies as pure thermogens. When alcohol is ingested in moderate doses, they say that about a tenth of the quantity absorbed becomes fixed in the living tissues; the rest is "circulating alcohol." It is oxidized
