lowed by cough and dyspnoea, and is occasionally accompanied by vomiting. In order to relieve these distressing symptoms the men often drink whiskey.. The late Dr. C. D. Purdon, in a pamphlet on 'The Mortality of Flax Mill Workers' (1873) said: "The consumption of alcoholic drinks is also producing sad havoc. . . . If I may single out a class that injure themselves more than any other, I would mention the hecklers, for when they begin to suffer from the effects of dust, they commence to drink, and go on using alcoholic beverages till at last they die from the effects of drink, or hasten the advance of chest affections by its inordinate consumption." " It is a reasonable question whether, in such occupations, from the purely business point of view it would not be advantageous for both employer and workman if the former should provide, free of cost or at a nominal expense, refreshing and harmless drinks, which would relieve the physical discomfort accompanying these forms of labor and by so much reduce the temptation to use the alcoholic beverages which diminish working efficiency, and in impairing health and shortening life reduce the workman's productivity. From this and much similar evidence that might be added, it is evident how important to the life and health of workmen and their families, and to the financial interest of employers, is knowledge of the fact that alcohol instead of being a true alleviator of the dangers and hardships connected with many industries, is in truth an augmenter of both. Alcohol as a Factor in Nervous Impairment BY DR. LEY Chief Physician of the Sanitarium of Fort Jaco, Belgium HEN we speak of the action of alcohol WH on the nervous system, we include under this name all alcoholic drinks, distilled or fermented. Whether found in beer, wine or spirits, alcohol remains a chemical substance of welldetermined formula, and its toxic action in the human system is the same. The alcohol in beer is more diluted than in wine, and in wine still more than in gin-that is all the difference. The ravages of gin and other spirits are more palpable than those of beer and wine, as the poison is there more concentrated and its small volume makes one toss it off with greater readiness. FORMS OF ALCOHOL POISONING You all recognize the symptoms of alcohol poisoning, because "drunkenness" is really only acute and rapid poisoning by a toxic substance. I am not going to dwell upon the shame and misery of drunkenness. Allow me to say, however, that the "moderate" drinkers are very few who have never been intoxicated, those who in the course of a banquet have never allowed themselves to be carried away to actions capable of ruining their future and their happiness. All physicians know the serious diseases contracted as the outcome of banquets, where the patient has consumed-always [he says] in "moderate" manner-drinks adorned with hygienic names. Slow and chronic intoxication without drunkenness is not less serious. It is entirely possible to produce it by beer, and I have personally seen in Munich cases of delirium tremens in persons who were not drinkers of spirits. Drinkers show quite quickly the alcoholic. tremor. One often finds also with them pains in the limbs, due to nerve poisoning; this nervous affection is often taken for rheumatism; it is alcoholic polyneuritis. SLACKENING OF MENTAL AND MORAL SELFCONTROL Mental troubles, slight at first, later more serious, are frequent in the drinker. His character changes first; he becomes irascible, suspicious. Sometimes he becomes a true neurasthenic. With women, it is not rare to meet hysterical phenomena due to the use of alcohol, under the form of wine taken at the pastry-shop, of stout taken for strength, or of spirits to promote sleep. The drinker often quickly becomes indifferent to his family. Jealousy is frequent, and a considerable number of cases of jealous frenzy are of alcoholic origin. Variations in humor are frequent; the drinker passes readily from a period of black despair to exuberant joy. If one analyzes the action of alcohol on the brain centres, it is quickly evident that it is the higher centres which are first attacked; it is brain control which disappears and leaves the field to the lower instincts. The wellknown condition of persons after a banquet is typical from this point of view. Hence abstinence is to be advised for those who would always keep control over themselves, that moral rein without which there is no dignity in man. THE ILLUSIONS WHICH ALCOHOL PRODUCES A very serious action of alcohol on the nervous system is its power of illusion. Alcohol is a deceiver, and this, perhaps, is one of the reasons why it is difficult to combat. It gives the illusion of strength and well-being, at least momentarily, and experimenters themselves have had this impression in their researches. Thus the sharp-shooters who practiced shooting during periods of abstinence and of alcohol consumption had the idea that they shot better during the alcohol period. The results showed, however, that the shooting was much better when they were not taking the alcohol. ABSTINENCE THE MOST FORMIDABLE WEAPON In the social action with regard to alcohol, one of three different positions may be taken: There are, first, the pleasure seekers, indifferent to the miseries of lay alcoholism. Then there are those who, moved by the misery caused by alcohol, decide to use it "moderately," and occasionally declaim against this evil in the circle of their friends. But sometimes their moderation relaxes a little and they themselves do not well know how to mark the limits of it. Finally, there are those who oppose to the alcohol evil a radical remedy and set the example of abstinence. This is evidently the only truly efficacious method. When one considers the terrible evils caused by this formidable giant, there is no weapon too powerful to forge for the struggle; and the best advice that one can give to all who wish truly and sincerely to enter the lists against it, is to practice complete abstinence.