936

passed an examination subsequent to a course of lectureson domestic hygiene which had been arranged in conjunc-tion with the National Health Society, it was publicly statedthat the National Health Society would be willing to co-operate in the formation of a new society by means of con-junction, and it would be no doubt feasible to take theSmoke Abatement Society and other kindred associationsinto the combination, and thus form a really strongcentre for the diffusion of sanitary knowledge through-out the country. A well-endowed Royal Institute of Sani-tation, with lecture hall, library, laboratories, museum,and schools for technical training in cooking and otherbranches of domestic hygiene, would be an institution ofgreat value to the public at large. The various societieswhich now exist are none of them very flourishing; theyall do good work, but the struggle for existence veryseriously hampers their efforts, and wealthy persons whoare anxious to help forward the cause of sanitation are alittle puzzled as to the claims of the various societies forsupport. Union is strength, and we are very glad to thinkthat no petty jealousies have arisen to bar the way to com-bination in so far as the Parkes Museum and the SanitaryInstitute are concerned, and, if the sat"’e admirable temperbe maintained, we trust that the very desirable concentra-tion of effort which we have indicated may soon be broughtabout. If this end were attained, we think there can

be little doubt that a large and substantial measure of

public support would be accorded to the new Society. Inthe meantime we congratulate the members of the ParkesMuseum and the Sanitary Institute on being the pioneers inthis important movement. -

HABITUAL DRUNKENNESS.

DR. NORMAN KERR’S book upon Inebriety has appearedso recently that it would seem to be something rather likea " literary coincidence " for an article upon " HabitualDrunkenness " to appear in the May number of the 1Vest-minster Review. In spite of its anonymity, the paper is animportant one, well worthy of notice. In the main itfollows the lines so clearly laid down by Dr. Norman Kerr:habitual drunkenness is to be regarded rather as a diseasethan a mere moral weakness. Still, the article has a certainpicturesque vividness in purporting to be the personal ex-perience of one who has voluntarily placed himself underrestraint in accordance with the provisions of the HabitualDrunkards Act of 1879. The account he gives of hisdecline and fall is not an overdrawn picture of theevil wrought by drink. Many ineffectual attempts to reformwere made by him before looking the matter fairly in the faceaud seeking medical help. The advice he received urgedseclusion in a retreat, but gave three alternative possiblemethods of rescue. Of "divine help" he remarks that noAct of Parliament can be expected to provide consciencesfor anybody. The "avoidance of old haunts and drinkingcompanions," he believes is useless, since as a rule thehabitual drunkard " drinks in solitary communion with hisown bitter thoughts." The third alternative, of an "effortof the will," he meets by saying that under the habitual useof stimulants " the will is paralysed." Before proceedingfurther with his account, he gives what appears to be a verysatisfactory definition of an habitual drunkard as a " manor woman whose craving for intoxicants is greater than thepower of the will to resist drinking them when that poweris exerted at its maximum strength." In attempting toprove that dipsomania is a mental disease of a virulentnature due to physical causes, the author goes over well-trodden ground, and yet fails to be thoroughly convincing.He quotes largely from various medical authorities to showthat stimulants have a special tendency to increase theautomatic activity, and at the same time to weaken thecontrolling power of the will; but even if this be granted,

it points rather to the way in which the habit is graduallydeveloped by over-indulgence than to the existence of a dis-tinct disease, hereditary or acquired," except in the sense ofbeing a gradual impairment of the force of the will. Hedoes not appear to realise the bearing of his remarks uponthe pre-existence of a disease element when he distinctlystates that the habitual drunkard "has created a desire,having previously weakened his will to control it andhis physical strength to withstand it." A little later he

begs the whole question in saying that the vice and sin arethe result and expression of mental and physical malady.Even if we grant, with Dr. Norman Kerr in his work onInebriety, that curative measures are more likely to beadopted by a sympathetic recognition of a disease element.in dipsomania, we cannot but feel that the scientific basisupon which such an assertion can be satisfactorily foundeddemands more pathological proof-if, indeed, it is capable ofproof. Fortunately, meanwhile, there is very little roomfor doubting the advantages derivable from enforced deten-tion in a home or retreat, provided that it is under suitablystrict management. A lax interpretation of the Act cer-tainly imperils the ultimate success of the treatment, theessence of which consists in enforced total abstinencefrom alcoholic drinks for a prolonged period. Cures havebeen effected by these means when it has been sufficient to-break through the habit of intoxication in the presence ofan adequate motive and a real desire for cure, and to sub.stitute for it the habit of abstinence and self-controlsThere can be no doubt that the Habitual Drunkards Actof 1879 will require considerable extension of the powersof control before its advantages can be of universal appli.cation. The article in the Westminster Review should do,

good if its scientific explanations are regarded lenientlyand its experiences sympathetically.

A NEW ANTISEPTIC SOAP.

UNTIL quite recently a satisfactory soap containing as anantiseptic one of the salts of mercury has been difficult toprepare on account of the alkaline soap refusing to yielda good lather, oleate of mercury being formed-a compoundwhich has little or no germicidal action. One of the most

powerful antiseptics of the mercury salts is, as is well known,the bichloride. Moreover, it is cheap, and easily soluble, butit has the disadvantages of being extremely poisonous andeasily reduced by albuminoid matter, with which it combines,thus being rendered inactive. In a paper recently readbefore the Society of Chemical Industry in Glasgow by JohnThomson, the solubility of the red biniodide of mercury(which is claimed to be even a more powerful antisepticthan the bichloride) in iodide of potassium has been madeuse of. A soap can thus be easily prepared containing a.certain proportion of the biniodide in a soluble form. It isstated to be permanent, having no tendency to separate, andto be more germicidal in its properties than any other anti-septic soap yet known. Experiments were made to demon-strate this. Sterilised silk threads were suspended in asolution of the biniodide soap (1 gramme of soap in 120cubic centimetres of water) for ten minutes, after beingsaturated with solutions containing well-known micro-organisms, amongst which were streptococcus scarlatinæ(Klein), bacillus subtilis, orange sarcina, white bacillus fromTweed water, organisms from putrid urine, the micrococcusof osteo-myelitis, aspergillus nigrescens, spores from variousfungi, yellow micrococcus from pus, putrefactive organisms,bacterium termo, and bacillus scarlatinæ (Edington). Thethreads were then carefully washed to remove the soap, andplaced in sterilised gelatine in the ordinary way. Thethreads were controlled by first sterilising, and then

plunging into nutrient gelatine; if no growth occurred,