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Annotations." Ne quid minis."

IS ALCOHOL A FOOD P

IN our issue of Oct. 22nd, 1904, p. 1162, we published aleading article under the above heading. We have now re-ceived a letter from Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, National Director ofthe Bureau of Scientific Temperance Investigation, Boston,Massachusetts, in which occurs the following sentence :-" You there assert, as evidence of unwise and tyrannicalpower wielded by the temperance people in America,that school teachers throughout the country were com-pelled to devote a certain amount of time to instructingtheir pupils on the dangers of alcohol and were com-

pelled to use only such books as denied that it had anywirtues as well.’ Your statement shows that you have beenmisinformed." Mrs. Hunt proceeds to say that it is true

that every State in the United States now requires that thenature and effects of alcoholic drinks as a part of physio-logy and hygiene shall be taught to pupils in all publicschools, but there is no law in America that specifieswhat the nature of alcohol is, nor is there any statute in

America that requires only such text-books shall be used asdeny that it (alcohol) has any virtue. The laws have leftthe choice of text-books to the school officials, but, she

continues, " For the guidance of these officials a standardas to what is true and what should be taught on this

subject was prepared in 1887 by eminent scholars, educators,physicians, members of state boards of health, chemists,&c., but this standard, while influential, had no legal power.It was only advisory." With regard to this statement we

reply as follows. Many of the laws in the United Statesactually specify that one-fifth of the space in the text-booksshall be given to "temperance matter" and although theydo not legislate as to the character of that matter we canhardly suppose that even moderate praise of alcohol would bereckoned to be "temperance matter." As a matter of fact,though there may not be actual legislation on the subject of fthe selection of books, the way in which the law operates issuch that there is as much compulsion in the use of

certain books as though the law had actually specified them.In a further portion of her letter Mrs. Hunt says : ’’ Evi-dently you have been misinformed concerning the attitudeof American temperance reformers for the purpose of beingused in a desperate attempt to check the most efficient

instrumentality now in operation for the prevention of

intemperance. For your recent utterances on this questionare being sent out through the newspapers all over the

country. In many of these you are being credited withopinions quite contrary to that we have quoted above fromyour editorial." It is practically not within our power toprevent the press of this or of any other country frompublishing garbled extracts from our columns. Mrs. Hunt

further implies that we have been exploited for the purposeof being used to check the prevention of intemperance. The

simple reason for the publication of the leading article inquestion was the appearance in the same issue of

THE LANCET of an article by Dr. W. H. Goddard-an articlewhich represented some ten years’ work and which was areport of a careful physiological investigation into the actionof ethyl alcohol as a food. We still maintain that alcohol is afood when used in moderation. It does undergo combustionin the body and it serves as a source of energy. It would l

certainly be cheaper to get the same energy from the

grain or the fruit from which the alcohol was made, but (

nevertheless it has a food value in the narrow sense in which 1we were careful to use the word. 1

YAWNING.

YAWNING is a complex, automatic, physiological pheno-menon whereby the lungs are fully expanded, the heartis stimulated to greater activity, and, probably, the blood ischarged more fully with oxygen. It commences with an

involuntary spasm of certain of the muscles of masticationand deglutition; its termination is akin to the process of

sighing, and, like this manifestion of deep breathing, itreinforces respiration. At night, when respiration is

slackening, or in the morning, when it has not recoveredits waking rhythm, yawning is accompanied sometimes bythe " stretching " of successive groups of muscles theblood vessels of which have probably been compressed by theprevious assumption of a constrained position ; the local cir-culation is thus assisted and stimulated. The preacher, thenovelist, and the artist employ the mechanism of yawningas an indication of ennui, of lack of interest, or ofwearied attention, whether real or feigned. To the

clinician it should be significant of an attack of asystoleand consequent temporary anasmia of the brain, especiallyof the corpus striatum. In diseases where "air-hunger"is a frequent symptom yawning is also exhibited. It ismet with in diabetes, in fatty and fibroid changes in thewalls of the heart, in pericarditis, and in the patho-logical conditions which lead to the faulty filling of theaorta. Yawning suggests the proximity of a fatal endingafter copious haemorrhage and in pernicious anasmia andAddison’s disease. Dr. Hughlings Jackson recorded a re-

markable demonstration shortly after the introduction of theuse of the ophthalmoscope. He was surveying the fundusof an eye when suddenly the field became pale. This pallorwas due obviously to a contraction of the retinal bloodvessels. He thereupon stood back, expecting something tohappen, and in fact the patient immediately yawned. The

observer had seen, in part, a spasm of the cerebralarteries.

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HOT-WATER STANDPIPES: A SUGGESTION.

IF it could be practicable to supplement gas, electricity,and water-supplies with a public service of hot water itwould be an immense boon to householders in London. A

constant service of hot water would confer enormous benefitson the community. To mention a few, coal fires could bedone away with in domestic buildings and a powerful con-tributory factor to the formation of irritating and dirty fogwould be removed. Standpipes could be erected in the

streets and a spray of hot water turned on to remove snowor to render the slippery, icy streets comfortable for the poorhard-working horses. The scenes occasioned in our busythoroughfares by the sudden onset of a keen gale, severe

frost, and pelting sleet on Monday last were of a most dis-tressing kind. Vehicular traffic was perforce suspendedand the lot of the horse was of the most cruel description,while pedestrians ran great risk of a nasty accident on theexceedingly slippery pavement. It would be interesting toknow how many horses had to be slaughtered owing to thecasualties of Monday night. Such abnormal conditions of

weather, however, are on the whole happily rare and ourstreet authorities can hardly be blamed for their un-

preparedness to deal with the sudden effects of keen

frost, wind, and snow upon the roadways and pavements.Indeed, they possess practically no machinery for the

purpose. Sand was of very little use ; cinders were muchmore effectual but the supply of small cinders is not ea-yto obtain. Though the scheme of a general public supply ofhot water may appear to be impracticable at present it is notsurely entirely chimerical to suggest that here and there inour streets small rapid gas heaters or geysers could be

attached to standpipes connected with the water mains. The-

water, however, need not be intensely hot for the purpose.