remembering that there are many grades of susceptibility; persistence and patience, and again persistence are the requisites of success, if success is to be had.

7. Some patients are inacessible to suggestion. 8. It is essential to have a third party at all seances, especially if the subjects are women.

9. The patient should, if possible, endeavor to cooperate with the hypnotizer-should assume a receptive attitude, and endeavor to concentrate his or her attention absolutely on the process. As in our belief verbal suggestions are preferable, it is better to close the eyes, save where written words are used instead of spoken.

Finally, the whole subject, even to-day, has not received sufficient study, and as Landon Carter Gray said The truly scientific attitude toward it should be neither one of skepticism or credulity, but simply of expectancy."

THE MEDICAL SIDE OF THE ALCOHOLIC

PROBLEM.

BY T. D. CROTHERS, M.D.,

HARTFORD.

There are three theories concerning alcohol to-day which are defended with great spirit and earnestness. The first affirms that alcohol is a true stimulant and tonic, a waste conservator and a concentrated food; that in medicine it brings certain properties which enhance and develop the highest functions of nerve and cell life.

The second theory denies these statements and asserts that alcohol in any form is destructive, that it has little or no value in any condition or state of life. As a beverage it is amongst the most dangerous and uncertain substances known. Also, that its effects on all animal life are injurious in the highest degree.

The third theory assumes that alcohol has some chemical properties and powers to perpetuate and sustain life, when used at the right time and in the right quantities and quality; that as a medicine it is indispensable in fevers and various organic affections; as a beverage it is the abuse that is to be condemned; its moderate use, first ascertaining the form of spirits best adapted to the man, is healthful and conduces to longevity.

Statistics, experience, laboratory researches, and statements of eminent men, in all the departments of human activity are grouped to prove and sustain each one of these theories.

CLINICALLY.

Within a very recent time the destructive influence of alcohol on the body has been recognized. All the newer text-books and systems of practice point out the dangers

from alcohol, its influence as a contributory cause in many diseases of the various organs of the body as well as of the brain and nervous system. The modern clinician inquires if there is a history of alcoholism or the moderate use of spirits in all cases, and this fact is important in the knowledge and treatment of the case. Next to the complication of syphilis, alcohol has a most important influence in the causation. In many obscure neuroses a history of the use of alcohol is even more significant than syphilis as a factor of degeneration and dis

ease.

The various palsies and mental derangements, also the disturbances of nutrition and circulation, and obscure organic affections, are clearer and better understood when you can eliminate all alcohol causation. When pneumonia appears, the prognosis is very different if you can eliminate alcohol taking. In all surgical treatment the former use of alcohol complicates the results, and in fevers it plays a very important role. While alcohol is still used as a medicine in many instances its influence in the causes of disease as active, predisposing and contributory is becoming more and more prominent. Recent laboratory and clinical researches show that aleohol, used continuously, is a cell and tissue poison of a peculiar, corroding nature. It is not only a toxin but produces toxins which are both chemical and psychical poisons. These facts ar econfirmed in many ways and open up a new field of chemic, physiologie, pathologic, and psychologic research, which invites every medical man to enter and examine for himself.

PATHOLOGICALLY.

We are all familiar with the changes of thought and conduct of persons who are using spirits. From the flushed face and flashing eye following the first glass of spirits on to the delirium and stupor of intoxication there is a continuous signalling of distress. The brain and

nervous system are disturbed, changed, and finally become exhausted. Pathology is a study of the changes and injuries from alcohol manifest in these symptoms and signals. For a long time it has been known that the brain and nervous system of persons who use spirits were changed, shrunken and disorganized. Other organs, such as the liver, kidneys, and heart, were either diminished or enlarged in size, and so seriously damaged in structure as to very imperfectly perform their work. In many cases these injuries are so marked that there can be no doubt of the drinking history of the person, although no other facts are known. The physiologic chemists have attempted to determine the influence of alcohol on the body by elaborate experiments. Different observers equally competent have reached widely different theories. Each one has expressed great confidence in the accuracy of his report. When these claims have been examined and the errors eliminated, many new facts have appeared but no authoritative discoveries. have been found, and the confusion and doubt remain. The dificulties are very formidable and the methods of research are difficult and open to many errors which cannot be eliminated.

The recent advances of psychology which enable us to measure the sensory and mental activities of the body have turned attention to the possibility of studying the effects of alcohol on these lines with better results.

It is assumed that if alcohol is a stimulant tonic or paralyzant or food in any way, even in small doses, its effects can be seen by external measurements.

In reality the heart, the temperature, the muscular activity, the sense of mental vigor, and general power of the body will accurately reflect the chemic and physiologic influences of alcohol on the body. Researches along this line have been made by many observers in this country and Germany during the past five years. A general summary will be of interest. The results have been

singularly uniform and have opened a new field with new facts which give clearer meaning and explanation to the problem. A normal, temperate person is examined every day at a certain time to find what is the average normal condition of his senses. His sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, also his muscular power, are measured. Then the person is given one ounce of ethylic spirits, and an hour after is examined again. This is repeated every day, only giving less as the susceptibility of spirits increases. The result is that in each instance his range of vision diminishes If he could distinguish

a letter an inch long twenty feet away, after the use of spirits it must be brought up to twelve or fifteen feet to be seen. His ability to distinguish colors is obscured or lost altogether. Red lines fade away or can only be noted close by. Forms and shapes of objects run into each other at a certain distance.

The changed expression of the eye, often a prolonged staring, is significant of defective vision. The watery changing eye is also prominent. Persons engaged in work requiring precision of vision find a single glass of spirits seriously interferes with their work. A noted astronomer told me he gave up all use of wine simply because it blurred his senses, and work done after using wine or spirits contained more errors.

Painters and photographers find from experiment that all forms of spirits, even in moderation, disturb their color sense. Several very curious cases of color and sight defects have been noted which were followed by results more or less serious.

The hearing is likewise diminished. Where a watch could be heard thirty inches from the ear clearly, after spirits are taken this distance is shortened eight or ten inches. Sounds of a certain pitch can not be distinguished, and below a certain key are confused.

This defect of hearing is illustrated in loud, changed voice of persons under the influence of spirits. They are