Foods are also rendered impure or weakened through adulteration, the watering of milk being a familiar example. The manufacture of jellies, preserves, sirups, and various kinds of pickles and condiments has perhaps afforded the largest field for adulterations, although it is possible to adulterate nearly all of the leading articles of food. A long step in the prevention of food and drug adulteration was taken in this country by the passage of the _Pure Food Law_. By forcing manufacturers of foods and medicines to state on printed labels the composition of their products, this law has made it possible for the consumer to know what he is purchasing and putting into his body. *Alcohol not a Food.*—Many people in this and other countries drink in different beverages, such as whisky, beer, wine, etc., a varying amount of alcohol. This substance has a temporary stimulating or exciting effect, and the claim has been made that it serves as a food. Recently it has been shown that alcohol when introduced into the body in small quantities and in a greatly diluted form, is nearly all oxidized, yielding energy as does fat or sugar. If no harmful effects attended the use of alcohol, it might on this account be classed as a food. But alcohol is known to be harmful to the body. When used in large quantities, it injures nearly all of the tissues, and when taken habitually, even in small doses, it leads to the formation of the alcohol habit which is now recognized and treated as a disease. This and other facts show that alcohol is not adapted to the body plan of taking on and using new material (Chapter XI), and no substance lacking in this respect can properly be classed as a food.(56) Instead of classing alcohol as a food, it should be placed in that long list of substances which are introduced into the body for special purposes and which are known by the general name of *Drugs.*—Drugs act strongly upon the body and tend to bring about unusual and unnatural results. Their use should in no way be confused with that of foods. If taken in health, they tend to disturb the physiological balance of the body by unduly increasing or diminishing the action of the different organs. In disease where this balance is already disturbed, they may be administered for their counteractive effects, but always under the advice and direction of a physician. Knowing the nature of the disturbance which the drug produces, the physician can administer it to advantage, should the body be out of physiological balance, or diseased. Not only are drugs of no value in health, but their use is liable to do much harm. NATURE OF DIGESTION