One of the most efficient prophylactic measures against tuberculosis would be the repression of alcoholism. Thorain (Revue des Sciences Mad. en France et A l'Etranger, July 15, '94).
Alcoholic excesses one of the main causes of tuberculosis by predisposing the system to bacillary action. The phthisis of drunkards presents peculiar characteristics in localization and evolu tion: the lesion, instead of being in left apex in front, is located at the right apex toward the back. Improvement usually follows the first attack, and recovery frequently ensues if the alcoholic habit is corrected. If continued, the disease suddenly assumes alarming character, involvement of both lungs, peritoneum, and meninges quickly causing death. Lancereaux (Le Bull. Mad., Mar. 6, '95).
The increase of tuberculosis is propor tionate to that of alcoholism in France. Lagneau (Le Bull. Mad., June 26, '95).
Brain and Nervous System. — The meninges arc often adherent and show inflammatory white patches and thicken ing. The brain is shrunken, with flat tened, narrow convolutions and serous, ventricular, and subarachnoid effusion.
There is general wasting of nerve- cells and fibres. with atrophied, tangled nerve centres and great increase of connective tissue. In the brain-substance congestive bleeding-points are sometimes observed on section. Scavenger calls are met with in profusion, preying on nerve-elements.
(Bevan Lewis.) Mental disorders and crime are shown, by statistics, to have, in alcohol, one of their most potent etiological factors.
It is perfectly certain that from one fourth to one-third of the lunacy of the United Kingdom is a result of the cus tom of drinking alcoholic liquors. J. J. Ridge ("Alcohol and Public Health," p. 63, '92).
Women charged in American police courts with drunkenness and associated ' offenses are profoundly degenerate in body as well as in mind. T. D. Crothers (Brit. Med. Jour., Dec. 31, '92).
In fifteen years lunacy has, in Paris, increased 30 per cent., due to the ad vance of general paralysis and alcoholic insanity. The latter is now twice as prevalent as fifteen years ago. Alcohol is responsible for a third of the lunacy cases at the Depot Infirmary, the tend ency being more and more to homicidal mania in youths of barely twenty. Gar
nier (Quarterly Jour. of Inebriety, Apr., '92).
Histological examinations have shown that alcohol causes swelling of the den drites: this is followed by nuclear changes, then by degeneration of the cell-structures.
Examination of an alcoholic brain by the Golgi method. Lesions of the neu raxon of the nerve-cell slightly involv ing the cell-body and dendrites. Colella (Arch. Ital. de Biol., p. 216, '94).
Alcohol produces well-marked changes in the nerve-cells, especially in those of the anterior horns of the spinal cord and in the sympathetic ganglia. They first lose their chromatin structure, the fine granular appearance gradually being replaced by an homogeneous swelling. Golgi method. Vas (Archie fiir exper. Path. u. Pharm., B. 34, p. 141).
There is gradual disintegration of the cell-body after the apical processes have suffered. Here and there, in the neigh borhood of the cell-body, the protoplasm scenic to 'become frayed or eroded. In other cases the cell-protoplasm becomes vacuolated from within until the entire protoplamie structure is channeled by holes and seams of Golgi method. Andriezen (Brain, '94).
Forty per cent, of crime and bad con duct come from inebriate parental de generation. Cone (Quarterly Jour. of Inebriety, Jan., '94).
The form of alcoholism is determined by pre-existing anomaly of subject; al coholic psychopathia often the conse quence of parental addiction; psycho pathia and alcoholism cause one another. Ether (Le Bull. Med., Aug. 25, '95).
[A large share in the genesis of mel ancholia is due to agencies lowering the general health, among which alcohol is conspicuous. Farquharson found 11 per cent. of asylum eases of melancholia due to intoxicants, while many victims of suicidal melancholia who had no insane heredity had a family history of ine briety. NORMAN KERR, Assoc. Ed., An nual, '96.] The literature of the past two years has demonstrated, more than that of previous periods, perhaps, the pathogenic influence of alcohol upon the brain. It has shown that, in proportion as it is used, so are mental disorders prevalent, the ratio of the increase of insanity cor responding to that of increased consump tion of alcoholic beverages.