NA TURE 



271 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1909. 



THE USE AND MISUSE OF DRUGS. 

 Drugs and the Drug Habit. By Dr. Harrington 

 Sainsbury. (New Library of Medicine.) Pp. xv+ 

 307. (London : Methuen and Co., n.d.) Price 

 7.S-. 6d. net. 



THERE is required no little courage on the part 

 of both writer and publisher to issue a book 

 with this forbidding title, which to the layman brings 

 memories of the nauseous ransom paid for release from 

 disabilities, and to the medical man renews the griefs 

 of " lectures on materia medica at 8 o'clock on 

 a winter's morning " which Darwin found " some- 

 tiling fearful to remember." To those who are not 

 repelled by the exterior, however, we can promise 

 much enjoyijnent from the perusal of this volume, 

 which is written with the same distinction of literary 

 style and with the same felicity of illustration as 

 marked the author's " Principia Therapeutica." He 

 writes for the educated layman, and, avoiding the 

 technical pitfalls with which medicine is so bestrewn, 

 gives a clear view of the principles on which treatment 

 must rest. Commencing with a short historical 

 review of the deductive medicine of the "systems," 

 among which he places that curious survival 

 homceopathy, he passes quickly to the definition of 

 his subject, noting by the way the etymological con- 

 nection between drug and dry, and then discusses the 

 general aim of drug-giving and the grounds on which 

 it is based. Here, as throughout, the author draws 

 many analogies between familiar physical phenomena 

 and the action of drugs, and attempts to dispel the 

 mysticism in which therapeutics is still involved to 

 the lay mind. 



The mental effect of treatment as apart from the 

 actual effects of the drug and the psychology of the 

 placebo are dealt with at some length. Drugs are 

 thrown into large classes as nutrients, incitants, 

 depressants, alteratives, antiseptics, and sedatives, 

 which may perhaps find justification in treatises of 

 this kind, but which it is diflicult to reconcile with the 

 canons of modern pharmacology. The newer methods 

 of therapeutics, such as organotherapeutics and 

 serum therapeutics, are the subjects of an interesting 

 chapter, in which they are claiijied as the modern 

 developments of ancient theory and in no way dis- 

 tinct in character from other forms of medication. 

 ■Is not the theory underlying the use of thyroid extract 

 the same as that which suggested the administration 

 of pepsin, and is not the newest vaccine a direct 

 descendant, even in terminology, from that of Jenner ? 

 A third of the book is devoted to the habitual use 

 or abuse of the narcotic and soporific drugs, such as 

 opium, alcohol, and chloral, and to the treatment of 

 the consequent " drug habits." Here the importance 

 of re-building the character and self-control of the 

 victim is insisted on, and no medicinal treatment is 

 considered of value except in a purely subsidiary and 

 incidental way. Some support is given to the mental 

 treatment of these cases, but its difficulties and draw- 

 backs are recognised. Improvement is often obtained 

 NO. 2079, VOL. 81] 



when the environment of the subject is changed and 

 the possibility of indulgence is restricted, so that the 

 impulses to satisfy the craving are not aroused, while 

 those tending to develop control gain ascendancy. The 

 difficulty arises on return to the habitual environment, 

 when tlie old impulses throng through the well-beaten 

 paths, and the feeble, newly-acquired, guardian 

 impulses are not aroused by the surroundings. One 

 form of drug habit which finds no mention we should 

 like to have seen discussed from the author's stand- 

 point, the most prevalent, and not least pernicious of 

 them all, that of self-drugging with all sorts of 

 nostrums, which becomes an obsession with many of 

 the laity, and is often accompanied by profound 

 distrust of the medical profession. 



The drink problem receives some attention, and the 

 solution suggested is not legislation and restriction so 

 much as education in self-control. The shortcomings of 

 the recent Sale of Poisons .Act are subjected to criti- 

 cism ; but should we have a Sale of Poisons Act at all? 

 Might we not trust to education here also? On p. 231 

 it is stated that morphia may be detected in the urine 

 in subjects of the opium habit, which is not in agree- 

 ment with ordinary experience, and the direct inherit- 

 ance of drug habits, as apart from the inheritance of 

 the mental weakness which underlies these, requires 

 further confirmation. 



EUCLID'S ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH. 

 The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements. Trans- 

 lated from the Text of Heiberg, with Introduction 

 and Commentary, by T. L. Heath, C.B. 

 3 vols. Vol. i., introduction and Books i.-ii., pp. 

 x+424; Vol. ii.. Books iii.-ix., pp. 436; Vol. iii., 

 Books x,-xiii. and Appendix, pp. 554. (Cambridge : 

 University Press, 1908.) Price 2I. 2s. net. 



OUR island is the last home of ignorant Euclido- 

 latry ; argal, a German scholar has been allowed 

 to edit, and a German firm to publish, the best and 

 only critical text of Euclid's works. Our ancient 

 universities maintain compulsory Greek; argal, Dr. 

 Heath has thought it necessary to undertake, in addi- 

 tion to his commentary, an English translation of the 

 text. Accepting these facts as part of the eternal 

 fitness of things, those who can beg, borrow, or buy 

 these three handsome volumes will be able to learn 

 the actual contents of the "Elements," the history 

 of their propagation and influence on mathematical 

 study, and their, relation to Greek science and philo- 

 sophy in general. Dr. Heath has been so long a de- 

 voted student of Greek geometry that he is able to 

 give his readers a very good idea of its developments 

 and peculiar limitations; his commentary seems to 

 cover every point of real interest, and he has rightly 

 given, by way of comparison, some account of the 

 modern theory of irrationals. 



Naturally, the definitions and postulates receive a 

 good deal of attention. The definition of a straight 

 line is translated " a straight line is a line which lies 

 evenly with the points on itself," and the same render- 

 ing of f'l la-ov is given in the definition of a plane. 

 Readers of the notes on these definitions will prob- 

 ably agree with the editor that f'| lo-ou, thus applied. 



