Evening star., 1942-10-20
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

BIZ Thomas r. Henry.
Five kinds of "drunks," only two Of
which should be acceptable in the Army,
are appearing before draft-induction
boards.
This is the conclusion of DR.. Abra-
ham Myerson, research director of the
Boston State Hospital, after study
of the draftees examined in the 1st
Corps Area.
In the First World War, DR.. Myerson
reports, he himself as a medical officer
tried to have thrown out of the Army,
at the request of the mans commanding
officer, a rather persistent drunk and
troublemaker who turned out later to
be one of the outstanding heroes of
the AEF. He has been cautious ever
since.
Now he classifies his alcoholics as
follows: Saturday night drinkers, party
drinkers, spree drinkers, social neurosis
drinkers and sots.
The record of the first type shows
that he often gets roaring drunk over
week ends and may get into fights.
but always is able to show up for work
Monday morning. Such men usually
belong to the truck driver -roustabout
class. They may give M. P.'s lot OF
trouble, DR.. Myerson says, but also
often make first-class fighting men.
They are apt to reform entirely in the
Army.
The second type usually is college
graduate or white-collar worker who
may get drunk at social gatherings two
or three times week, but seldom drinks
between parties. Such individuals, he
believes, rarely show only physical dam
age because of their drinking. If they
keep it up long enough, they may be-
come chronic alcoholics, but often the
physical exertion of Army life reforms
them altogether. They are good ma
terial, DR.. Myerson declares.
There are three quite well-defned
types of alcoholics. he insists, on whom
the Army cannot afford to take chance.
One is the spree drinker" Such
man goes on protracted drunks which
seem impossible to stop until they have
run their course. He may be sufferer
from recurrent depressions for which
alcohol is the only relief. Still others
have some physiological popularity, so
that after taking one drink they cannot
stop until their money is exhausted, or
they end in a hospital or in jail.
Another of DR.. Myerson's types is
the social neurosis drinker'-one who
cannot be at ease with other people
unless under the influence of alcohol.
Army life with its intimate contacts
can only make him worse.
The fifth type is the "sot"-the chronic
alcoholic who lives only to drink. He
will go to any length, in the Army or
elsewhere, to get liquor and probably
no reform is possible. He is the one
type that easily can be detected by a
physical examination.
In spite of the well-nigh universal
drinking, DR.. Myerson says, the few al
coholics who are appearing before draft
boards is astonishing, and examining
psychiatrists get high impression of the
general clean living of young Americans.
This is especially true, he explains,
for the men between 20 and 30. Between
80 and As the rate goes up rather sharply,
but this is likely to give a false impress
sion. The men in this age group who
appear at an induction center are, for
the most part, unmarried. The unmar-
ried element of the adult population
tends to be the most neurotic and hence
the most susceptible to drink.
i
The organism responsible for a Sc
rious, epidemic eye disease which has
been sweeping through the shipyards
of the country has been isolated, it has
been reported by the American Medical
Association.
Known as "karatoconjunctivitis it
is caused, according to a report by DR..
Murray Saunders of New York, by
filterable virus.
The first outbreak was in Hawaii
about 18 months ago. 1t then appeared
on the Pacific Coast and in a few
months had crossed the continent.
Like other fllterable viruses this Or
ganism can be preserved and transmitted
by inoculating mice with smears from
the eyes Of infected persons and then
forming tissue cultures from the ami
mails brain.
Human volunteers, who have received
drops Of this tissue culture in their eyes,
have developed the malady, DR.. Saun-
ders reports. There is some evidence,
not as yet conclusive, that anti-bodies
against this specific organism are built
up in the blood of victims.
Sulfa drugs may be potent against
another group of rare but highly fatal
human maladies-those due to fungi.
Drs. R. Wallace Teed and Mark Mar
shall of the University of Michigan have
reported to the American Medical Asso-
ciation the complete recovery of child
suffering from Inflammation of the brain
caused by one of these fungi, the torula.
Cases of this sort in the past almost
invariably have been fatal.
Hitherto the sulfa drugs have proved
effective chiefly. against bacteria, and
their value against other types of dis
ease producing organisms while reported
from time to time, has been open to
question.
Objects to Drafting