CURRENT TOPICS.

The Wood Alcohol Peril .-Methyl alcohol is found abundantly in commerce in two forms, the crude “ wood spirit,” which con- tains acetone and tar products, and the highly rectified form, which contains no appreciable impurities, except a small propor- tion of water. The crude form has a characteristic disagreeable odor, and does not seem likely to be used as a beverage even by inadvertence, much less by intention. The pure form has but little odor and mixed with water and colored may be drunk without warning. This form has long been sold for manufactur- ing purposes under misleading names, such as “ Columbian spirit ” and “ Colonial spirit,” the latter term being especially objectional on account of liability to be confused with “ Cologne spirit,” the most highly rectified form of grain alcohol commonly found in commerce. As even the purified methyl alcohol was much cheaper than tax-paid ethyl alcohol under the pre-war rates and was not subject to Government control, the temptation to use it in many preparations, such as varnishes and medicines, was very great, and shortly after it began to be a commercial article cases of poisoning began to occur. The earlier cases were mostly of slow poisoning, that is, due to the drinking or inhala- tion of small amounts at frequent intervals, and the most promi- nent symptom was blindness due to organic changes in the ner- vous supply of the eye. Taken in larger doses it acts as powerful poison, often with fatal results.

Attention has lately been directed to the subject, owing to the many cases of acute poisoning caused by the substitution of methyl alcohol for ordinary alcohol, on the part of those who have the drink habit. So far the data have been principally set forth in newspaper accounts and the exact analytic results have not been available, but Dr. Reid I-Tunt, now at the head of the Division of Pharmacology at Harvard University, prepared for the Amer. Che~~~ Sot. MEWS Suvice (Bulletin 251) some important and interesting facts. He states that “wood alcohol ” has be- come known as the “ American poison ” on account of the numer- ous cases that have been reported in this country. It was shown in a trial some years ago that manufacturers of flavoring extracts had been approached by dealers in wood alcohol and urged to make their preparations with it. The fact that already at that time the bottles bore the label “ poison ” was explained as a ruse to prevent the Government from placing an internal revenue tax upon wood alcohol.

It is interesting to note that when methyl alcohol was first 264

brought into general notice (many years ago), Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson, a prominent English physiologist, basing his opinion on analogies then generally accepted, stated that the substance probably would come into general use as a substitute for ordi- nary alcohol on account of its more transient effect.

Individuals differ considerablv in their susceptibility to wood alcohol ; some die or become blind from amounts which seem to do no harm to others. This is true, ho\\-ever, of all poisons. Death or blindness has resulted from two teaspoonfuls and one or tlvo tablespoonfuls of the poison. Sixty to seventy-five of those taking four ounces, that is, a quarter of a pint or half a glassful. have died or become permanently blind. That wood alcohol is properly placed in the list of dead1.y poisons is evident from the fact that the mortality from arsenic poisoning is only fifty to seventy-five per cent. and that from mercury dichloride even less. Of a group of 730 men who drank a mixture of wood and grain alcohol all1 but 32 died or became blind.

Crude methyl alcohol is one of the ingredients of denatured grain alcohol, and as this article is sold at less than a dollar per gallon against about eight times that sum for beverage alcohol under present tax laws, the temptation to use the impure liquid is very great. It is claimed by some that many of the recent cases of methyl alcohol poisoning have been of this type, but until sci- entific reports are available, positive opinion on this point must be reservetl. A striking fact is that in many of the States in which prohibition has been established for years, scarcely any cases of wood alcohol poisoning have been reported.

In a case of poisoning recently reported (Jo&. AIRCY. Med. f SSII.. 1 January 3, 1920, p. 25) a portion of the liquid remaining in the bottle was foulid to contain 87 per cent. methyl alcohol.

H. L.

The Fuel Problem.-The dominance of oil as a fuel grows apace. A very interesting review of the question is presented by Professor Chester L. Jones, of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, but at present Commercial Attach6 to the American Embassy at Madrid. Th e article entitled “Caribbean Petroleum” appeared in Oil NCK~S (December 20, 1919), and calls attention to the efforts steadily pursued by the British to secure control of oil fields, and points out that the United States should make efforts in the same direction, and especially to prevent foreign control of the oil sources in the West Indies. Oil-burning steam- ships are rapidly replacing those using coal, and if improvements in the Diesel engine continue, even steam-driven ships may find competition too severe. A Scotch ship with Diesel engines has just been turned out, which, it is estimated, can run from London to Australia and half way back on one loading of oil. A report on the I.rlsitaGn some months before it was sunk stated that if