191 5] General 437 



N. Y. Health Dep't temperance Crusade. The N. Y. City Dep't 

 of Health recently pubHshed the results obtained from a study of the 

 effects of alcohol on human Hfe. Forty-three leading Hfe insurance 

 companies have furnished their records on about 2,000,000 lives, f or 

 a period of 25 years. The report states that nothing has been more 

 conclusively proved than that the steady free use of alcohohc bever- 

 ages, or occasional excess, is detrimental to the individual. Among 

 men who admitted that they had taken alcohol occasionally to excess 

 in the past, but whose habits were considered satis facto ry when they 

 were insured, the extra-mortality was equivalent to a reduction of 

 more than 4 years in the average expectation of Hfe for these men. 

 The report further states that available statistics justify the State- 

 ment that total abstainers have a mortality during the working years 

 of life of about one-half that for those who take two glasses of 

 whiskey a day. 



ToxicoLOGiCAL NOTES, Wood alcohol in toilet preparations. 

 Investigation by inspectors of the N. Y. City Health Dep't last year 

 showed that more than one-third of the toilet preparations sold in 

 the city contained wood alcohol, which is forbidden by the Sanitary 

 Code. Of more than 300 preparations taken from barber shops, 

 manicuring establishments and supply-houses, during the past few 

 months, however, only a small proportion contained this deadly 

 poison. Systematic inspections will be continued. 



Retail druggists endorse patent-medicine campaign. At a meet- 

 ing of the pharmacists of N. Y. City, July 2, under the auspices of 

 the Bronx Co. Pharmaceut. Assoc, resolutions were adopted endors- 

 ing the Health Dep't's campaign against f raudulent patent medicines. 

 This change in the attitude of the pharmacists of the city is very 

 gratifying. It may now be expected that N. Y. City pharmacists will 

 do all in their power to uphold the Dep't of Health in its endeavor 

 to stop the local sale of the many f raudulent cure-alls now on the 

 market. 



Drug victims fill city prisons. At a recent Conference on crime 

 and environment, Dr. Katherine B. Davis, Commiss. of Corrections, 

 N. Y. City, stated that on Mar. i, 1914, there were 4,647 persons 

 in the correctional inst's of that city, but on Mar. i, 191 5, there were 

 approx. 7,500, an increase of almost 50 percent. Dr. Davis attrib- 