-Translated for THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE JOURNAL. How Alcohol Produces Its Primary Effects on Character ALCOHOL produces its primary evil effects upon character by damaging the cells composing the brain and nerves, and those which were latest developed and are therefore most delicate, suffer first and most. "An important fact in this connection is that the dendrites are the first part of a neuron, or nerve cell, to be injured by alcohol. They grow soft: they swell; these swellings enlarge and multiply until multitudes of dendrites on numberless groups of neurons are so changed that they look-as Dr. Cutten says -like the diseased branches of a plum tree when the "black knot" is destroying it. This diseased condition grows constantly worse as the use of alcohol is increased in quantity. "Memory fails because the neurons are losing their connections with each other. Close attention becomes impossible, because when connections are lacking will power is weakened. Reason halts because a man can not think clearly when neuron connections are broken. .... "With such damaged cells and fibres as that to guide a man's life, is it strange that self-control slips away; that ambition goes too; that high deeds are impossible; that thoughts of right and wrong get mixed; that brutality becomes possible; that crimes are committed; that lives are wrecked; that character is transformed?" -Control of Mind and Body. P Scientific Leverage to the Alcohol Problem BY CORA FRANCES STODDARD Corresponding Secretary of the Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston, Mass. ROBABLY the most significant feature of the progress along the lines of scientific study of the alcohol question during the past months is not the scientific study itself, which inevitably is confined to a relatively small number of observers, but the growing popular interest in the facts. Five years have witnessed an almost unbelievable change of front in the public attitude to this phase of the subject. Facts formerly met with indifference or polite incredulity are to-day eagerly sought, and, to the quiet amusement of the well-informed, often proclaimed as the "latest voice of science given to the world only within a few months," a statement which usually indicates the period during which they have been known to the speaker. As an organization with the special purpose of educating the public in these facts, the Scientific Temperance Federation faces, therefore, a particularly encouraging future for service. COLLECTION OF SCIENTIFIC DATA The collection and classification of scientific data is fundamental to work of this kind, and has been continued and extended during the year under the skilled direction of Mrs. Transeau, the Recording Secretary, until we have now several thousand cards indicating by library reference numbers sources of information available in our own reference library and elsewhere. A summary of the salient features of progress along the scientific side of the alcohol question was published in the SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE JOURNAL for December. WIDENING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES In none of the years since the organization of the Federation has there been more earnest effort, and despite some special handicaps, such as illness, etc., none in which more genuine progress has been made in winning a hearing for the scientific facts from agencies not hitherto engaged in active work which have great educational possibilities for disseminating information. PARTICIPATION IN THE LONDON CONGRESS THE significance of the growing interest in scientific facts about alcohol appeared especially in connection with the International Congress on Alcoholism held in London in July, and the National Conference in Washington in December. At the London Congress, Science and Education were the two great themes. The Corresponding Secretary, as the delegate from the Federation, had official appointment from the United States Government, and represented also the National Temperance Society and the International Sunday School Association. Her address on "The Relation of Juvenile Temperance Instruction to National Efficiency" was the first paper of the Congress. For the first time in the history of these Congresses, there was generous time, three half-day sessions, given to discussion of child problems and education as related to the temperance question. In the hope that the considerations presented