126 
Methyl  or  Wood  Alcohol. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
\    February,  1920. 
a  branch  of  the  industry  in  which  the  country  held  a  predominant 
position.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Central  Empires  formed 
one  of  our  best  markets  for  this  class  of  goods. 
The  replacement  of  hand-made  articles  by  machine-made  goods 
is  perhaps  one  of  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  civilization, 
and,  balancing  the  advantages  and  disadvantages,  we  may,  on 
the  whole,  gain  by  the  change.  While  the  machine  may  increase 
the  perfection  of  the  form  of  the  article,  though  perfection  of  form 
may  not  imply  enhancement  of  beauty,  the  material  almost  always 
suffers  in  mechanical  treatment.  There  is  a  play  of  the  lights  on 
the  surface  of  a  piece  of  hand-worked  English  flint  glass  which  is 
never  to  be  found  in  a  mould-blown  article.  American  mechanical 
reproduction,  of  English  cut  glass  are  very  wonderful,  but  they  abso- 
lutely lack  the  craftsman's  touch. 
The  branch  of  the  trade  should  remain  largely  a  handicraft. 
Economies  can,  however,  be  introduced  in  many  directions,  and  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  old-fashioned  round  furnace  should  still  be 
used.  Such  fuel- wasting  machines  should,  in  the  national  interest, 
be  prohibited  under  D.  O.  R.  A.,  or  her  successor. 
METHYL  OR  WOOD  ALCOHOL  AND  ITS  END-PRODUCTS 
IN  THE  BODY.i 
The  menace  of  methyl  alcohol  or  wood  spirits  to  human  health, 
though  long  known  to  physicians,  has  never  been  adequately  ap- 
preciated by  the  public.  Heretofore  the  dangers  arising  from  its 
introduction  into  the  body  have  for  the  most  part  been  confined 
to  some  accidental  or  casual  intake  of  the  substance,  and  larger 
numbers  of  fatalities  have  arisen  only  in  unusual  circumstances, 
such  as  the  criminal  adulteration  of  alcoholic  beverages  with  wood 
alcohol.  With  the  enforcement  of  national  prohibition,  however, 
the  prospect  of  more  frequent  instances  of  harm  through  the  use  of 
this  intoxicant  in  place  of  the  forbidden  grain  spirits  and  other 
drinks  containing  ordinary  ethyl  alcohol  is  unfortunately  before; 
the  nation.  Within  the  last  few  weeks  the  newspapers  have  been 
reporting  the  deaths  of  more  than  a  hundred  persons  from  the  adul- 
teration of  alcoholic  beverages  with  methyl  alcohol.    It  therefore 
1  From  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Jan.  3,  1920. 
