526 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 201 



through neglect or absence from the state, failed 

 to register before October, 1881, and whose sub- 

 sequent application had been refused. Some of 

 these are still unregistered, not aware of the fact 

 that Justice Cullen has decided not only that they 

 have the right to register, but that it is their duty 

 to do so. If this statement comes to the knowl- 

 edge of any such, they should at once apply for 

 registration. 



Another question has arisen in connection with 

 the registration law, and that is, must a physician 

 who has registered in one county of the state, if 

 he desires to practise in another county, re-register 

 in that county ? We simply desire to have appear 

 what the views of the two justices are on this 

 question. Until the case comes before them in 

 such shape that a judicial opinion in the strictly 

 legal sense can be given, we do not know how 

 their views could be better expressed. In the last 

 number of Science (viii. No. 200, p. 515), we stated 

 these views as those of Justices Cullen and Bart- 

 lett. We should have said Justices Bartlett and 

 Brown. The entry in the county clerk's book is as 

 follows : "Dr. John Smith registered as a physi- 

 cian in Greene county in 1880, in compliance with 

 chapter 513, laws of 1880. Dr. Smith afterwards, 

 on the 13th of March, 1885, applied to the coimty 

 clerk of Kings county to be again registered ; 

 but the county clerk of Kings county refused 

 to register him. The matter was brought before 

 Judges Bartlett and Brown, who decided orally 

 that Dr. Smith was not obliged to register in every 

 county of the state.'' The deputy Informs us that 

 at the time one of the justices remarked that " it 

 was absurd to suppose that a physician must 

 register in the sixty counties of the state if he 

 wanted to practise in them all." In view of all 

 these facts, perhaps it would have been more 

 exact if, instead of saying that re-registration was 

 absurd as a matter of law, we had said that it was 

 absurd as looked upon by a supreme court judge. 

 That these views are not held by other judges 

 appeal's from the letters of the counsel to the 

 medical society. 



We have received a reprint of an article by 

 Dr. Crothers of Hartford, which was printed 

 recently in the Alienist and neurologist. It is 

 entitled ' Certain hereditary and psychical phenom- 

 ena in inebriety,' and contains some facts which 

 are of great interest not only to students of psy- 

 chological heredity, but to those taking part in 



the social and political arguments on the liquor- 

 question. Dr. Crothers has found two sorts of 

 instances of inheritance of the symptoms of in- 

 ebriety, — one in which the symptoms of intoxica- 

 tion are present all the time ; the other in which 

 these symptoms only appear from some peculiar 

 circumstance or exciting cause. In the first class 

 some prominent defect, such as idiocy, imbecility, 

 and congenital deformity, is present, and gives the 

 case a distinctness irrespective of the signs of 

 intoxication. These symptoms may appear after 

 birth, or be slowly evolved with the growth of the 

 child, coming into prominence at or before 

 puberty. Among other instances. Dr. Crothers 

 cites this one : "In the home of a former patient 

 I found a little girl, an idiot, whose voice and 

 rambling utterance, with intensely red eyes and 

 di'unken expression, pointed back to causes and 

 conditions that had not been noticed before. 

 Other defects and deformities of the face and 

 body cover up these peculiar signs of intoxica- 

 tion." 



The second class of cases is less common, but 

 the symptoms are very distinct. Unlike the first 

 class, here the persons affected possess average 

 brain-power, and in many instances are men of 

 positive force. They are usually temperate men, 

 never using alcohol, yet under certain circum- 

 stances they act and appear as if intoxicated. In 

 these cases some sort of mental shock takes place 

 that destroys the balance and brings uppermost an 

 inherited neurotic effect. These cases come from 

 inebriate parents or moderate drinkers, and they 

 have inherited some defective nerve-organization 

 which thus manifests itself. Dr. Crothers cites 

 this instance : "A merchant, in good health, and 

 temperate, while at work in his counting-room, 

 received a despatch of the death of his daughter. 

 He lay down on a sofa in his ofifice, and very soon 

 became wildly intoxicated. A physician ' made 

 this diagnosis, although there was no odor of 

 alcohol in the breath. He was taken home, and 

 remained in bed a week. Two opinions prevailed^ 

 — one, that he had drunk in his office ; the other, 

 that it was congestion of the brain. He denied 

 having used spirits, but was confused about the 

 events of the past. In this case an heredity from 

 alcoholic ancestors was present." 



Then there are cases of persons who have been 

 inebriates or intoxicated, and have since become 

 total abstainers, but from unknown causes sud- 



