136 
Drug  Intoxication. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1      March,  1915. 
DRUG  INTOXICATION.1 
An  Economic  Waste  and  a  Menace  to  Public  Health. 
By  M.  I.  Wilbert,  Technical  Assistant,  Division  of  Pharmacology,  Hygienic 
Laboratory,  United  States  Public  Health  Service. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  more  than  200,000  persons  die  an- 
nually in  the  United  States  from  so-called  degenerative  diseases, 
and  the  mortality  statistics  compiled  by  the  Census  Bureau  show 
that  in  the  registration  area  there  has  been  an  increase  of  more  than 
100  per  cent,  in  the  deaths  from  diseases  of  the  kidneys,  heart,  and 
blood-vessels  during  the  past  thirty  years. 
While  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  gradual  decrease  in  the  general 
mortality  rate,  particularly  the  decrease  in  deaths  from  readily 
preventable  diseases  like  typhoid  fever  and  smallpox,  would  tend 
to  lengthen  the  average  human  life,  and  thus  add  to  the  number  of 
deaths  from  these  so-called  degenerative  diseases  in  advanced  years, 
mortality  statistics  show  that  the  greater  proportion  of  the  increase 
in  the  death-rate  from  diseases  of  the  kidneys,  heart,  and  blood- 
vessels has  been  among  persons  who  should  be  and  are  generally 
considered  to  be  in  the  prime  of  life.  This  great  increase  in  the 
mortality  of  persons  between  forty  and  sixty  years  of  age,  from 
diseases  characteristic  of  senility,  constitutes  a  deplorable  and  un- 
necessary economic  loss  that  is  well  deserving  of  careful  and  com- 
prehensive study. 
For  many  years  it  has  been  accepted  as  fact  that  changes  in  the 
natural  resistance  of  the  human  body  may  be  and  are  brought  about 
by  intoxications  such  as  are  produced  by  alcohol,  tobacco,  narcotic 
drugs,  and  the  various  occupational  poisonings  that  are  attracting 
such  widespread  attention  at  the  present  time.  These  several  sources 
of  intoxication  have,  however,  long  been  recognized  and  considerable 
attention,  time,  and  thought  have  been  devoted  to  the  study  of  their 
possible  untoward  effects.  Their  harmfulness  was  generally  well 
known  and  some  effort  made  to  combat  their  influence  even  before 
the  end  of  the  eighth  decade  of  the  previous  century,  from  which 
period  the  steady  and  somewhat  rapid  rise  in  mortality  from  de- 
generative diseases  appears  to  date. 
An  important  source  of  intoxication  to  which  altogether  too, little 
attention  has  as  yet  been  given  is  suggested  by  a  comparative  study 
Reprint  from  the  Public  Health  Reports,  vol.  29,  No.  42.  Oct.  16,  1914. 
