"cures" for inebriety

154 "CURES" FOR INEBRIETY.

body, but for one most tender but safely padded prominence Iwhich appears to mark the naturally appointed seat of

childish amiction. We need hardly emphasise the importanceof guarding jealously against all displays of temper whileinflicting punishment. No doubt this is difficult with refrac-

tory children, but such a degree of self-government as willenable parents or teachers to avoid the angry moment isnevertheless requisite for success. A case occurred latelywhich illustrates this point. It was that of a boy who wasbeaten about the back and hand the day following a schoolmisdemeanour. Singularly enough, he injured his head nextday, and being at the time in poor health, though believed tobe well, he died in a week from tubercular meningitis. At

once his teacher was blamed ; but proof being brought that thechastisement inflicted was deliberate, orderly and propor-tionate, though the means employed were not quite regular, hewas entirely exonerated at a subsequent inquest. It would

indeed, in many cases, render the duties of a schoolmaster asbarren as difficult if he were not allowed a reasonable freedom

in physical correction. The possible occurrence of such in-cidents as the above must, however, impress what we havesaid as to method in its application.

"CURES" FOR INEBRIETY.

THE special report of the meeting of the Society for theStudy of Inebriety, on the 5th inst., which we published inour last week’s issue, shows very clearly how necessary it wasthat we should give the profession and the public a timelywarning against these secret cures. Dr. Keeley was unableto attend the meeting. Dr. Usher of Melbourne gave detailsof the method in which the so-called cure had been worked at

Dwight, U.S.A., of the immense sums spent in advertising theinstitution and the cost of the preparation used-viz., thirty-six shillings for two bottles. Further, Dr. Norman Kerrlaid before the meeting an analysis stating that the prepara-tion contained neither gold nor chlorides, but 6 per cent.of sugar and 27’55 per cent. of pure alcohol. We quite agreewith the members present that "so-called cures’ for

inebriety, the composition of which is not disclosed, are

unfit to be commended by honourable members of the medicalprofession. " Inebriety is a disease of which the treatmentis as well known to the profession as is that of morphinomaniaor any similar habit, and it is only by legitimate and opentreatment that it can be cured. There is no patent remedyfor it, nor is there ever likely to be. Unfortunately, the

unhappy sufferers and their friends are always asking for aspecific and so they readily become the dupes of some ardentand unscientific believers in a method, or, worse still, of thosewho trade on their weakness.

"ELECTION FEVER."

IT may not be inopportune during the turmoil of the

general election to call attention to some of the dangersattending ill-regulated enthusiasm and irrational excitement.This appears to be the more necessary as already severalfatalities attributable to these conditions have been reported.In the one case an elector died suddenly on the declarationof the poll, in another suicide is stated to have been the moretragic consequence, and yet another died through the excite-ment of the election. Danger under these circumstancesis naturally both physical and moral and in some instancesthese causes are doubtless combined. Irregular and in-

judicious meals and irregular and insufficient rest are everfruitful causes of that silent sap of energy which at the

supreme moment causes it suddenly to fail, and a weak heartmay then as suddenly cease to beat, or flicker out in futile

palpitation. If to such purely physical dangers be addedthe still further strain of persistent anxiety, and its frequentconsequence, defective sleep, it is not difficult to appreciatethe unexpected loss of that calm control of both body and mind

which flows from the presence and consciousness of a reserveof force. To indicate these causes is not only to pointout their natural effects, but also, to reasonable men,the lessons they convey. To those engaged in the work ofthe elections personal hygiene of the most careful order is ofthe first importance. Regularity in the storage of force andcare and calmness in its expenditure are the secret of manya victory. " Those who strive in the games are temperate inall things," and the game of a contested election tries bothmind and body severely. Nervous constitutions, wrought toa high pitch by the eloquence of party leaders or by the im-pulses of self-interest, are specially liable to sudden cata-

strophe, and it would be well for all such to remember, likeone of Bulwer Lytton’s characters, that the country has ,

survived many unparalleled crises, and will yet survive manymore quite as unprecedented. Moreover, to aggravate thecauses of agitation by importing further sources of interestand unrest, such as betting on the issues involved and inother ways working up to fever heat the political furor, isvery unwise in excitable persons. It is to point out theseself-evident considerations which, nevertheless, are too aptto be forgotten at times of public excitement, that we havedeemed it our duty to call attention to this matter.

APPARENT DEATH IN CHOLERA.

THE approach of cholera is already bringing much dis-quietude to the nationalities of Southern Europe, particularlyto those who people the Mediterranean shores. The

Italian, French and Spanish ports have on each former

descent of the scourge suffered severely, all the more that intheir conscious neglect of sanitary precaution their autho-rities invariably lose their heads in presence of the invaderand attempt to atone by a few days’ feverish energy for theculpable remissness of years. But there are special causes ofthe uneasiness, not to say positive panic, which the slightesthint of the advance of cholera arouses in those populations.Their custom of allowing but a few hours’ interval, some-times hardly a day, to elapse between decease and burial hason the occasion of increased mortality from epidemics in-duced certificates of death to be prematurely given, with thehorrible result that apparent corpses have come to life ontheir way to the tomb or the crematorium, and with the

necessary inference that not a few must have been buried orcremated when the vital spark, so far from being extinct,might still have been kept alive. The great Tuscan patho-logist Pacini some thirty years ago published a memorablepamphlet on "La Morte Apparente della Colera" and havinginstanced a number of cases in which the seeming corpse hadbeen snatched from the very brink of the grave he proceeded togives rules by which even in collapse the apparent victimto cholera might be resuscitated. Among his prescriptionsthat of the intravenous injection of bay salt, as suggestedand practised in 1832 by Dr. James Macintosh of Edinburgh,held a prominent place and by this means, particularly in thecholera visitations of 1877 and 1884, the restoration to life ofmany duly certified as dead was just in the nick of timeeffected. In the latter year, however, a remarkable and

extremely painful instance of the all too tardy resort to thepractice occurred in the person of a distinguished Genoesephysician who, having overworked himself in the publiccause during the epidemic, was himself struck down justwhen it was in full retreat. Every care was bestowed uponhim, but he rapidly sank into collapse and within forty-eighthours he was thought to be, and certified as, dead. Burial

arrangements were in progress and the family, sitting disconso-late in a room adjoining that in which he was laid in hisshroud for burial, were expecting the arrival of the undertakerevery moment, when, to their mingled horror and delight,the door was feebly opened and the apparent corpse pre-sented himself and, in a voice scarcely audible from