Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

REVIEW OF SOUTHERN- MEDICAL LITERATUI 51
giessiiig tuberculosis, if the reaction is
strong:.
2. There is a very early and ephemeral
reaction, which is often missed, as it fades
quickly. This is very unfavorable.
3. There is the strong- late reaction which
appears in thirty-six hours, reaches a maximum
blovv ly in two or three days and many
persist several weeks.
This is often seen in cases clinically nontuberculous
and indicates in any case an
ability of the body to resist. A battle is
being fought and the victory may be in
doubt. The stage of the disease offers few
indications as to its progress. A mere incipient
apicial catarrh may be more serious
than an advanced case, which often this
reaction may show.
The reactive capacity may be increased
by favorable surroundings or decreased by
unfavorable and thus indications as to the
efficiency of treatment may be obtained.
Tbe Etiology of Renal Sclerosis.— Dr.
R. T. Styll says that as the arteries and
arterioles in the brain are thin walled and
deficient in elastic fibres, they are not very
contractile, and on account of the stress
and strain to which they are freciuenlly
subjected they are among the earliest of
yield to atheromatous and calcareous degeneration.
Hence the frequency of miliary
aneurysms. The toxins of infectious diseases
and other poisons find easy ingress to
the nerve centres and, by their irritating
properties, readily excite action therein
which is transmitted in every direction, producing
among other results both contraction
and dilatation of the arterioles, which,
if continued, will result in general arterio-
sclerosis.
The arterioles of the kidneys are very
muscular and well supplied with vasomotor
nerves; consequently they are conspicuously
under the control of nervous influences
affecting both the vaso-motor conh;trictor
and the vaso-dilator fibres, and are
necessarily as a consequence of any al)normal
condition in the centres presiding
over these nerves in a constant slate of alternate
spasm and dilatation, which is
obliged to eventuate in degeneration of the
arteries and the organ dependent upon them
for nutrition.
Brlei Review of Alcohol.— Dr. U. C.
Keister concludes by quoting the following:
I'irst, we have now in the United States
3,640,000 hard drinkers of alcoholic beverages,
12.S,()00 of whom die annually from
the direct effects of alcohol; over .S,(»(Ki of
these lake their own lives.
Second, during the past four years alcohol
killed more people in the United States
than were killed by bullets during the four
years of our Civil War. In 1907 there were
10,782 suicides in the United States.
Third, the use of alcohol as a beverage
costs the United States annually $1,200,^
000,000.
Fourth, Seventy-four per cent, of crime,
7.5 per cent, of the pauperism and 5 per
cent, of the insanity of the United States
are caused by alcohol.
Fifth, seventy-five per cent, of the diseases
of fashionable life are caused by alcoholic
beverages.
Sixth, forty per cent, of all diseases of the
liver and kidneys are caused by alcoholic
drinks.
Seventh, sixty per cent, of the inmates of
all reformatory schools are the descendants
of parents or grandparents who were addicted
to the use of alcohol.
lughth, sixty percent, of all the imbeciles
and epileptics of the United States is caused
by the hereditary effects of alcohol.
Ninth, in 1905 the amount of alcoholic
beverages consumed in the I'nited States
was 1,694,392,765 gallons; 1,494,191,325
gallons were lager beer.
Tenth, in the year lS9t) the liquor traffic
paid the United States treasury $157,485,-
9S2. Itcosl the people of the United States,
directly and indirectly, $1,884,0^7,982.
The late Mr. Gladstone made the emphatic
statement that alcohol was a greater
curse to any nation than war, famine and
l^stilence combined.
Notwithstanding this array of scientific
facts and figures, our Federal and Slate
governments continue lo issue licenses for
the sale of a poisonous beverage that is
slowly, but surely, destroying our nation. "
Medical Organization and its Benefits.
— Dr. V. \'. Anderson sums upas follows:
15y urging the great importance of the county
medical society. As the family is recognized
as a unit in its jjolitical, moral and
social organization by society throughout
the world; as the family is the foundation
of the whole structure upon which modern
civilization is built, so in our great scheme
of medical organization, the home society
is the unit upon which its super-structure
rests. If tile home or county organizations
are weak, doing no practical work, filled
with dissensions and jealousies, opposed to
all plans for the more thorough organization
of our profession, the elevation of its
standards, and the noble purpose of the
more perfect performance of its duty to the
human race, then little can be expected
from the district and State organizations.
The Soulhern Clinic, May, 1909.
Guaicol in Orcbitis and Epididymitis.
-Dr. John Meriweather says that guaicol