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This volume is by the editors of the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol. It is a rather extensive work which defines the alcohol problem, studies the preparation of various drinks, the utilization of alcohol in the body, and diseases due to and connected with alcoholism. It explodes a lot of myths about drinkers and presents facts ably and well assisted by statistics and graphs. It also indicates the great lack of knowledge still present in this field.
It is said that “the effects desired and produced by alcohol become criteria of moderation and excess.” The intoxicating effect of alcohol is due to that portion which has been absorbed but not yet utilized. There are one hundred and fifty-five synonyms for drunkenness. Some fifty per cent of inebriates have definite nervous and mental anomalies. There are no uniform personality traits and no inebriate personality. The need for religious security and standards is high among chronic alcoholics. Inebriates may be divided into the symptomatic drinkers, true addicts, stupid drinkers, and excessive drinkers not symptomatic nor addict. Inebriety figures in at least five per cent of all suicides. The treatment by creating disgust has an ancient history. The diseases of chronic alcoholism are essentially nutritional diseases. Excessive drinkers have a greater mortality and a shorter average life than moderate drinkers and abstainers; the exact difference is still a question. The contribution of alcohol to the causation of mental diseases has been shown to be much smaller than was formerly supposed. The contribution of inebriety to all first admissions with psychosis in all mental hospitals, including private and public, has varied between five and three-tenths to six per cent. These are some of the data extracted from the more orderly study in the text. The chapter on what the world drinks is so engaging, it almost tempted the reviewer to hunt up a drink; however, he was rescued by the sobriety of the later chapters.