Tips for Tipplers

Is delirium tremens fatal? Does whiskey drinking cause cirrhosis of the liver? Will too much liquor cause insanity? These and other fascinating questions are answered in Alcohol Explored (Doubleday, Doran; $2.75), a new popular book published last fortnight by famed Yale Physiologists Howard Wilcox Haggard, Elvin Morton Jellinek. Highlights:

> Although seldom prescribed by doctors, alcohol has its good points. It is "the safest of all sedatives, "and, in small snifters, is an excellent tonic and appetizer.

> Two or three jiggers of whiskey sharpen the senses for a few minutes, also increase muscular skill. At the same time, liquor --by blunting higher brain centers --dulls judgment, makes it difficult to discriminate between the loudness of two tones, brightness of two lights, truth of two ideas. The "brilliant conversation" induced by champagne is merely a flow of "superficial ideas" which are freed from the restraint of the brain's censor.

> Contrary to prevailing psychiatric opinion, there is no particular type of alcoholic personality. Some are "decadent drinkers" --blase heirs of rundown families; others are "impassioned and discordant drinkers," who are torn by conflicting emotions and "drink to forget." Others are just stupid, or just sociable

> There is no special treatment for alcoholism. Some passionate or sociable drunkards can be weaned by a psychiatrist. Some become religious converts, join revival and temperance groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, a proselytizing fellowship of 6,000 ex-alcoholics. Others can be conditioned to vomit at the mere sight of liquor (TIME, April 27).

> "There is no exact knowledge of the action of alcohol on the liver." Cirrhosis (fibrous hardening) of the liver is a very rare disease, somewhat more common in drunkards than in teetotalers. But no one knows what causes it.

> About 20% of all alcoholics who come to hospitals are afflicted with glossy, burning feet, paralyzed arms & legs. This disease, known as polyneuritis, is caused, not by alcohol, but by a vitamin deficiency --for heavy drinkers get their calories in liquor, usually lose their appetite for food. "The disease," say the authors, "never occurs in inebriates who are well-nourished. . . . It can be cured by adding vitamin B1 to the diet."

> Delirium tremens, which afflicts only 4% of all drunkards, develops in "persons of robust health" after ten or 15 years of hard drinking. A severe injury or illness usually starts the disease off. Victims suffer from uncontrollable trembling (often including the tongue) as well as from visions of faces, voices, small, fast-moving animals. (The traditional pink elephant has been seen by only one patient on record.)

The d.t.s are seldom fatal, seldom last long, but often lead to pneumonia, prolonged mental disorder. A far more serious psychiatric problem is the vast number of "symptomatic drinkers" --alcoholics who drink because they already suffer from mental disease.

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