Abstract
IN his inaugural thesis (Thèse de Paris, No. 489; 1939), which is based on his experience at the Lesuellec Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. André Le Gall deals with the subject of alcoholism and mental disease in the Morbihan Department of Brittany. He points out that during the period 1910–37, since when the number admitted to the hospital each year has remained almost stationary, the admissions increased from 149 to 335, while the percentage of alcoholic patients rose from 7·52 in 1920 to 44·77 in 1937. The consequence has been that the total number of patients under treatment at the hospital rose from 778 in 1920 to 1,474 in 1938. There has also been a considerable increase in alcoholism among women, as is shown by the fact that while in 1911 they formed only 18·90 per cent of the total number of alcoholics, in 1937 this figure rose to 43·33 per cent. For several years the average age of the alcoholic patients has shown a tendency to fall, young persons of 20–30 being more numerous than formerly. Alcoholism was found to bo as frequent among the married as among celibates, but was more liable to affect the rural than the urban population. In 1936, for example, only 15·73 per. cent of the alcoholic admissions were manual labourers, as compared with farm labourers who formed 47·25 per cent of these admissions. The measures suggested by Dr. Le Gall for the control of alcoholism in Morbihan include suppression of the privileges allowed to home distillers, limitation of the number of public houses, the creation of dispensaries of mental hygiene, special homes for inebriates, especially for relapsing cases, the promotion of sport, and the encouragement of propaganda in favour of non-fermented apple juice, which has yielded excellent results in some countries, especially Switzerland.
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Alcoholism and Mental Disease. Nature 144, 543–544 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144543c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144543c0