Febkuaky 27, 1908] 



NA TUKE 



587 



to define what is meant by " moderate use "; probably 

 a quantit)- of a beverage equivalent to i to \\ fluid 

 ounces of absolute alcohol is as much as can safely 

 be consumed per diem. If this be admitted it must 

 be confessed that a large proportion of so-called 

 moderate drinkers exceed the mark; the man who 

 takes four or five whiskies a day is probably con- 

 suming 2 to 3 ounces of absolute alcohol per diem, 

 and is therefore exceeding what may be considered 

 to be a safe limit. The experiments quoted, in which 

 even weak solutions of alcohol are shown to be proto- 

 plasmic poisons, are hardly convincing as to tlie 

 deleterious action of alcohol on the organism as ; 

 whole, for arc not distilled water, 3 per cent, salt 

 solution, and beef-tea similarly protoplasmic 

 poisors? A good deal is made of the supposed 

 disastrous effects of alcohol on the nervous system, 

 and it is stated that alcohol is accountable for 20 per 

 cent, of the cases under care in our asylums. Dr. 

 Mott,' however, says — and he has made the subject 

 one of special study — that " alcohol does not -per se 

 produce a permanent mental derangement, such as 

 constitutes our definition of insanity," and he points 

 out that in an American inquiry into the subject, total 

 abstinence was found to be more frequently an ante- 

 cedent of insanity than was intemperance. These 

 quotations show how difficult it is to associate cause 

 and effect. 



Dr. Newsholme deduces from the statistics of the 

 consumption of alcoholic drinlcs in 1904 that each 

 adult of the working class spends 2s. 2^d. a week on 

 alcoholic bev'erages ; and, assuming that each family 

 spends ^s. a week, this, if placed as an insurance 

 premium, commencing at the age of 25, would mean 

 that the husband would have saved the sum of 422Z. 

 at the age of 55, which, invested as an annuity, 

 would yield 12s. 6d. a week. These are certainly 

 figures of grave import, and we would commend 

 them to the politicians, for here surely is the basis 

 for a scheme of old age pensions ! 



\^'e doubt, however, if there would actually be any- 

 thing like this saving, for a majority would certainly 

 spend the money on substitutes for alcoholic beverages 

 — tea, coffee, cocoa, milk, and temperance drinks — on 

 better food and clothing, and on amusements, and the 

 actual gain would principally be in the well-being 

 of the people. Finally, incidence of sickness and the 

 percentage death rate among abstainers and non- 

 abstainers is contrasted; among the former the death 

 rate is 3'557, among the latter 6'532. Dr. Newsholme 

 remarks : — " We are compelled to conclude that what 

 is commonly described as moderate drinking has a 

 most injurious effect on health and life." V\'e fee! 

 convinced that the whole story is not told by these 

 figures. No doubt many drunkards were included 

 among the moderate drinkers (as Dr. Newsholme 

 suggests), and probably a large proportion were not 

 moderate drinkers according to our definition ; and 

 may it not be that a considerable proportion of 

 naturally delicate persons, persons whose stamina is 

 poor and who suffer from various ailments and tend 

 to die young, are moderate drinkers, while the 



^ British Medical Journal, 1907, ii., p. 797- 



NO. 2000, VOL. yj'\ 



abstainers include a large proportion of robust 

 individuals \\ ho do not feel the need for any alcohol ? 



On the other hand, a number of so-called abstainers 

 are certainly really moderate drinkers, for many tem- 

 perance drinks contain some alcohol. Thus, in the 

 year ending March 31, 1907, of 1133 samples of 

 beverages sold as temperance drinks examined in the 

 Government Laboratory, 71 contained 3 per cent, of 

 proof spirit, 37 contained 4 per cent., and 8 contained 

 t> per cent, or more Herb beer and dandelion stout 

 contained respectively 105 per cent, and i2'3 per 

 cent, of proof spirit. Th;il is to say, 10 per cent, of 

 temperance drinks contain nearly as much alcohol 

 as a mild ale ! 



The book is well got up, and contains a number 

 of coloured and black-and-white illustrations and 

 diagrams. 



VAN DER WAAIS AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 

 Die Zustandsgleichitng der Case iind FUissigkeiten 



und die Continuildtstheoric. By Prof. J. P. Kuenen. 



Pp. X4-24I. (Brunswick : F. Vieweg und 



Sohn, 1907.) Price 6.50 marks. 

 ■pROF. KUENEN 'S monograph will be welcomed 

 by a large circle of readers who have felt the 

 fascination of van der Waals's equation in its simple 

 but marvellous exposition of the critical phenomena, 

 and who desire to become acquainted with the results 

 of recent investigations in this important field of 

 work. 



.'\s the author is able to show in his first four chap- 

 ters, the equation of state affords a complete qualita- 

 tive explanation of the behaviour of gases under vary- 

 ing conditions of temperature and pressure, including 

 those which cause liquefaction. The whole description 

 is admirably clear, but it may be permitted to direct 

 special attention to three points which are not usually 

 discussed; these are (i) the demonstration of the way 

 in which the labile equilibrium (in which pressure and 

 volume increase together) must collapse in such a way 

 as to give rise to two layers of different density 

 (p. 24) ; (2) the fact that in the metastable region the 

 pv curves for low temperatures intersect and cross 

 the axis of volume, corresponding with the experi- 

 mental observations of Helmholtz and others that 

 liquids may exist under considerable negative pres- 

 sures without vaporisation (p. 28); and (3) the fact 

 that the liquid in a capillary tube out of contact from 

 air is under a pressure less than the normal vapour 

 pressure, and is therefore metastable, and might even 

 become labile if the capillary height were sufficiently 

 great. 



In spite of its wonderful qualitative accuracy, van 

 der Waals's equation almost invariably breaks down 

 when accurate quantitative tests are applied (chapters 

 vi. to ix.). Thus, if the values of the critical constants 

 are filled in, the expression RT/PV should have the 

 value 8/3 = 2'67 for all gas; actually argon appears to 

 give a normal value, and hydrogen the value 2-94, but 

 a group of eighteen hydrocarbons and simple deriv- 

 atives gave values ranging from 3^4 to 3-9 (p. 60), 

 whilst polymerised liquids gave values between 4 and 

 5. Similar results are observed in reference to the 



