Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-06
Science Hopes to Fix Facts
On Effects of Alcohol
Five Explorations Mopped-EviI
Effects Known, But Not WHY

6llSSNS NItOWuS Oul j
Five of the specific projects to be
undertaken in its far reaching study
of the effects of alcohol on the
human body and mind were an
nounced yesterday by the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science.
The first, to be directed by DR..
Norman Joliffe of Bellevue Hospital,
New York, will be of polyneuritis in
alcoholic addicts. This is the affec-
tation of the peripheral nerves
which often accompanies acute al
coholism. There is, beyond much
doubt, a direct relation between the
two but the exact means by which
the one leads to the other is un-
known.
Another study, to be conducted at
the New York Psychiatric Institute,
will be of the effect of alcohol on
the central nervous system of apes,
with which much more direct obser-
vationS can be made than with hui
mans. Alcohol is known chiefly as
central nervous system depressant,
and when enough of it is imbibed it
leads to coma and eventually to
death. The problem, however, is to
determine the precise chemical and
physiological processes by which the
depression is produced, the points of
attack, and the rate of progress from
one part of the central nervous sys-
tenn until the greater part of the
structure is involved. The findings
with apes, it is believed, will in gen.
eral apply to humans, who have
basically the same sort of nervous
system.
Seek Vitamin C Link.
A third project is to determine
the relation of vitamin C to alcohol.
Some of the most serious permanent
effects of liquor, it has been claimed,
also can be produced by depriva-
ton of this vitamin, chiefly known
as scurvy preventative. Some physi-
ologists have maintained that it is
not the alcohol in itself which is
responsible for the low-grade scurvy-
like symptoms, but the fact that the
appetite of alcoholics is so affected
that they do not eat the green
vegetables and fruits which contain
the vitamin. Up to the present,
however, any announcement on this
subject has been largely guesswork.
The most ambitious project of all,
expected to cost approximately $l0,-
900, is study of the relation be-
tween alcohol and traffic accidents.
There is vast accumulation of con-
f1icting statistics. Innumerable fac
tors enter into traffic problems, so
that specifically police and insur-
ance company records can be made
to show either that alcohol is re-
sponsible for more traffic accidents
or has made very little difference.
To get at the bottom of these sta
tistics so that valid conclusions can
be reached, officers of the association
believe. will be titanic job.
A fifth project, being directed by
DR.. Karl M. Bowman of Bellevue
Hospital, is to study the relationship
between alcohol and cirrhosis of
the liver, a malady with which
drinkers often are afflicted. which
often ends fatally, and which was
much publicized as result of bad
liquor in prohibition days. Some
physicians have maintained, how
ever, that the elationship is in
direct, if it exists at all.
No withdrawing" Intended.
There Is no intent in these studies,
it is stressed by DR.. Forest Ray
Moulton. permanent secretary of
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, to mini
mize the bad effects of alcohol,
many of which have been known for
a thousand years. The result of
the studies may be to show up John
Barleycorn as worse criminal than
he has been painted in the past.
But, he says, in the past it has
been possible to observe only the
overt, superficial effects of the drug
and psychologists are almost unani-
mously agreed that they have little
information on just how these bad
effects are produced. They have
not in the past had the recording
instruments and the delicate tech
niques necessary for intensive ply
Biological study.
Summary of Effects Available.
A summary of about all that has
been known about the effects of
alcohol on the human body in the
past has been drawn up recently by
the United States Public Health
Service. This document has very
little good to say about the drug and
lists the evil effects on which there
is little if any disagreement.
DR.. r. R. Spencer, the author,
stresses that alcohol has no known
value as medicine, that it lowers
blood pressure, that it reduces learn
ing ability and intelligence and disor-
ganizes thought processes, that it
is of no value whatsoever in the
treatment of snake bite and that it
causes continued depressions.
Moreover, DR.. Spencer stresses,
there is considerable evidence that
it makes the body more susceptible
to Infectious disease. 1t devitalizes
the tissues so that the body cells
are less able to resist microbe invad-
ers. 1t brings about higher death
rates in both pneumonia and tuber-
culosis. Statistics show that it is
What Is Your