Italy, or in Montenegro. In Servia there have been no special measures, but it is forbidden to sell liquor in any large quantity to soldiers or persons addicted to drink. With a view to conserving the food supply, Denmark has prohibited the use of potatoes and various kinds of corn in the manufacture of alcohol, and Norway has decreed similar measures.

In an article on "The Peace and War Footing of Alcohol," published in a recent issue of the Medical Record, Edward Huntington Williams, M.D., points out that the action of these various Governments gives abundant evidence of the belief in the therapeutic value of alcohol. In discouraging the use of heavy intoxicants and encouraging that of light drinks, "the action was discriminatory against a certain class of alcoholics that is entirely justified by clinical experience." Dr. Williams further says: "When, therefore, the European Governments encourage the use of a certain type of beverage among these units, and forbid others, it is not for the purpose of correcting a pathological condition, but to enhance a physiological one. In short, the beverages are not given as medicine, but as nourishment."

From the foregoing facts it is evident that, in their overenthusiastic eagerness to laud their self-centered cause, the prohibitionists are not above ignoring facts, or distorting other facts to suit their ends, if they can thus utilize these misrepresentations for self-advantageous publicity. This is a self-evident fact, and it becomes all the more striking a fact when we consider the case of Russia.

At the outbreak of the war the Russian Government prohibited the sale of spirits and vodka throughout Russia until the end of the war. Ever since the issuance of that decree, the prohibitionists, assuming that it automatically introduced complete prohibition, have assiduously boasted of the successful effects of this measure. The cumulative reports in many of the leading Russian newspapers, based upon police and court records, present a very different story. Hundreds of these accounts from the Russian journals have been compiled. Necessarily, because of their length and the multitude and wide scope of the details embodied in them, they cannot be reproduced even in condensed form in this report. A summary of

the facts contained in them shows the following results of the decree prohibiting the sale of spirits and vodka:

1. That since the prohibition of liquor there has been evidenced among the population in many places a growing demand for denatured alcohol, varnish, lacquer and wood alcohol as substitutes for liquor.

In Petrograd, as early as November, 1914, the Government found it necessary to prohibit the sale of these articles, but notwithstanding this order, there have been scores of cases of poisonings from varnish and denatured alcohol reported since that time. Casualties from these causes have been very large in the Petrograd district alone, according to a report of a commission appointed by the Ophthalmological Society to devise ways and means for combating the increased consumption of denatured alcohol, eau de cologne and other liquids, the use of some of which causes partial or total blindness. In its report at a meeting of the Ophthalmological Society held at Petrograd on May 7 the Commission stated "that in the Petropavlovsk and Obukhovsk Hospitals there were treated up to April, 1915, 2,882 cases of partial blindness due to the use of denatured alcohol, wood alcohol, varnish, etc. Of this number 27 died. In the eye wards of two prominent Petrograd hospitals there were treated during the same period 138 persons with the complete loss of sight or in various stages of blindness." In Kiev, numerous cases have been reported, often several daily, of poisonings from the use of varnish, eau de cologne and denatured alcohol, about half of which have resulted fatally. The Russian newspaper Ryetch of Petrograd recently reported that in Veliko Luka a party of eight was poisoned by varnish and eau de cologne which they drank in a café in place of whiskey and that seven of the party died. At Charkov during the holidays, many cases of poisonings from wood alcohol and denatured alcohol were recorded. At Kursk, according to the newspaper Russkoye Slovo, of Moscow, a party of ten petty officers of the Engineering Corps in Belgorod discovered a place where they could get wood alcohol and indulged in an orgy, with the result that five died and the other five were seriously sick.

The newspaper Ryetch in recent months has contained many accounts of students, workingmen and others in Moscow dying

from drinking denatured alcohol or eau de cologne; one of these men, K. Vensylynien, a Finlander, unable to procure liquor, drank two flasks of eau de cologne. In May, 1915, the newspaper Ryetch reported that during the five preceding months there had been registered in Rostov 28 cases of death from the consumption of denatured alcohol. At Nijny Lomov, in April, 1915, ten soldiers died from drinking wood alcohol, and the district court sentenced the pharmacist Yuneyev to six months at hard labor for selling the poisonous stuff to soldiers. In Tamboy, in view of the enormous consumption of wood alcohol, denatured alcohol, eau de cologne and varnish since the prohibition of liquor, the Tamboy MedicoPhysical Society, early in 1915, decided to issue a warning to the populace concerning the deadly effects of these drinks.

