The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-17
INEBR|ETY CLAIMED
 ID BE A DISEASE American Women Drink Less Than English Sisters DRUGS ALSO BEING USED The Use of Alcohol in Treatment of Hospital Patients Diminishing.
 Science Combating Alco-
 holism-OId Ideas.
DRUGS ALSO BEING USED


 city, superintendent of Walnut Lodge hospital has just returned from Europe He went to London to deliver the first oration in the Norman Keer memorial 1eetureshp Dr. keer was an eminent London physician who made a special study inebriety alcoholism and other drug disorders He wrote several books on this subject and was instrumental in securing the enactment of laws for the control of inebriates and the promotion Of hospitals for their care throughout Great Britain He founded the British Society for the Study of Inebriety in 1884, and this society organized a memori- al lectureship for yearly orations on his life and work.
 It is a recognition of the progress of medical science in the country that an American physician should be invited to deliver the first lecture.
 Composite Picture of lnebriates.
 Dr. Brothers is now engaged in mak- ing a composition picture from six hum dred photographs of types of inebriates. Many portraits are those of habitual drunkards published by the Metropolitan
 
 preparing a work to show the effect upon the heart of alcohol and various drugs. This will be illustrated with photographs taken by the sphygmographic heart regis ter The accompanying illustrations are records made by this device. They show the action of the heart when the system is full of alcohol, opium or cocaine. and there is one showing an inebriate who Is improving under treatment.
 No. l records the heart action in case of aggravated alcoholism
 No. 2 indicates improvement the same patient
 No. is from an opium victim.
 No 4 shows the effect of cocaine.
 When seen upon his return from lGu- rope pr. Brothers said They are be- hind us in Europe in the treatment for inebriety. 1 was unable to learn much there that was new. They are using the gold cure now and many practiton- CTS are very enthusiastic about it. My observations showed me that in London the women drink a great deal more than American women but l don't think the men over there drink as much as they do here. Fully 10 per cent of the busl- ness men in this country use liquor. You would be surprised to know how many business men from various parts of the country go to New York on periodical sprees large part of the work of house physicians in New York hotels IS treating business men from out of town who are in this condition.
 Few Study lnebriety.
 ''There are only a few of us now who stury inebriety and treat 1t as a disease and in an intelligent manner. There are thousands of quacks and all kinds or nostrums for the prevention of the alco- hol appetite. But it will not be long be- fore there are hundreds in the profession of treating this ailment scientifically where there is one now. The large em- pIoyers of labor are looking for sober men. Employers cannot trust men who dring to excess.
 ''r at the use for drugs is increasing Is shown by the increased number of copyrights for certain preparations taken out in Washington. The extent to which wood alcohol is used is appalling. It is finding it's way into beverages as well as drugs because a means has been found to neutralize it's acrid taste It's effect Is chiefly manifested by form of paraly- sis of the legs, which victims mistake and often treat for rheumatism.
 sThe increase in blindness and dimness of vision is due to the use of wood alco- hol in beverages and also for external purposes In the latter case enough of the poison Is absorbed to affect the eyes '1n hospitals less and less of the or dinarv liouors are being used for the reason that other drugs have been found which are not only less harmful, but also more powerful Statistics of hospital mortality show that where the liquor bllls were large the mortality was equally large, and vice versa
 Old School Reliefs.
 Thirty years ago and even down tc more recent times leading authorities chased alcohol among the most valua- be of stimuants and tonics. and sup ported their claims by many exhaustive studies until it appeared that it's thera' peutic power established beyonc question. Yet today all this teachint and literature are passing away. Phy sicians who use spirits today in levers and respiratory diseases. and combine 1t as a tonic in all forms of exhaustion and debility. fail to get the same re suits which were claimed by the earnei medical authorities.
 "Professor Kraepelin of Heidelberg, un dertook to measure the physiologic ac' tion of alcohol on the senses ana th' functional activities of the body. i' concluded from many thousand experi ments and measurements with instrn ments of precision on the body. both De fore and after spirits were used. that al cohol in any form was anaestheuc anc narcotic The work of Atwater attracted much attention at the time but was finally found to be only new state ment of an old theory, which, whiie containing some truth, was doubtful anc misleading.
 within the last few years the manu' facture and consumption of wood alec hol has attained enormous proportions far beyond the legitimate demands 1T The arts and sciences Its acridity anc Irritating qualities have been overcome to such an extent that in all probability ii is used in the place of other kinds o alcohol, both as beverage ana urus Its special properties seem to De on 'h' sensory nerves, particularly that o sight and some very remarkable cases of blindness have been reported whlcf were clearly due to this cause
 Purest Alcohol.
 "A practical method has been adopted sn many of the hospitals in Europe ant this country of using pure ethylic aico hol diluted with water to suit the par ticular case. There can be no question that the crude unknown forms of alec hol. as found in brandies, whiskys an' wines of different kinds, are exceedingi, uncertain and dangerous drugs Prop ably the cheap California wines contaf the purest form of alcohol The older the wine whisky or brandy the more complex and dangerous are the spirits and alcohol present
 "For many years l have urged thai tnabriates should be treated as irrespon' .ihIe especially those who had used
 lepp time. These