Outline of the Cranial Nerves

This volume is a symposium on the effects of alcohol on human life. It is not intended as a hand-book for scientists; it is arranged for the educated layman that he might have an adequate and authoritative source of information. It is a book that has value for physicians and nurses, even though they be familiar with the general material. The titles of the six parts of the treatise indicate the breadth of the field: The effects of alcohol on human functions; the effects of alcohol on the cell and in heredity; alcohol as a poison and a medicine; alcohol and body resistance and pathology; the effect of alcohol on man's conduct and heredity; and alcohol and longevity, mortality and morbidity. The first five parts are discussions largely of experimental material, the sixth of statistical material. Twenty-three authors of high standing have contributed. There are differences of opinion among the writers but no contradictions on major issues. The whole trend is toward moderate statement as to the effects of alcohol: it may be used by adults in moderate amounts and in dilution without any apparent effects on health or longevity; there is no evidence that it induces permanent racial blight. Its effects on muscular reflexes, glandular action, central nervous system, as well as on resistance to disease, death rate and the like, are shown to be deleterious. It is a good presentation, and educators ought to be familiar with it. It should be, to the public, a wholesome antidote to the efforts of fanatic wets or drys. FLORENCE R. ROBINSON.