ALCOHOLISM.
Under the heading of Poisoning the treatment of Acute Alcoholism will be described. The preventive treatment of drunkenness is a wide and serious question; and, notwithstanding the heroic attempts of philan thropists and the activity of temperance reformers, the exhaustless literature of the subject, and the introduction of costly and cumbrous State machinery, little or nothing seems to have been accomplished, when one considers the terrible importance of the issues. Though the writer is very conscious that a great problem like this cannot be discussed in a Handbook of Treatment, nevertheless he cannot refrain from stating his conviction—the result of years of observation upon the action of alcohol—that it is possible for vast and far-reaching results to be obtained by a State regulation of the strength of all distilled alcoholic liquids to be used as beverages.
If distilled spirits could only be procurable in alcoholic strength, say, of sherry (i5 per cent.), or, better still, of claret, more progress would be made in the amelioration of the evils of the drink curse than in all the temperance legislation of the last century. The benefits would be at once obvious in the great manufacturing centres, where alcohol is largely con sumed in a concentrated form. The writer is satisfied that the consump tion of spirits in a strong or only slightly diluted condition enormously increases the danger of the establishment of the alcohol habit in its worst forms, and enormously increases the injury to the tissues and glands of the body. The difficulty in carrying out such a law would he great at first, and would seriously interfere with Exchequer returns, but the gain to the nation would be obvious. The increase in the productive power of labour would lie immediate, and the diminution in the expense of the maintenance of the huge army of useless victims of alcoholic excess would in some years he no less certain. It is true that such a measure would probably increase the evils of beer and wine drinking, but the gain to Ireland, Scotland, and many manufacturing centres in England of the diminution in drunkenness would be certainly very great.
Temperance reformers are watching with interest the results of the working out of restrictive legislation affecting the cost and sale of alcoholic beverages during the late war. Much good might be done in the way of reclamation of the confirmed inebriate by a thorough and whole-hearted administration of the J80 Inebriate Act, if only a clause could be added to this Act which would make it. applicable to habitual drunkards who had not committed any other indictable offence. As the law at present stands, the blessing of a three years' compulsory sojourn in an inebriate reformatory can only be purchased by the habitual drunkard who becomes a criminal or one who has been convicted of drunkenness four times within the year. The moral treatment during a prolonged detention of at least one year in a well-conducted inebriate asylum would give a vastly higher percentage of recoveries than can be expected from asylum treatment of the ordinary insane, and it must also be remembered that a fair proportion of the worst types of hopeless insanity arises from alcohol ism. The ridiculously short sentences passed upon the ordinary drunkard who commits misdemeanours and minor crimes permit of no real improve ment of his moral condition during the brief term of his imprisonment, and often eventuate in changing the occasional into a confirmed habitual alcoholic.
In the acute stage of drunkenness, falling short of alcoholic poisoning, the physician may he called upon to administer a remedy to counteract rapidly the symptoms of alcohol. The Solution of Acetate of Ammonia, in doses of a wineglassful every 15 minutes, will often cause the uproarious or maudlin stage of drunkenness to give place to a condition of perfect sobriety in a surprisingly short time; r dr. of Carbonate of Ammonia, dissolved in 2 oz. Vinegar, makes an efficient substitute.