TOXIC EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 279 



In whatever way we look at it, alcoholism, therefore, appears 

 as a pathological factor in the fullest sense of the word. It is 

 an ever-growing menace to civiUsation. We think that we have 

 been able to give reasons for this statement, which is not made 

 at haphazard, or on the strength of popular beUefs, but which 

 finds ample confirmation in the various statistics which we have 

 given. AlcohoKc insanity and general paralysis — the two forms 

 of mental disease directly attributable to alcohohe excess — are 

 constantly and alarmingly on the increase ; and their increase 

 is accompanied by a corresponding increase in the consumption 

 of alcohol. We have given statistics only for Paris, but Paris 

 is the most briUiant example of a modem city ; it is the centre 

 of European life, and it sums up the various aspects of Ufe in 

 aU civilised countries. What is true in this respect for Paris is 

 equally true for aU the other centres of civilisation. And we 

 would remark, further, that the influence of alcohol as a patho- 

 genetic factor ia nervous disease is as incontestable as its influ- 

 ence in mental disease, which is nervous disorder at a higher 

 potential ; just as the rate of insanity is increasing, so also is 

 the rate of neurasthenia. This is an observation common to all 

 neurologists. Both as regards the production of mental disease 

 and of nervous disease we must look upon alcoholism as the 

 greatest enemy of race progress and the most potent factor in 

 racial degeneracy. 



IV. 



Turning now to the influence of the seasons on insanity, 

 alcohohsm, and general paralysis, what do we find ? With 

 regard to the influence of the seasons on the rate of insanity 

 in general, we find that the insanity-rate exhibits the same up- 

 and-down movement as the suicide-rate ; but, lest we should 

 be tempted to draw the conclusion that both these phenomena 

 proceed from the same cause, it is weU to recoUect that the rate 



