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THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL ON MENTAL AND MUSCULAR ACTIVITY.
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think, undeniable that Mr. Haffkine did a piece of excellent scientific as well as a most humane work in India by his investigations and cultivation experiments in connexion with the discovery and introduction into that we
of a preventative of the disease. As Mr. E. H. Hankin says in his capital little pamphlet on "The Bubonic Plague," published at Allahabad by the Pioneer Press: "If plague is in the neighbourhood the wise man will get inoculated against plague and have his family inoculated against plague as early as possible, even whether or not he is likely to come into contact with
plague-stricken country
infected
persons."
-
CHRISTMAS DINNERS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN. IN another column we print a letter from Alderman and Sheriff Treloar mentioning that the Corporation has again granted the use of the Guildhall for the purpose of an entertainment to the ragged school children of London. Many crippled children are debarred from taking part in such a festivity, but Mr. Treloar has had the happy idea of meeting such cases by sending a hamper of good things to the
sufferer. A movement of this kind is eminently worthy of support, for it is charity which does not pauperise, it sets a good example to individual philanthropists, and it is a token of practical sympathy with our less fortunate brethren. LEPROSY IN THE
UNITED
STATES.
power (or capacity for work) of muscle, but this soon reached9: its limit. It was shown by Professor Kraepelin’s own experi-ments that under the influence of alcohol the force of voluntary cerebral discharges inciting to movement was increased, while the peripheral muscle itself became fatigued morequickly than under normal conditions. Similar experimentswith caffeine showed that the latter really increased endurance. Alcohol made easy the cortical liberation (auslosxcng) of movements, the transformation of ideas and memories of movement into deeds, but did not confer real mental power. The injurious after-effects of alcohol lasted as long as ten, hours. The subjective feeling of power and strength was. due to the facility for liberation of movements from the., The continued use of cortical areas above alluded to. alcohol from day to day-at the rate of 60 grammes per diemdecreased mental ability gradually and made it sink. The consumption of 80 grammes of alcohol-equal to that contained* in two litres of beer-caused the ability for work to sink from the fifth day onwards. If the use of alcohol was thendiscontinued the intellectual power began to rise agaiTh towards its original level, but by reverting to its use theintellectual power began to sink more rapidly than beforeThe results of all the experiments made convinced ProfessorKraepelin that alcohol instead of being a real friend was fu : most untrustworthy comrade.
GOVERNMENT
theI
OCCASIONAL cases of leprosy come to light in United States and some anxiety is felt as to the want of power in the municipal authorities to remove them. At San Francisco, our contemporary the Vtm Tork 11fedilJal Record of Nov. 4th, 1899, says, "there is a woman with advanced leprosy whom the local authorities wish to remove to their leprosy colony in Hawaii. But she objects. At Baltimore a similar difficulty has just been evaded by the death of the patient. The Legislature of the United States has this year empowered the supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service, under the direction of the Secretary to the Treasury, to appoint a committee of medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service to investigate the origin and prevalence of the disease in the States and to report upon the legislation necessary for its prevention and control.
THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL ON MENTAL AND MUSCULAR ACTIVITY. AT the seventy-fifth annual meeting of the German Association of Scientists and Physicians held at Munich from Sept. 18th to 23rd last Professor E. Kraepelin of Heidelberg delivered an address on the Influence of Alcohol on Man. He declared that the way to combat the evils of alcoholism was by making careful experiments to ascertain its bad or good influences and by laying the results before the public. This line of work he had pursued for some years in conjunction with several colleagues. He found that speech-utterance and the association of words and ideas in thought were favourably influenced and facilitated by alcohol, but that the quick and ready appreciation of disconnected syllables-as employed in psycho-physical experiments-was dulled and diminished. Experiments were tried with caffeine, bromine compounds, &c., but results like those obtained from the use of alcohol could only be secured by using paraldehyde. Alcohol has proved itself to belong to the group of narcotics (soporifics). Dr. Vogel’s experiments had shown that alcohol increased the ability to count beats while observing the metronome but decreased the ability for simple addition of numbers. Dr. Frey had observed that 20 grammes of alcohol were injurious to fresh unfatigued muscle but increased temporarily the power or capacity for work of an already tired muscle. Orszekowski of Moscow made similar experiments in 1894 and showed that alcohol at first increased the
THE
OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES AT INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDICAL ETHICS.
