Diet and food considered in relation to strength and power of endurance, training and athletics / by Alexander Haig.

  • Haig, Alexander, 1853-1924.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Diet and food considered in relation to strength and power of endurance, training and athletics / by Alexander Haig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The same applies to those who constantly resort to stimulants; they are drawing on their reserves, the amount of stimulant must be increased as the reserves diminish, and this, again, is exactly what we find in Nature. It has been truly said that the man who relies upon stimulants for strength is lost, for he is drawing upon a reserve fund which is not com- pletely replaced, and physiological bankruptcy must inevitably ensue. This is what the stimulants, such as tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, opium and cocaine do for those who trust in them ; they none of them introduce albumen, available for conversion into force and urea, they merely aid the calling out of reserves. Alcohol and tobacco are stimulants only, and by improving the circulation (like the acids pre- viously spoken of), they call out a certain quantity of albumen, force, and urea (see fig. 5); but tea and coffee are infinitely worse, for though at first they act as stimulants in something the same way as the acids and alcohol, later on they come into the blood as the very uric acid which is causing the depression. We have seen above that fatigue is partly due to deficiency of albumens, and partly to impaired tissue circulation rendering the stock of albumens useless because they cannot get to