Prophylaxis.—Successful prophylactic measures must include power to compul sorily seclude chronic alcoholics who are too will-paralyzed to apply for curative seclusion voluntarily; the teaching of the young in the poisoning influence of alco hol; the protection of infants against contamination from alcoholic nurses; the abstinence propaganda, especially among the rising generations; and suppression of the liquor traffic, either by a vote of localities or by general national prohibi tion.
In Switzerland, in the Canton of St. Gall, by a law passed in 1891, anyone rendering himself obnoxious or danger ous to his family or to the community. through drinking, may, with a medical certificate, be sent to an inebriate asy lum, and be paid for out of the public poor-funds, if his friends are unable to defray the expense. Editorial (Quar terly Jour. of Inebriety, Oct.. '92).
The disorders to which infants are exposed when nursed by women who partake too freely of stimulants—infant nervous attacks, convulsions, etc.—are frequently attributed to other causes. (\Tallin.) The majority of the posterity of drunkards and of persons of an ill-bal anced nervous system should abstain al together from alcohol, or, at least, be fore partaking of it. consult a com petent physician. Sir Dyce Duckworth (Lancet. Aug. 26, '93).
Cases of alcoholism in children show importance of not prescribing, Goriatchkine (Wratsch, No. 15. '96).
Serum-therapy has also been tried in alcoholism. The serum is obtained from a horse previously subjected to a course of alcohol. It is injected hypodermic ally, SO minims at a time, every three or four days, until a peculiar morbillic eruption appears. The patient is then given a rest of about a week's duration, after which a final injection completes the cure. A gradually increasing dis gust or intolerance for liquor culminates in an absolute abhorrence of it. Sug gestion plays no part in the cure, success having resulted when the patient was unaware of the object of the treatment, while no restriction was placed on the ordinary habits. Of fifty-seven cases thus treated by Thiebault (La Tribune Med., p. 566, 1900), all except those who either had some organic disease or else discontinued the remedy before its physiological effects had been produced are said by him to have been cured.
Immunization by ethylic alcohol. Dogs were subjected to increasing closes of alcohol administered, well diluted, through the (esophageal tube until toler ance was established for a larger than an ordinary lethal close. The serum of these animals was employed in the ex perimentation. The author concludes that (1) it is possible to confer a real immunity in dogs by administering pro gressively increasing doses of this poison, ultimately reaching very large doses without producing functional disturb ances or organic degenerations; (2) the serum of such a clog rendered immune to alcohol contains a special antitoxin capable of neutralizing the toxic action of a dose of alcohol one-fourth larger than the minimum fatal dose; (3) nor mal blood-serum does not possess the power of augmenting the organic resist ance to alcohol. much less to explain the curative action in acute poisoning. Dott. Luigi Maramaldi (Gaz. Inter. di Med. Pract., No. 1, p. 9, '99).
Medico-legal there is some difference in the medico legal treatment of alcoholism in different countries, there is a general agreement as to the form of civil law in the premises.
concealment by pro posers and their referees of the intoxica tion of the assuring may render a policy void. There are probably at least 600, 000 reformed drunkards in the world. Some offices reject such lives, others accept them. The writer believes that they are mostly insurable, after a certain term of years of abstinence, with a weighting of the premium. It is some times difficult to settle whether a person has died from accident or from acute or chronic alcohol poisoning. Insurance companies lose largely by the alcoholism of the insured. (Crothers, Mattison, Fox, Kerr.) Report of British Medical Association on the mortality from alcoholism, based on an examination of 4222 cases. It also contains returns as to the alcoholic habits of the inhabitants of Great Britain, and as to the relative alcoholic habits of dif ferent occupations and classes. The fol lowing conclusions reached:— "I. Habitual indulgence in alcoholic liquors beyond the most moderate amounts has a distinct tendency to shorten life, the average shortening be ing roughly proportional to the degree of indulgence.