Evening star., 1938-10-16

y
quences Of any action are too complicated
and the safest thing to do is TO refrain
from doing anything. The malady af1icts
all Of society. In the individual 1t often
exceeds the social pattern and brings about
all sorts Of neuroses. OF late some of these
have been cured by actually operating on
the brain to depress the activity Of the pre-
frontal lobe. After that one doesn't do
much worrying.
Alcohol may accomplish temporarily
what the surgeons knife does permanently
1t frees the individual from an overload of
inhibitions 1t restores to him the liberty
OF biting when he is mad, just as the dog
does-and to limited extent this may be
a good thing 1t has sometimes been con-
tended-the validity Of the contention
would be hard to establish-that strictly
non alcoholic peoples are gloomy, calculat-
insly vindictive and cruel The delight in
suffering to which so many of the human
race beyond much question are addicted
also is probably a complex mechanism Of
the pre-frontal lobe.
There are advantages to being q savage.
Who does not feel so, now and then? Alco-
hol, in sufficiently moderate amounts de-
pending on the susceptibility Of the nervous
system of the individual. offers release
from the straitjacket of the present to
a more primitive human level from which,
up to a certain point at least one can al
ways come back
Dangerous Ground.
But this is walking on dangerous ground.
Whether or not escape from inhibition Is
socially good thing depends on the extent
and the circumstances. 1t is apt to lead to
a cracked skull and cell In the police
station The automobile driver can have too
many Ambitions, but Is much more likely
to have too few. 1t is easy. under the In
fiuence of alcohol, to lose inhibitions against
driving through trafhc lights, speeding
through intersections, etc. The depressant
effects Of alcohol on the central nervous
system are soon apparent In the slowing up
OF refexes which are Of paramount i'm
portance on the road. The effect is exactly
new "pepe" drug. benzedrine sulphate. Both
accentuate the refexes and should make
one q better driver Even after imbibing
very moderate amount of alcohol one does
not think so fast in emergencies such as
are continuously arising in trafhc.
Altogether this problem of mixing alcohol
and automobiles is perhaps the most serious
the scientists have to face. Strict laws
rigidly enforced undoubtedly do some good,
but are far from solving the problem. The
fact is that the drunken one gets the less
inhibitory effect the laws of the land have
on one. 1t Is shaken of with all the other
inhibitions Alcohol dulls the fear of being
arrested.
Much has been made in the past Of the
economics Of alcohol, the millions or billions
of dollars spent by the poor for this drug
which otherwise would 60 for better food,
better homes, better education for children,
larger accounts in the savings banks. All
these arguments are quite shaky when
applied to society as a whole. There are
so many factors involved that one soon gets
inextricably tangled in maze of conflicting
statistics. A large number Of individuals
may be better of economically without al
cohol. Society as . whole is probably very
little better of, If at all.
Not So Simple Now.
more immediate scientific problem is
that OF the chronic alcoholic, the man or
woman with an irresistible impulse to drink, -.
whose own life and the lives of dependents
are ruined because of the disease There
are undoubtedly many such persons. The
problem. however, is not quite so simple As
1t seemed back in the days of the "face-on-
-barroom floor" oratory.
For certain individuals drinking is I'm
doutedly the road to earthly perdition. For
the great majority of persons it IL not
Almost invariably in the case of the
chronic alcoholic certain psychological
factors are involved. They are trying to
escape from something, perhaps-if nothing
else, from the unendurable monotony of
life. Alcohol Is an easy way of escape.
II 1t were not obtainabe there is every
reason to believe that the individual would
find some other way-and very likely a
worse one.
Whether alcohol alone with its cumu-
lative effect on the central nervous system,
could be responsible for the chronic alco-
holic is q moot question Science does not
know. An important field Of research, in
which something may be accomplished and
in which there are q number Of promising
leads, Is the development Of therapy.
Then there is the question Of the medi-
cinal effects Of alcohol. Neither physicians
nor Psychologists are In any agreement.
Theoretically there is no known reason why
alcohol, even in excessive doses, should have
a good effect on the course of influenza.
Actually many claim, 1t does have such
an effect One Of the jobs of the scientists
is to reconcile apparent fact with theory.
Does alcohol shorten life? The old-time
temperance orators always claimed that it
did. More objective statistics show that,
in moderate amounts, it does not. In fact.
although what the reason could be nobody
knows. it may slightly increase the langth
Of days. ...