holic. In the lungs, tubercle affected sixtyone persons of the alcoholic, forty-four of the non-alcoholic. Tubercle in the brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, bowels, mesenteric glands, and peritoneum was twice as common in the alcoholic as in the non-alcoholic. The conclusion is therefore inevitable, that alcohol engenders tubercle in the brain, inflammations, atrophy, hæmorrhages; in the heart and vessels, atheroma, hypertrophy, and other affections, were all more common in the alcoholic than in the non-alcoholic series. The evidence in kidney disease was not so conclusive, but some forms of kidney disease appear to be increased. The author sums up thus:

Alcohol causes fatty infiltration and fibroid encroachment; it engenders tubercle, encourages suppuration, and retards healing; it produces untimely atheroma, invites hæmorrhage, and anticipates age. The most constant fatty change, replacement by oil of the material of epithelial cells and muscular fibres, though probably nearly universal, is most noticeable in the liver, the heart, and the kidney.

There would appear also to be special diseases produced by alcohol besides the more common and generally-known ones of delirium tremens, alcoholism, &c. &c., e.g.—

M. Galezowski has described a peculiar affection of the eyes, which he calls "alcoholic amblyopia," especially prevalent during the siege of Paris. In the five months of the siege fifty patients presented themselves, while during the twelve months preceding the siege only nineteen were met with. The disease was ascribed to the habit of taking alcoholic drinks in the morning, fasting.

Handfield Jones and Wilks have also described cases of alcoholic paraplegia.

It would also appear tolerably well established that alcohol either causes or increases insanity, though there may be another explanation of the fact that many mad people have been great drinkers. A large proportion of those subject to insanity are driven by their morbid minds to drink, so that it may be "insanity causes drink," not "drink causes insanity." The following table is given by Dr. Joseph Williams :—

The

The Effects of Alcohol in Disease.-This subject has not been scientifically investigated. Dr. Wilks has prescribed it, however, in the form of rectified spirit, but the cases as yet are too few to form a correct estimate. truth really is that it has been prescribed, even by the most eminent men, under the forms of beer, wine, and spirits, the strength, adulterations, and composition of which are seldom in any given sample known, in the most opposite affections, and as a result, it has been on the one hand extravagantly given, and lauded to a most unwarrantable degree, while on the other hand, by another class of observers it has been entirely withheld. These facts, no doubt, prompted the following document, which was published in 1871, and signed by a long list of some of the most eminent members in the profession; others, however, equally eminent, refused, and withheld their signature on various grounds :

As it is believed that the inconsiderate prescription of large quantities of alcoholic liquids by medical men for their patients has given rise, in many instances, to the formation of intemperate habits, the undersigned, while unable to abandon the use of alcohol in the treatment of certain cases of disease, are yet of opinion that no medical practitioner should prescribe it without a sense of grave responsibility. They believe that alcohol, in whatever form, should be prescribed with as much care as any powerful drug, and that the directions for its use should be so framed as not to be interpreted as a sanction for excess, or necessarily for the continuance of its use when the occasion is past.

They are also of opinion that many people immensely exaggerate the value of alcohol as an article of diet; and since no class of men see so much of its ill effects, and possess such power to restrain its abuse, as members of their own profession, they hold that every medical practitioner is bound to exert his utmost influence to inculcate habits of great moderation in the use of alcoholic liquids.

Being also firmly convinced that the great amount of drinking of alcoholic liquors among the working classes of this country is one of the greatest evils of the day, destroying more than anything else the health, happiness, and welfare of those classes, and neutralising to a large extent the great industrial prosperity which Providence has placed within the reach of this nation, the undersigned would gladly support any wise legislation which would tend to restrict within proper limits the use of alcoholic beverages, and gradually introduce habits of temperance.

