USE OF ALCOHOL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20099, 1 December 1930, Page 11

USE OF ALCOHOL.

ANALYSIS OF ITS EFFECTS. LECTURE BY PROFESSOR SIDNEY SMITH. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION"—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received November 30th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, November 29. Professor Sidney Smith, lecturing at Edinburgh University, gave one of the most competent analyses of the social value of alcohol in the history of pedagogics. Ho expressed the opinion that it exerted its effects almost entirely on the brain. Under its influences little worries tended to disappear, the small disappointments in everyday life lost their sting, and the world generally appeared to bo more pleasant. Alcohol made self-expression easier; a shy man lost his self-consciousness and a critic became less critical. Nevertheless when the reactions were analysed, it would be found that there was a subtle but distinct loss ot discrimination and fastidiousness of control, which became more pronounced with larger doses, especially if taken without food. There was little correlation between drunkenness and serious crime, but a close correlation between minor violence and neglect of children.