in this paper might help stimulate interest in public school temperance instruction, copies of the address have been sent to nearly one hundred official heads of Departments of Education in countries throughout the world. The Federation delegate was made secretary of the United States Commission to the Congress and assisted the chairman, Dr. Crafts, in the preparation of a forty-five-page report of the salient features of the Congress. About 10,000 copies of this report have been or are being distributed in this country, while the daily and weekly papers published long facts extracts giving important scientific which even now, nearly six months later, keep appearing in the press. AMERICAN NATIONAL MEETINGS AND SCIENCE The Washington Conference in December brought together representatives from more than twenty national temperance and reform organizations. Here again science was to the front. The old-time temperance arguments appeared, of course, but the general tendency was to refer back to the scientific fact as the basis of the social, economic and moral arguments. A thirty-two-page report of this conference, compiled by the Secretary of the Federation, has been published and may be obtained of the International Reform Bureau, Washington. A paper prepared jointly by the secretaries of the Federation, for the mid-year meeting of the American Society for the Study of Alco From the annual report of the Scientific Temperance Federation, 1909. hol and Other Narcotics, was published as a part of the proceedings in United States Document No. 48, and has evidently gone into all parts of the country, judging from the inquiries which it has brought. THE PRESS AS AN EDUCATIONAL MEDIUM IN ADDITION to helping disseminate facts through the national and international reports already mentioned, special articles have been prepared and published in the temperance press. Others have appeared in such important papers as the Sunday School Times, the American Primary Teacher and the Survey, organ of the national societies of social workers. An article by Dr. E. O. Taylor, one of our directors, illustrated by pictures of the Federation headquarters, has been published by the Religious Telescope of the United Brethren. It has received much favorable commendation, and has been reprinted in pamphlet form. Three articles prepared by request are awaiting publication, two by another of the directors, Rev. Richard Wright, illustrated by some of the charts, about to appear in the Christian Endeavor World, one by the Secretary in the Christian Herald. Beginning with the first of January, 1910, the Federation furnishes one page monthly of scientific material for the National Temperance Advocate. The Press Circular for editors has been freely used by them whenever published, as is evident from the paragraphs taken from it which appear often in papers or year-books, even in other lands. The educational plan of the Press Circular was specifically commended in McClure's Magazine in February, 1909, in one of the articles by Dr. Henry Smith Williams, which have done so much to create popular interest in this subject, while in the same article he used facts taken from one of the circulars sent him, which have been widely requoted from McClure's. Many pages of scientific material were furnished for the annual Prohibition Year Book, and also for the World Book of Temperance for Sunday School Teachers. of fully 100,000 copies under the imprint of the Presbyterian Temperance Committee and the Christian Church Temperance Committee, as well as through our own channels of distribution. Material for several other leaflets has also been furnished the Presbyterian Committee for publication in the near future. Systematic distribution of such literature is a work for the immediate future which is certain to have a powerful influence in creating intelligence on the alcohol question. THE NECESSITY OF DISTRIBUTING GERMAN SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE Considerable German temperance literature in German has been imported and sold for use among German-speaking people, especially in the West, whom it is exceedingly necessary to educate in the truth about alcohol, since in some portions of the country the German influence and the German vote strongly support the alcohol habit and traffic. A German-American writer, in a recent number of a serious Berlin review, Preussische Jahr-bucher, asserts that the German-American National League has 2,000,000 members who are all American citizens and voters, and that one of the main objects of the League is to combat prohibition. The importance of convincing these citizens of the truth about alcohol by literature from the Fatherland cannot be over-estimated. A Western German banker, who has secured through us this year several thousand pages of German literature for distribution, wrote us a few months ago, pointing out the danger in the consolidation. of immigrant forces on the side of alcoholism, and said: "Let me urge the importance of using the German anti-alcohol literature. am persuaded that by proper use of it we shall win over thousands of Germans and that it will have far-reaching results." THE SPOKEN WORD I ALTHOUGH very few public addresses were given until June, owing