ALCOHOLOGY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 355, 5 April 1910, Page 7

ALCOHOLOGY.

ALCOHOL AXD SUICIDE. (Published by Arrangement.

1 So many suicides are returned with the verdict "u-Mpurary m-.aiK'. and a wauld be wei) 10 juiow w;iui -jut means. in most eases it represents liie fact that tlie brum has temporai'dy lost its capacity tor energy ana vouuvi, so thai a iiopeiessly etuouoiiai .;nu lnor"biii outlook upon iiie and its po»suiiities aioiie remain. i'lien arises uh- stion: V. Ny tins of bram ~-iipuoiiy auu pvjv.'er? .VEciicc- --a\s trial it very largvij «ue to tlie actum o: u:,.-oiio., either direct or indirect. Alter its very fcrief excitant ell'ect on the nervous s\&tem passes <jti, there follows the prolonged stage of depression, it is quite possible that the. mental depression is due both to the direct action ot aicohoi upon the brain ceils and also to its power of interfering with metabolism (the healthy cheinieal changes which go on in tlie body J, in consequence of which various prouuets of delayed exeretiuii poison and depress the nervous system. A clear statistical proof of the connection between alcoholism and suicide is given hy Prof. Hillier, of Kiel, who reported 3!m autopsies on suicide* and found that nearly one-half of the case* were alcoholists. Of the whole 300, there ivere -230 males and 70 females, and of these 144 were classed as alcoholists (drinkers); but of the-.e hitter 129 were over 30 years of age. He eonaiders his total estimate (one-half) as a minimum, l-etause, taking ages into consideration, the use of alcohol among young suicides could not have produced siMWii'ist. pathologxal ana anatomical changes in the internal organs for these to U- observab.e in the post mortem examination. Dr. W. C. Sullivan, medical officer in his Majesty's prisons, drew attention in the Journal of .Mental Science, April, 1900, to the connection between the increase of suicide or suicidal ,->.tfompv-; and ak't'-li:''l:-;i!:. Alcoholic suicide is more impulsive and ocGurs at ail earlier average ago than suicide from other causes, and it is the opinion of Dr. Sullivan that alcohol is to hlame for many tragic deaths, wliarehy the community is deprived of many •valuable and comparatively young lives. According to this authority, "in 220 consecutive observations of snch attempts the proportion due to alcohol was found to he 78 per cent., the usual condition present in four-fifths of the cases being drunkenness supervening on chronic intoxication/' A large proportion of those reported as "found drowned" are, ■what we know as "chronic alcoholics/' the tragedy being due to either melancholia or inability to avoid an accident because of the narcotic effect of alcohol on the brain centres. Among publicans .the mortality from suicide is more than twice the average. Thi*, of course, (ren-lir- on t'v 'n'nevf of insanity generally and is too large a subject even to touch on just now; it may be dealt with in future. Reference might, however, be made to the opinion of Dr. Clouston that "'alcoholic infinity steadily goes tip. . . . No explanation will account/ for this but the one that certain classes of our population are dr'nldii'* to greater excess than tliev. did. and in so doing are, many of them, destroying their sanity." And further, "it is certain that for every man in whom excessive drinkincr <?;n:so« absolute insanity there are twenty in whom it injures the brain, blunts tlie moral sense, and lessens the capacity for work in l"«er degrees. ... It is a veritable plague spot in our social life."