ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 327, 1 March 1910, Page 7

ALCOHOLOGY.

(Published by Arrangement.) j "Alcohol and the Human iludy: An introduction to the study of tne subj ject, and a contribution to National ' Health/' by Sir Victor iiorsley, F.E.S., F.K.CS., M.8., ek-., etc., and Mary D. Sturge, M.D., Loud.; with a chapter by Arthur Newsholme, M.D., F.R.C.P., D.P.H.; H'-cond edition, Macniillan and Co., Limited, Loudon. Price 2s Od net. i To any layman who really wishes to kno\v what are the latest results of scientific study of the alcohol question this book is indispensable. It comes with the imprimatur of the highest : medical authority. It gives ample proof ' for every statement advanced, and puts i the whole so plainly before the reader I that, with the aid of the glossary at ! the end, every part is quite understandable of the common people. Furthermore, while it is a book for laymen, it is a book for the professional, too. At a notable trial in the Supreme Court about a year since, this work was re ferred to by counsel and medical witnesses on both sides as an authority beyond all question. The book is very I well got up, as are all those issued by ' the well-known house where it is published; it contains iu all 3iis pages, with a number of elaborate colored plates and illustrative diagrams, and also a copious index; and the whole at the very low price of half-a-crown. This /review would be too lengthy if quota ! tions were given (that may come later), ,but ; as' indicating the thoroughness of I the work, a reference to the table of ' contents shows that alcohol is treated of in all aspects. In the opening chap- ; ters the character and chemistry of the drug is dealt with, and its ettccts on life—vegetable and animal. As a help towards understanding the chapters ' dealing with its effects on the human body, some pages are devoted to a j study of cell life and of the nervous 'system. Then comes the chief object ] the writers had in view—the effects, of ! alcohol on the human body. This is 'taken not, as a layman would expect, in the first place as to how it affects | the stomach and the digestive organs, j but the reader is led at once into the consideration of the ; 'effect of alcohol on intellectual processes," and thus to jsee how far-reaching, how misleading, and how disastrous is the work of this , drug. The chapter on "Is Alcohol a 'Food?" is very important, as it deals I fully with what has been, until recent I years, popularly regarded as an axoim that beer and wine had great power to nourish the body and so were accepted 'as a food. Here food is defined; the test is applied to alcohol to see if it does the work of a food, and in this it is shown to fail. The closing paragraph of this chapter may be given here: 'Meanwhile it will be agreed that ' it is unscientific to describe a a 'food' any drug like alcohol, which so entirely fails to fulfil the functions of a foodstuff or to come up to the standard of 'what we expect and obtain from genuine I food—that is, something which, while /being wholly inocuous in its effects j on the body, is' also able to afford ample means of work and production of tissue •growth." The last chapter, "Influence , on National Health," by Dr. Newsholme, will be to many of supreme ( value, because of the breadth of viewtaken and the very serious conclusions. A considerable proportion of this chapter is of necessity statistical, and from this the obvious lesson is drawn: "We are compelled to conclude that what is commonly described as moderate drinking lias a most injurious influence on health and life, and that the best practice, both in the interests' of health and morality, consists in the avoidance of all alcoholic drinks as beverages." It has been a pleasure to review this book, and one may safely say that it is a "treasury of knowledge" to the careful temperance reformer.