1707

Annotations." Ne quid nimis."

THE TREATMENT OF INTEMPERANCE.

AN address on intemperance in women, recently deliveredby Sir Thomas Barlow, Bart., K.C.V.O., at the Church House,London, is interesting on account of its practical suggestive-ness. In dealing with the original formation of this habitbut little importance is attached to the influence of mere

heredity, though it is not denied that this factor does insome families appear to play its part. The practice of

drinking which culminates in drunkenness is regarded andtreated from first to last as a habit rather than as a

disease, and one which has been developed out of acts

of self-indulgence. In the implied indictment of the

individual and of society, where custom and example havemuch to answer for, there is no want of sympathy. On

the contrary, every allowance is made for misunderstanding,temptation, and human frailty. At the same time, theelement of moral responsibility is never lost sight of. It is

in the recognition of this quality that we find the clue tosuccessful treatment. Sir Thomas Barlow is no pessimist.He firmly believes in the possibility of reclamation and herelies for the attainment of this object largely upon anawakening of the moral sense. Intemperance is not a meredisease ; it is not even an uncontrollable habit. It is a moral

wrong, to be admitted, repented of, and combated by everyavailable means if the poor victim is ever to obtain her

emancipation. It is not to be expected that she can, at allevents as a rule, be depended upon to work out her own

salvation on these lines. She has, nevertheless, "to a

certain limited extent the power in her own hands" and it I Iis necessary to make her see this. Moreover, the assistanceof friends, and especially an example of abstinence on theirpart, can do very much to help her. Temperance in respectof alcohol is in its strict sense a term inadmissible for her.In order to break the habit entire abstinence is necessary andno quasi-physiological fear of heait failure and the like

should be allowed to sanction the use of an alcoholic stimu-lant. There must be few personF. and probably no medicalmen, who do not in their hearts admit the truth of theseobservations. We believe that the alcoholic habit is in no

sense different in character from any other form of use and

wont, such as is constantly seen to influence the course ofhuman conduct. It is infinitely more injurious than thegreat majority of such personal customs. It is as curable as

they are and mainly by those moral, intellectual, and socialmeans which have been considered above.

AN UNFORTUNATE ADVERTISEMENT.

TOWARDS the end of last month a notice appeared in

several lay journals to the effect that a course of addresseson the human body was to be delivered to men only bymedical men on the afternoons of the four Sundays in

Advent in the parochial hall belonging to the parish of

St. John the Divine, Kennington. The names of the threemedical men in question were printed in some of the noticesbut not in others. The vicar of St. John the Divine,Kennington, is the Rev. C. E. Brooke, a parish priestwho is doing excellent work and who loses no oppor-

. tunity of instructing his flock. We see no objection tomedical men instructing laymen in the care of the body andas to how they should keep it in temperance and sobriety.Neither is it in any way foreign to the Church that she

should seek the aid of other than ecclesiastics in settingforth home truths, but in our opinion it is a pity that thecourse of lectures should have been advertised in the public

press, and still more that the names of the medicalmen in question should have been given. The vicar ofSt. John the Divine would have been well advised if he had

simply announced the course among the other notices whichare given out at certain times of the service. We are quitesure that the three medical men announced to lecture hadno thought of self-advertisement or of bringing themselvesbefore the public, but it is evident from certain letttrawhich we have received that there are persons who put anuncharitable construction on the publication of the names ofthe lecturers.

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TACHIOL: A NEW ANTISEPTIC.

I I a former number of THE LANCET some account was

given of a new antiseptic named " tachiol " which was

brought to the notice of the profession in a communication tothe Royal Medical Academy of Rome by Professor Duranteon Jan. 26th of this year. The experiments necessary forascertaining the properties of the drug had not then beenconcluded, but so far as they had gone they seemed to showthat tachiol would prove a valuable addition to the list of

antiseptic substances both on account of its germicidal powerand because of its comparative freedom from poisonous

qualities. These experiments have now been completed anda full report of them has been published in the Polielinjeo 2

by Dr. G. Perez, assistant in Professor Durante’s clinic.The salt to which the name of tachiol has been given is thefluoride of silver and in the pure state takes the form ofcolourless transparent crystals changing rapidly by simple

, contact with air, with slight elevation of the temperatureto a yellow colour, and finally to a black horny mass. It is

extremely soluble in water and the aqueous solutions, if

properly prepared, are very stable when not too concentrated.- The experiments were made by Dr. Perez with solutions

: of 1 in 1000 and 1 in 100 furnished for the purpose. by Professor Pateino, to whom is due the credit

-

of discovering a convenient method of preparing the,

pure fluoride of silver and thus making it available

l for therapeutic purposes. The solution is non-irritating

> to the skin and does not injure instruments, but it

- has’ the disadvantage of blackening linen. This incon-

1 venience may be obviated by washing the stains with weak

> solutions of cyanide of potassium or with a solution of

J

corrosive sublimate and common salt (sublimate 1, water

] 2000, and sodium chloride 25 parts), but in hospitalsf

this unfortunate property of tachiol may conceivably> prevent its adoption as a general antiseptic, notwith-

sstanding its advantages in other respects. Dr. Perez

1 found by experiments upon different bacteria of varyingdegrees of resistance and in different media that both in

its power of arresting the development of the germs andof killing them the fluoride of silver is greatly superiorto carbolic acid and only slightly inferior to corrosive subli-

n mate (strength for strength of solution), and that it is the

s most potent of all the salts of silver in these respects. It

y was further found that, owing to its slighter coagulatingeffect on albumin, the fluoride possesses a greater penetrating’f power than corrosive sublimate or nitrate of silver and

e that it exerts its antiseptic properties to a greater depth ina the tissues. Similarly in organic fluids, such, for’, example, as the blood of a guinea-pig infected with;t anthrax, the bacilli prove less resistant to the solu-ê- tions of the fluoride than to those of the nitrate0 of silver and of corrosive sublimate, the bactericidal

d power of the first not being notably affected by ther. presence in such liquids of chloride of sodium, whereas6 that of the others, and especially of corrosive sublimate,

1 THE LANCET, Feb. 8th, 1902, p. 393.2 Il Policlinico, Sezione Chirurgica, fasc. 10, 1902.