Abstract
THIS book comprises a number of essays by well-known authorities dealing with various aspects of the alcohol question. Dr. Harry Campbell dis cusses the biology of alcoholism, and asks, What is the nature of the peculiar attraction which alcohol exercises over mankind? He considers that the essential factor is the power to intoxicate and narcotise. Doubtless this is so for the drunkard, but as regards the moderate drinker we do not believe it: it is the flavour, and the flavour alone, and it is, noteworthy that no non-alcoholic drink has yet been manufactured which reproduces to any extent the flavour of an alcoholic one. Prof. Wood-head deals with the pathology, and Dr. Claye Shaw with the psychology, of alcoholism, Mrs. Sharlieb with alcoholism in relation to women and children, Sir Thomas Oliver with alcohol and work, and the Rev. J. C. Pringle, of the Charity Organisation Society, with alcohol and poverty. In the last essay Dr. Kelynack, the editor, dis cusses the arrest of alcoholism, and considers that the most effective work in limiting the worst manifestations of intemperance has been accom plished by the action of the Central Control Board, and certainly the statistics of the decline of drunkenness in London since it has been at work bear this out.
The Drink Problem of To-day in its Medico-Sociological Aspects.
Edited by Dr. T. N. Kelynack. Pp. xii + 318. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. 6d. net.
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The Drink Problem of To-day in its Medico-Sociological Aspects . Nature 98, 247 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/098247a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098247a0