of the French Republic’ instructed the French Ambassador in London to approach the British Govern-ment with respect to the International Congress on Medical Ethics which will in Paris from July 23rd to 28th, 1900. The object this communication will be to invitethe British Government to appoint official delegates to attend the Congress in question. Of course a similarwill be addressed to other invitation Governments, and there is every reason to believe that in many instances As a rule, however, these invitations will be accepted. the British Government has shown but little desire to participate officially in the many international congresses which have been held. For instance, at all the earlier International Congresses ofHygiene there were no official representatives of Great Britain. Of late, however, there has been some departure from this practice ofabstention. At the last International Congress of Hygiene, held at Madrid, there were official representatives appointed by the British War Office and the Home Office. But as this will be the first International Congress on Medical Ethics ever held there is In so far as it is a congress of no precedent to follow. medical unions seeking to organise medical men throughout the world for the defence of their economical interests and for the maintenance of the dignity of the profession such) work of organisation must be carried forward independently of any governmental intervention. But the Congress win also deal with all legislation affecting the practice of medicine and also with the economical interests of medical men who are in the service of public authorities, such ae medical officers of health, Poor-law medical officers, the conditions under which medical expert evidence is to be given in courts of justice, &c. These are all matters that are and in the sections where these governed by legislation questions are to be discussed the presence of representatives of the Governments concerned would be useful. Therefore is to be hoped that the British Government will give due consideration to the invitation which it is about, to receive. For the profession at large it should be a matter of congratulation and of encouragement to find that the French Government is not only itselfseeking to THE Minister for
has,
we
are
Foreign Affairs officially informed,
beheld A-
think, undeniable that Mr. Haffkine did a piece of excellent scientific as well as a most humane work in India by his investigations and cultivation experiments in connexion with the discovery and introduction into that we
of a preventative of the disease. As Mr. E. H. Hankin says in his capital little pamphlet on "The Bubonic Plague," published at Allahabad by the Pioneer Press: "If plague is in the neighbourhood the wise man will get inoculated against plague and have his family inoculated against plague as early as possible, even whether or not he is likely to come into contact with
plague-stricken country
infected
persons."
-
CHRISTMAS DINNERS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN. IN another column we print a letter from Alderman and Sheriff Treloar mentioning that the Corporation has again granted the use of the Guildhall for the purpose of an entertainment to the ragged school children of London. Many crippled children are debarred from taking part in such a festivity, but Mr. Treloar has had the happy idea of meeting such cases by sending a hamper of good things to the
sufferer. A movement of this kind is eminently worthy of support, for it is charity which does not pauperise, it sets a good example to individual philanthropists, and it is a token of practical sympathy with our less fortunate brethren. LEPROSY IN THE
UNITED
STATES.
power (or capacity for work) of muscle, but this soon reached9: its limit. It was shown by Professor Kraepelin’s own experi-ments that under the influence of alcohol the force of voluntary cerebral discharges inciting to movement was increased, while the peripheral muscle itself became fatigued morequickly than under normal conditions. Similar experimentswith caffeine showed that the latter really increased endurance. Alcohol made easy the cortical liberation (auslosxcng) of movements, the transformation of ideas and memories of movement into deeds, but did not confer real mental power. The injurious after-effects of alcohol lasted as long as ten, hours. The subjective feeling of power and strength was. due to the facility for liberation of movements from the., The continued use of cortical areas above alluded to. alcohol from day to day-at the rate of 60 grammes per diemdecreased mental ability gradually and made it sink. The consumption of 80 grammes of alcohol-equal to that contained* in two litres of beer-caused the ability for work to sink from the fifth day onwards. If the use of alcohol was thendiscontinued the intellectual power began to rise agaiTh towards its original level, but by reverting to its use theintellectual power began to sink more rapidly than beforeThe results of all the experiments made convinced ProfessorKraepelin that alcohol instead of being a real friend was fu : most untrustworthy comrade.
