EDITOR'S TABLE. 



125 



on tbe " Principles and Practice of Med- 

 icine " ; but the chapter in question 

 was selected for use as a tract because 

 it states the case agaiust alcohol with 

 ail the exaggeration and suppression 

 needed for party purposes. Dr. War- 

 ren describes it as '' full of error and 

 misstatement concerning the physio- 

 logical action of alcohol," while " the 

 therapeutic inferences drawn therefrom 

 are, to say the least, most doubtful." 

 One example will suffice to show to 

 what extent — if we may trust Dr. War- 

 ren, who writes with a very full com- 

 mand of his subject — the truth has been 

 economized in tlie pamphlet in ques- 

 tion. The author, after stating that 

 " the experimental researches of Lalle- 

 inand. Perriu, and Duroy proved con- 

 clusively that alcohol was eliminated 

 as alcohol, unchanged chemically, from 

 the lungs, skin, and kidneys," adds that 

 these experiments have been confirmed, 

 except that it is claimed that "the 

 amount eliminated is not equal to the 

 whole quantity taken." '' Surely," says 

 Dr. Warren, " no beginner would infer 

 from the last quotation that etery com- 

 petent inxestigatorh.iidilownil theamount 

 eliminated, not only not equal to the 

 whole quantity talcen, but really to form 

 only a small fraction of it ; yet such is 

 actually the case." We have not space 

 to follow Dr. Warren in his very thor- 

 ough examination of this anti-alcohol 

 manifesto ; but we very heartily con- 

 cur with him in some of his concluding 

 remarks. "There are times," he says, 

 " when it may be well not to tell the 

 whole truth; but I have yet to learn 

 how the human race can be benefited, 

 in the long run, by systematic decep- 

 tion, and by the wholesale circulation 

 of what is, to say the least, not true." 

 Again : " The temperance movement of 

 the future will have to recognize that 

 the field for its activity lies not in the 

 dissemination of falsehood about what 

 alcohol is and does, but in the control 

 of its rational use and in the prevention 

 of all abuse. Intemperance is a terrible 

 weed, but its roots wUl be found to be 



ent:mgh'd amid many social problems 

 of heredity, poor food, overwork, bad 

 cooking, and bad homes, all quite as im- 

 portant, if not more important, than the 

 question of alcohol." The main object 

 of the present article, however, is to 

 protest, in the name of science, against 

 the tethering of it to any party policy 

 whatever; and in the name of social 

 and political justice against laying hold 

 of the public schools for the propaga- 

 tion of opinions based as yet upon very 

 incomplete inductions. Our temperance 

 reformers have ample scope for a wise 

 and beneficial activity without seeking 

 to control the schools and without per- 

 verting opinion by the dissemination of 

 unfounded statements under tlie guise 

 of science. 



A FURTnER ADVANCE. 



We noticed, at the time of its ap- 

 pearance, an article by the celebrated 

 Roman Catholic biologist, Mr. St. 

 George Mivart, claiming for members of 

 the Catholic Church the fullest liberty 

 of oi)inion in all matters pertaining to 

 science. In Mr. Mivart's opinion, it was 

 a fortunate thing for the world that the 

 Church had blundered so egregiously 

 in condemning and punishing Galileo 

 for putting forward the true theory of 

 the heavens. It was a lesson that the 

 Church would not be likely to forget 

 as to the expediency of minding its 

 own business ; and it was an instance 

 to which the laity could always appeal 

 in case ecclesiastical authority should 

 ever seek to set itself up as a judge 

 of scientific questions. To-day, after a 

 lapse of two years, Mr. Mivart comes 

 forward with another plea for liber- 

 ty — this time in connection with ques- 

 tions of history and criticism. He 

 states that, in writing his former article, 

 he purposely expressed himself very 

 strongly, in order that, if there was any- 

 thing in the position he took of a na- 

 ture to call for ecclesiastical censure, 

 he might hear of it ; but that, far from 

 having been visited with censure, he 



