HABITUAL DRUNKENNESS.

936 an examination subsequent to a course of lectures it points rather to the way in which the habit is gradually domestic hygiene which had been arranged in conjunc- developed by over-indulgence than to the existence of a distion with the National Health Society, it was publicly stated tinct disease,hereditary or acquired," except in the sense of that the National Health Society would be willing to co- being a gradual impairment of the force of the will. He operate in the formation of a new society by means of con- does not appear to realise the bearing of his remarks upon junction, and it would be no doubt feasible to take the the pre-existence of a disease element when he distinctly Smoke Abatement Society and other kindred associations states that the habitual drunkard "has created a desire, into the combination, and thus form a really strong having previously weakened his will to control it and centre for the diffusion of sanitary knowledge through- his physical strength to withstand it." A little later he out the country. A well-endowed Royal Institute of Sani- begs the whole question in saying that the vice and sin are tation, with lecture hall, library, laboratories, museum, the result and expression of mental and physical malady. and schools for technical training in cooking and other Even if we grant, with Dr. Norman Kerr in his work on branches of domestic hygiene, would be an institution of Inebriety, that curative measures are more likely to be great value to the public at large. The various societies adopted by a sympathetic recognition of a disease element. which now exist are none of them very flourishing; they in dipsomania, we cannot but feel that the scientific basis all do good work, but the struggle for existence very upon which such an assertion can be satisfactorily founded seriously hampers their efforts, and wealthy persons who demands more pathological proof-if, indeed, it is capable of are anxious to help forward the cause of sanitation are a proof. Fortunately, meanwhile, there is very little room little puzzled as to the claims of the various societies for for doubting the advantages derivable from enforced detensupport. Union is strength, and we are very glad to think tion in a home or retreat, provided that it is under suitably that no petty jealousies have arisen to bar the way to com- strict management. A lax interpretation of the Act cerbination in so far as the Parkes Museum and the Sanitary tainly imperils the ultimate success of the treatment, the Institute are concerned, and, if the sat"’e admirable temper essence of which consists in enforced total abstinence be maintained, we trust that the very desirable concentra- from alcoholic drinks for a prolonged period. Cures have tion of effort which we have indicated may soon be brought been effected by these means when it has been sufficient toabout. If this end were attained, we think there can break through the habit of intoxication in the presence of be little doubt that a large and substantial measure of an adequate motive and a real desire for cure, and to sub. public support would be accorded to the new Society. In stitute for it the habit of abstinence and self-controls the meantime we congratulate the members of the Parkes There can be no doubt that the Habitual Drunkards Act Museum and the Sanitary Institute on being the pioneers in of 1879 will require considerable extension of the powers this important movement. of control before its advantages can be of universal appli. cation. The article in the Westminster Review should do, HABITUAL DRUNKENNESS. good if its scientific explanations are regarded leniently DR. NORMAN KERR’S book upon Inebriety has appeared and its experiences sympathetically. so recently that it would seem to be something rather like a " literary coincidence " for an article upon " Habitual Drunkenness" to appear in the May number of the 1VestA NEW ANTISEPTIC SOAP. minster Review. In spite of its anonymity, the paper is an UNTIL quite recently a satisfactory soap containing as an important one, well worthy of notice. In the main it one of the salts of mercury has been difficult to follows the lines so clearly laid down by Dr. Norman Kerr: antiseptic on account of the alkaline soap refusing to yield habitual drunkenness is to be regarded rather as a disease prepare a good lather, oleate of mercury being formed-a compound than a mere moral weakness. Still, the article has a certain which has little or no germicidal action. One of the most picturesque vividness in purporting to be the personal exantiseptics of the mercury salts is, as is well known, perience of one who has voluntarily placed himself under powerful the bichloride. Moreover, it is cheap, and easily soluble, but restraint in accordance with the provisions of the Habitual it has the disadvantages of being extremely poisonous and Drunkards Act of 1879. The account he gives of his reduced by albuminoid matter, with which it combines, decline and fall is not an overdrawn picture of the easily thus rendered inactive. In a paper recently read being evil wrought by drink. Many ineffectual attempts to reform before the of Chemical Society Industry in Glasgow by John were made by him before looking the matter fairly in the face the solubility of the red biniodide of mercury Thomson, aud seeking medical help. The advice he received urged seclusion in a retreat, but gave three alternative possible (which is claimed to be even a more powerful antiseptic methods of rescue. Of "divine help" he remarks that no than the bichloride) in iodide of potassium has been made a. Act of Parliament can be expected to provide consciences use of. A soap can thus be easily prepared containing in is of biniodide a It the soluble form. for anybody. The "avoidance of old haunts and drinking certain proportion to be permanent, having no tendency to separate, and stated he believes is useless, since as a rule the companions," habitual drunkard " drinks in solitary communion with his to be more germicidal in its properties than any other antiseptic soap yet known. Experiments were made to demonown bitter thoughts." The third alternative, of an "effort of the will," he meets by saying that under the habitual use strate this. Sterilised silk threads were suspended in a of stimulants " the will is paralysed." Before proceeding solution of the biniodide soap (1 gramme of soap in 120 further with his account, he gives what appears to be a very cubic centimetres of water) for ten minutes, after being containing well-known microsatisfactory definition of an habitual drunkard as a " man saturated with solutions which were streptococcus scarlatinæ organisms, amongst or woman whose craving for intoxicants is greater than the bacillus (Klein), subtilis, sarcina, white bacillus from orange power of the will to resist drinking them when that power is exerted at its maximum strength." In attempting to Tweed water, organisms from putrid urine, the micrococcus of osteo-myelitis, aspergillus nigrescens, spores from various prove that dipsomania is a mental disease of a virulent nature due to physical causes, the author goes over well- fungi, yellow micrococcus from pus, putrefactive organisms, trodden ground, and yet fails to be thoroughly convincing. bacterium termo, and bacillus scarlatinæ (Edington). The He quotes largely from various medical authorities to show threads were then carefully washed to remove the soap, and that stimulants have a special tendency to increase the placed in sterilised gelatine in the ordinary way. The automatic activity, and at the same time to weaken the threads were controlled by first sterilising, and then controlling power of the will; but even if this be granted, plunging into nutrient gelatine; if no growth occurred,

passed on

-