GOVERNMENT
theI
OCCASIONAL cases of leprosy come to light in United States and some anxiety is felt as to the want of power in the municipal authorities to remove them. At San Francisco, our contemporary the Vtm Tork 11fedilJal Record of Nov. 4th, 1899, says, "there is a woman with advanced leprosy whom the local authorities wish to remove to their leprosy colony in Hawaii. But she objects. At Baltimore a similar difficulty has just been evaded by the death of the patient. The Legislature of the United States has this year empowered the supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service, under the direction of the Secretary to the Treasury, to appoint a committee of medical officers of the Marine Hospital Service to investigate the origin and prevalence of the disease in the States and to report upon the legislation necessary for its prevention and control.
THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL ON MENTAL AND MUSCULAR ACTIVITY. AT the seventy-fifth annual meeting of the German Association of Scientists and Physicians held at Munich from Sept. 18th to 23rd last Professor E. Kraepelin of Heidelberg delivered an address on the Influence of Alcohol on Man. He declared that the way to combat the evils of alcoholism was by making careful experiments to ascertain its bad or good influences and by laying the results before the public. This line of work he had pursued for some years in conjunction with several colleagues. He found that speech-utterance and the association of words and ideas in thought were favourably influenced and facilitated by alcohol, but that the quick and ready appreciation of disconnected syllables-as employed in psycho-physical experiments-was dulled and diminished. Experiments were tried with caffeine, bromine compounds, &c., but results like those obtained from the use of alcohol could only be secured by using paraldehyde. Alcohol has proved itself to belong to the group of narcotics (soporifics). Dr. Vogel’s experiments had shown that alcohol increased the ability to count beats while observing the metronome but decreased the ability for simple addition of numbers. Dr. Frey had observed that 20 grammes of alcohol were injurious to fresh unfatigued muscle but increased temporarily the power or capacity for work of an already tired muscle. Orszekowski of Moscow made similar experiments in 1894 and showed that alcohol at first increased the
THE
OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES AT INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON MEDICAL ETHICS.
of the French Republic’ instructed the French Ambassador in London to approach the British Govern-ment with respect to the International Congress on Medical Ethics which will in Paris from July 23rd to 28th, 1900. The object this communication will be to invitethe British Government to appoint official delegates to attend the Congress in question. Of course a similarwill be addressed to other invitation Governments, and there is every reason to believe that in many instances As a rule, however, these invitations will be accepted. the British Government has shown but little desire to participate officially in the many international congresses which have been held. For instance, at all the earlier International Congresses ofHygiene there were no official representatives of Great Britain. Of late, however, there has been some departure from this practice ofabstention. At the last International Congress of Hygiene, held at Madrid, there were official representatives appointed by the British War Office and the Home Office. But as this will be the first International Congress on Medical Ethics ever held there is In so far as it is a congress of no precedent to follow. medical unions seeking to organise medical men throughout the world for the defence of their economical interests and for the maintenance of the dignity of the profession such) work of organisation must be carried forward independently of any governmental intervention. But the Congress win also deal with all legislation affecting the practice of medicine and also with the economical interests of medical men who are in the service of public authorities, such ae medical officers of health, Poor-law medical officers, the conditions under which medical expert evidence is to be given in courts of justice, &c. These are all matters that are and in the sections where these governed by legislation questions are to be discussed the presence of representatives of the Governments concerned would be useful. Therefore is to be hoped that the British Government will give due consideration to the invitation which it is about, to receive. For the profession at large it should be a matter of congratulation and of encouragement to find that the French Government is not only itselfseeking to THE Minister for
has,
we
are
Foreign Affairs officially informed,
beheld A-