to illness, one hundred have been delivered by the secretaries or directors under Federation auspices, besides those given by Dr. E. O. Taylor under his own independent arrangements. Public school children, the Boston Masters, teachers' institutes, ministers' meetings, Christian Endeavor meetings, conventions and summer institutes, Sunday schools, especially men's classes, special meetings' of Sunday school teachers, a State Grange and Grand Lodge of Good Templars, the Massachusetts State Conference of Charities and Corrections (the first time that the alcohol question had had a definite place on its program), women's clubs, churches, and distinctively temperance organizations and public meetings gave a wide range of opportunity for these addresses to impress the scientific facts about alcohol upon what proved to be eager and receptive hearers. An invitation was given the Secretary to do three months' work in Ireland, in promoting scientific temperance education under the auspices of the Irish Presbyterian Committee, but conditions of the work at home made it impossible to accept. EDUCATION BY SIGHT THE stereopticon lecture and charts have been rented to physicians, teachers, Sunday school superintendents and temperance lecturers, and in the case of the charts, for general exhibition. Dr. J. J. Putnam, one of Boston's leading physicians, borrowed the charts for his class at Harvard Medical School. A state superintendent of public instruction used them before the Sunday school convention of his state, and found them so effective that he immediately ordered a set of stereopticon slides to use in a course of health lectures which he is giving throughout his state this winter. Charts were sold to the Florida Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and are now being sent about that state as a part of a travelling temperance exhibit for the temperance education of the public. We have no means of knowing accurately the number of persons who have been reached with the facts in this way. One month's rental of the charts brought them before 2,000 persons, and during the month the facts presented in one instance won admission for a scientific temperance address in an important educational institution that previously had been closed to all effort of that kind. The lecturer, in commenting upon the result, although his chief work is for no-license, said he regarded the opening of that school to a temperance address as a more signal victory than would be the winning of no-license in many towns that he could name. Here again, the charts led to the purchase of a set of slides to be used in state-wide work. RECOGNITION OF ALCOHOL QUESTION AS ONE OF PUBLIC HEALTH Perhaps the largest educational work done with the charts this year was in connection with the Boston-1915 Civic Exposition. Excellent space was given us in the Health Department, and the exhibit attracted much at tention. Two hundred thousand persons visited the Exposition. Naturally by no means all came to the Federation section, but a great many did. Numerous interesting bits of personal testimony confirming the facts were received, while there were many opportunities for correcting false ideas about alcohol, or for answering honest inquiries for information. Especially noteworthy among the visitors. was the large number of physicians and social workers, especially a class of students, who had been sent by the General Secretary of the Associated Charities to study for a class report the facts presented by the charts as a part of their training for social service. Representatives of the Department of Social Ethics at Harvard also gave the charts close and interested attention. The head of one of the leading kindergarten training schools of Boston several times brought parties to the exhibit. A club woman who had been sent as a representative of a number of clubs to decide what was the most important thing in the 1915 Exposition to be taken up as work, exclaimed when she came into our section, "At last I've found it," and took careful observation and literature to present the matter in an address before these clubs. The Federation has been invited to participate in the organized work of the Boston-1915 movement in the Health Group, which will be represented in the directorate for recommending plans for united action. SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE EXHIBITS AT STATE MEETINGS The charts were also exhibited at the Massachusetts State Association of Congregational Churches, a large county Christian Endeavor convention attended by 1,700 young people, a state Young Men's Christian Association Boys' Conference, teachers' institutes, a State Grange, etc. A number of new charts have been devised during the year and through the kindness of one of our officers, a beginning has been made in reproducing the charts in miniature for general distribution. THE QUEST FOR INFORMATION ASIDE from these special lines of work, there has been the constant correspondence from those seeking facts. We have either supplied these or have referred inquirers to proper sources of information available elsewhere. This is a phase of the work which is necessary, which takes much time, yet which it is impossible to summarize strikingly. |