The Moscow newspaper Russkoye Slovo recently reported that at a congress of the Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, Dr. F. F. Toharnetzky read a paper on the "Poisonings from Denatured Alcohol and Varnish in Moscow." "After the prohibition of the sale of liquor at the end of August," he declared, "there appeared a new type of cases at the Central Moscow Hospital and other hospitals-poisonings from denatured alcohol and varnish. Among the patients were women. Many of those brought to the hospitals with bad cases of poisoning died after several days, while others were cured, though the convalescence was very slow." He then described the cases in detail. At Yaroslav, early in March, 1915, the local pharmacists, in view of the large demand since the prohibition of liquor for eau de cologne, tincture of valerian and other drugs, applied to the State Medical Board to regulate the sale of these drugs, and at the same time a member of the Yaroslav District called the attention of the authorities to the great increase in the sale of denatured alcohol. He pointed out that even the introduction of a system by which alcohol could be obtained on the presentation of a certificate did not decrease these abuses; that around the government liquor stores in Yaroslav speculators could be seen reselling at double price liquors obtained by these certificates. At Vilna, in April, 1915, police investigation showed that the great number of fires were caused by the secret manufacture of "Khanza," a drink made from wood alcohol, pepper and other strong spices; the sale of "Khanza" was reported as extensive.

The foregoing constitute merely a few of the very large number of cases reported, and clearly show the widespread character of the drinking of poisonous substitutes for liquor. The complete list of cases in scores of cities and towns is a formidable one.

2. That following the prohibition of liquor many people have resorted to smoking opium. Many instances of the results of police investigations are recorded in the Russian newspapers.

3. That the procuring of alcohol from druggists or government liquor stores is a general practice.

Frequently it is obtained by means of physicians' prescriptions. In Kovno, according to the Russkoye Slovo, of Moscow, the Governor fined Dr. Anthoshevsky 3,000 roubles and expelled him from the province for giving prescriptions to healthy persons for the purchase of alcohol in drug stores. In Minsk an investigation conducted by the authorities revealed that the amount of alcohol used in prescriptions had suddenly gone up to an astounding amount. In Yaroslav the population all of a sudden became interested in buying alcohol for "cooking and technical purposes," and freely obtained permits from the chief of police. At Orenburg, because of the abuse of the sale of alcohol on prescriptions, the Governor restricted its sale to those prescriptions only which were approved by the Medical Board. At Libau it was found that from January I, 1915, to February 1, 1915, the Government liquor stores dispensed 425 vedros of whiskey on 425 prescriptions; 94 prescriptions had been issued by one physician alone. The forgery of prescriptions is common. At Nijny Novgorod Dr. Glickmen notified the Medical Board that his signature was being forged to prescriptions for alcohol and wine, and Doctors Aloyov, Lebedyev and Deryabin gave similar notice. At Saratov the consumption of eau de cologne became so great since the prohibition of liquor that the Governor, in March, 1915, issued an order to druggists prohibiting, under a penalty of 3,000 roubles, its sale without prescriptions. These are a few of a very extensive number of cases of the methods resorted to in order to obtain liquor or substitutes.

4. That since prohibition was introduced great numbers of illicit distilleries and what are known in America as "blind tigers" have sprung into existence.

The report of the Russian Minister of Finance for the first six

months of the prohibitory period showed that revenue officers discovered 1,825 secret distilleries manufacturing a special brand of whiskey called "Kumushka"; 160 illicit distilleries fitted out with the most modern machinery manufacturing vodka; 92 distilleries especially equipped for the filtering of lacquer and varnish; and 60 distilleries which have been occupied with the filtering of denatured alcohol. In view of the enormous increase in illicit distilleries the Government decided to increase the penalties; the maximum fine has been raised from 2,500 to 6,000 roubles, and the prison penalty from two months to one year and four months, in proportion to the nature of the crime. But so hugely profitable is illicit distilling and so great the demand for the contraband product, that secret distilleries of all kinds have increased. This is not only true of whiskey distilleries, but also of distilleries making "Khanza," which is prepared from denatured alcohol and even wood alcohol. Many of these latter stills are in private homes, and only a few are detected. The newspaper Ryetch and other Russian newspapers give many instances of such stills discovered in May, June, July and August, 1915, in the cities, towns and villages.

Under the head of "Prohibition and Delirium Tremens in Petrograd," the Journal of the American Medical Association, September 18, 1915, stated: "Novoselsky has been studying the statistics in reference to the recent deaths from alcoholism. Soon after the prohibition of the sale of liquor was enforced, the number of deaths in Petrograd became during the first four months considerably smaller, decreasing by 50 per cent and for some months even lower. During the last three months, however, it has risen again to the former standard, or even higher, which fact he ascribes to the drinking of denatured alcohol, furniture polish and other substitutes for vodka. Therefore, he says, the effects of prohibition are not decisive, and the assumption is premature that with prohibition in force the undesirable complications of alcohol, such as delirium tremens, etc., must necessarily spontaneously disappear."

These facts are but the merest summary-in fact only an outline ―of the full category of ascertained facts, but they are much more than sufficient to show that conditions in Russia under so-called prohibition are entirely different from what the prohibitionists depict them. A pronounced demand has been made for authority