It is still a matter of dispute as to how alcohol is eliminated from the body, and whether any of it is destroyed, notwithstanding the researches of Percy, Strauch, Masing, Lallemand, Duroy, Parkes, Dupré, Anstie, Thudichum, and others. Among the most recent are those of Subbotur on rabbits. The general result is contradictory. Some affirm that it is eliminated as aldehyd, others as carbonic acid; but the former supposition is almost disproved, and the experiments of Dr. E. Smith show that the carbonic acid is decreased by brandy and gin, and increased by rum. The only probable supposition which facts support

tends to show that the alcohol is turned into acetic acid in the body, some of which unites with potash and other bases and some is destroyed. All pretty well agree that in the form of spirits alcohol is of no value whatever as a food; but in the form of beer and wine it has slight dietetic powers, naturally varying with the amount and nature of the different substances held in solution in these beverages. See ALCOHOLIC Beverages.

Drunkenness and the consumption of spirits would appear to be on the increase by the different returns in our own country and abroad. The imports of spirits in the seven years from 1850 to 1857 amounted to 70,740,980 galls., whilst the imports in the seven years following-viz., from 1857 to 1864-amounted to 78,016,071 galls., showing an increase of 7,305,091 galls. The population has, however, increased in the time, and a deduction on that account, and a correction in one or two other heads, are required; still, that there is increase is indisputable.

litres for every inhabitant, which is even greater than the highest of the above figures. The demoralisation also of the French army in the late Franco-Prussian war is almost unanimously ascribed to the excessive use of spirituous liquors.

Drunkenness, as modified by Race.-The Massachusetts Board of Health in 1870 undertook an elaborate inquiry into drunkenness as it existed in different parts of the world, and issued a report on it which has been analysed and summarised by Dr. Druitt (Medical Times and Gazette, April 15, 1872). The answers they obtained as to the effects of drink from the 164 physicians in Massachusetts were extremely conflicting, but the information gained as to the comparative sobriety was instructive. Dr. Druitt thus summarises the evidence:

We may arrange the various populations, concerning whom the correspondents of the Massachusetts Board sent reports under four categories in descending scale, beginning with (1) those who abstain; (2) those who drink, but in such moderation that drunkenness forms no feature of the place or

people; (3) populations amongst whom drunkenness is pretty common, but of an innocent, jolly, and not criminal character; and (4) populations disgraced by drunkenness, accompanied with brutality and

crime.

1. Under the total abstinence head we may arrange the Mussulman populations of Constantinople, Alexandria, Zanzibar, and the people of Hayti.

2. The population is shown to drink, but without any features of excess, by the answers received from Ancona and Florence, Athens, Cadiz, Teneriffe, Funchal, Fayal, Malta, Beerut, Geneva, Vienna, Bremen, Leipsic, Nicaragua, Pernambuco, St Juan, Pare, Trinidad, Lima, and Honolulu.

3. People are shown to drink too freely, but innocently and without violence, by the answers from Trieste, Basel, Berne, Zurich, Frankfort, Copenhagen, Elsinore, Yokohama, Hiojo, and Santa

Cruz.

4. In the lowest category rank the answers from Liverpool, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Odessa, Toronto, Cologne, Colombo.

So that highest in the scale of temperance come the Turks and Arabs; next the Iberians, Levantines, Greeks, and Latin races; lower down, the

Celt; lowest of all, the so-called Anglo-Saxon of either continent.

It would seem from this that a great deal depends upon the nature of the liquid imbibed, whether wine, beer, or spirits. See ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.

It therefore appears unhappily too true that there is really an increase in the consumption of spirituous liquors in most countries, and as a natural, though not inevitable, sequence, an increase of drunkenness. Pro

fessor Levi gives the following statistics on this subject in regard to England: In 1860, the committals for drunkenness in England and Wales were 88,000; and in 1870, 134,000, an increase of 50 per cent. In Manchester the increase from 1860 to 1870 was 375 per cent., or, computed according to the increase of population, 353 per cent. In London, drunkenness is in the proportion of 543 per 1000; in Leeds, 7:40; in Manchester, 3113; and in Liverpool, 42-82. It must be remembered, however, that these figures are based upon mere committals, which greatly depend on the activity of the police, and the noisy or quiet character of the drunkard.

