234 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



or by the nerves direct ? The speaker said that he had been led to 

 the conclusion, from previous experiments, that all poisons were 

 brought into action through the blood ; but this very commonly ac- 

 cepted theory did not explain the immediate and powerful action 

 which follows the exhibition of the minutest dose of the nitrite of 

 amyle. He thought, therefore, that the action was immediately on 

 the nervous system, and that such action, transferred to the filaments 

 of nerves surrounding the arteries, paralyzed 'the vaso nerves, on 

 whi^'h the heart immediately injected the vessels, causing the peculiar 

 redness of the skin, and the other phenomenon that had been narrated. 

 Dr. Richardson, in conclusion, said that nitrite of amyle, like to 

 chloroform 20 years ago, was only to be considered a physiological 

 curiosity. It might by its action suggest the cause of trance, and of 

 what was called hysterical unconsciousness, and it might explain the 

 mode by which certain analogous substances produced their effects on 

 the organism. It had been suggested naturally suggested that in 

 fainting, as from loss of blood or from fear, the inhalation of the 

 nitrite of amyle might be of service. He (the author) did not, how- 

 ever, at the present moment recommend its use in medicine, because 

 of the intensity of its action. This last point was at the present time 

 under his inquiry, and he would eport further results at the next 

 meeting of the Association. 



THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND TOBACCO UPON THE 



HEALTH. 



The following curious passage relating to the effects of alcoholic 

 drinks and tobacco upon health occurs in the sixth annual report of 

 the Register-General for Scotland: "All classes are agreed as to 

 the evils produced by the abuse of stimulants (alcoholic) drinks and of 

 tobacco. But a certain class decry even the use of these, and point 

 to the statistics as a triumphant proof of the baneful effect of such 

 stimulants and sedatives. ]STo such conclusion can be drawn from 

 such statistics ; and this may be proved in the most satisfactory man- 

 ner. Tobacco and stimulating drinks are almost exclusively con- 

 sumed bv males, and by almost none under fifteen years of ajre. Yet 



V 9f V CJ 



we find that in every 100,000 males under fifteen years of age brain 

 diseases cut off annually 337 persons ; whereas in an equal number of 

 females only 276 are cut off by the same disease. At the very period 

 of lift', therefore, when neither sex uses these so called obnoxious 

 articles, the male tendency to those diseases is so much greater than 

 it is in the female that 337 males die for every 276 females. Above 

 fifteen years of age, when for argument's sake, we may allow the fe- 

 male does not consume these articles, or, at least, that the number 

 who do is -so insignificant as not to affect the general results, while 

 the male both uses and in many cases abuses them, instead of find- 

 ing that the relative proportion of male deaths from these diseases 

 increases, we i'nd that it rather diminishes; so that while above 

 fifteen years of age 217 males die from these diseases in every 100,< ;>') 

 males, 164 female's die out of a like number of females. But the 

 subject may be viewed in a more striking light still, by taking the 

 proportion of each sex who die from these diseases above and under 

 tilteen years of age. iJy this ii will bu found that the relative ten- 