Whether Alcohol is necessary or not.-All experience, both at home and abroad, shows, by facts that cannot be disputed, that a person can do quite as hard work without alcohol as with it; and probably, as the limits between moderation and excess are easily passed, and as the generality of mankind, even without intending it, err on the latter side, the result is that a comparison between total abstainers and even temperate men generally terminates in favour of the former. It would appear that total abstainers live longer, are better citizens, and can do more work than the rest of mankind. The figures of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution go far to prove the above.

This insurance society is divided into two sections. One section consists of abstainers, the other of persons selected as not known to be intemperate. The claims for five years anticipated in the temperance section were £100,446, but the actual claims were only £72,676. In the general section the anticipated claims were £196,352; the actual claims no less than £230,297. In war, the march of 2000 miles in the War of Independence by Cornwallis and his troops (1783), the Maroon War of Jamaica, the 400 miles' march of an English army across the desert from Komer, on the Red Sea, a march of 1000 miles in the Kaffir War, experience at sieges, in action, in hot, temperate, and cold climates, where abstinence was either forced through circumstances, or followed, shows to every unprejudiced mind that soldiers endure more fatigue, are healthier, and fight better without stimulants than with them, and this fact is endorsed by every commander of the present day. The excess and abuse of spirits, as before remarked, lost the French their military prestige in the late war.

In very hot and very cold climates the Indian observers and the Arctic explorers all unite in condemning its use in the slightest excess, or even in moderate doses. It does

not warm the body in cold climates, and the reaction that follows the exciting of the circulation is followed by a dangerous depression; whilst in hot, it combines with the climate, and quickly produces disease.

In this country and others, various attempts have been made to repress the growing evil of drunkenness. Mr. Dalrymple introduced a bill in 1871, which, if it had passed, would have committed the poorer class of habitual drunkards to a reformatory, while, practically, it would have allowed the opulent drunkard to go free, unless he was convicted of drunkenness. The American law makes no invidious distinction in this way, but treats all alike. The following is an American statute on the subject :

Revised Statutes of New York.-Title II. of the custody and disposition of the estates of idiots, lunatics, persons of unsound mind, and drunkards.

Section II-Whenever the overseers of the poor of any city or town in this State discover any person resident therein to be an habitual drunkard, having

property to the amount of 250 dollars, which may be endangered by means of such drunkenness, it shall be their duty to make application to the Court of Chancery for the exercise of its powers and juris

dictions.

Section III.-If such drunkard have property to an amount less than 250 dollars, the overseers may make such application to the Court of Common Pleas of the county, which is hereby vested with the same powers in relation to the person and real and personal estate of such drunkard as are by this title conferred in the Court of Chancery, and shall in all respects proceed in like manner, subject to an appeal to the Court of Chancery.

In England the Total Abstinence Society have made great efforts to inculcate their doctrines. Unfortunately, however, zeal so often leads their votaries beyond the bounds of discretion, that it brings them into ridicule, although they certainly have reason and experience on their side.

At Versailles, the mayor in 1850 established temperance prizes, varying from 2000 francs to 50. These were conferred upon the most honest, frugal, and temperate workmen in Versailles.

Alcoholometry This word signifies the determination of the amount of alcohol in any given liquid. This may be done in a great variety of ways.

1. By using instruments called hydrometers, which, by sinking to a certain depth, indicate the specific gravity. The Revenue use Sykes' hydrometer, but there are others made of glass which are in use, and are much cheaper.

2. By distilling the alcohol in a more or less pure state from the liquid supposed to contain it, and then taking its specific gravity. 3. Gröning's method - from the temperature of the vapour.

4. From the boiling-point.

5. From the expansion of the liquid when heated. 6. From the tension of the vapour. (Geissler's alcoholometer.).