SCIENTIFIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 1688, 29 March 1884, Page 28

SCIENTIFIC.

—It will afford some notion of the various conditions which must be taken into account before anything like a complete knowledge of tidal action can be obtained, if we remember that in the open ocean the rise or fall nowhere exceeds a foot or two; while at Mount Saint Michael the rise is eighty or ninety feet; in the •bay of iundy, particularly at Annapolis, it sometimes amounts to a hundred feet, and about the Moroa there is no change at all. On the English coasts the rise varies trom thirty to forty feot, at some parts of the west of England to be nil at a point in tho German .Ocean north of the Straits of Dover, where a flow transmitted through the straits encounters an I ebb transmitted round the north of Scotland so that an equihbruim is maintained. The actual movement due to attraction, moreover whatever it may be, requires time for its full development, and still more time for its propagation, the latter requirements being greatest where movement is impeded by sheer friction and thus reaching its maximum where the friction is due to the beds and winding chan nels of rivers, along which, consequently, the tidal elevation passes as a wave, succeeded by a flow. If it be high water at the mouth of the lhamas at noon, the full flow will not reach London Bridge until midnight, by w.hich time it will again be high at the Nore. In the meanwhile, there has been low water at the Nore and high water about half way to London, and while the high water ia proceeding to London it is ebbing at this intermediate place, and is low water there when it is high water afc JLiondon aud at the Nore, whore the river is of such I magnitude as to afford a sufficient distance for i the full development of the phenomena. Successive tides produce successive but co-existing elevations, separated by corresponding depressions ; and in the River Amazon, between Para, at the mouth of tho river, and the confluence of the Madeira, there are no less than seven co-existing high waters, with as many low waters between them. The same kind of thing occurs in all arms of the sea, or in all ruUs or bays which ate open to the main ocean on a single aspect; the successive tides sweeping along their shores reach different places' m saccession, and this at a rate of speed which is greatly determined by the sinuosities and other characters of the coast line, —There are found in all parts of the country men and women who use alcohol regularly and in limited quantities. To the casual observer they go on tor years in this atato and are apparently no worse, and finally die at last of some commou disease, leaving the reputation of having lived what the inebriate would call an ideal life" of moderate drinking. Why they drink is not clear. If they have any reason, it is always sustained by.their unbounded faith in the capacity to abstain at any time at will. These case 3 are inebriates in every respect, except in the prominence and | intensity of the symptoms. There is no difference between the chronic case of the lowest type and the highly respectable moderate drinker, except one of degree., Both are suffering from a positive physical disease. In one case the disorder is developed; in the other it is m the incipient stage. In the latter, from some obscure reason, the case never goes on to full development, biit is always on the '."borderland awaiting tho action of same exciting cause, which may or may, not be applied. A repelling power exists which builds up and neutralises the injuries received from alcohol to a certain extent. It is not will-power which makes the difference between the inebriate and the moderate drinker. It is physiological and pathological conditions of the brain and nervous system, which the possessor .ascribes to will-power. Alcohol cannot be used ia moderation without grave injuries to the nerve-centres. The moderate drinker is always diseased, although to the non-expert there are no clear symptoms or coarse lesions that can be seen. A careful study will reveal physically an irritable condition of the hoart, with stomachic and digestive troubles, also changing and disordered functional activity of all the organs at timos. Phychically the disposition, habits, temper, and mental state slowly and gradually degenerate and beoome more unstable. The higher mental forces drop down or give place to lower motives and ambitions. No matter what his position of life may be, or his objects or plans, the moderatb use of alcohol will alter and break down both physical and psychical energy, and precipitate destruction. Moderate users of alcohol always die from diseases provoked and stimulated by this drug. They always transmit a legacy of defective cell energy and exhaustion, which most readily finds relief' in any alcohol or narcotic. But only a small per centa'go of moderate drinkers remain so until death. The disease goes on to full development in inebriety in a vast majority of cases. The boasted willpower to stop at all tiures is powerless before its peculiar exciting cause. Those who never go beyond this moderate use have simply never been exposed to this peculiar exciting'cause. The moderate use of spirits for a lifetime is a mere accident in the order of nature, arid the ability to stop, resting in the will power, is a popular fallacy. A certain number of cases have signs of incipient phthisis,' which may never burst out into the full disease. A small number of cases exposed to smallpox, or any infectious disease, nover take it; but these aro the rare exceptions, whose causes are unknown, from which no 'deductions can be drawfl. Moderate drinking that does not go on, to inebriety is also the exception. The chain of exciting causes that bring on these extreme stage's'may or may not be understood, but they always break out sooner or later'in the history 'of the case. Practically the study of thjs<early v stage of inebriety is of the utmost value 1 in the treatment. Here remedial measures can bd-made of the greatest avail in chocking arid preventing any further progress of the disease. When inebriety is fully recognised'as ri'disease'd condition, requiring study'atfd medical care, thia prodromic period of moderate drinking will receive the attention it deserves. In the meantime, as scientific men, we must continue 1 to call attention to this early beginning of 'inebriety, so full of indicatians and hints of the march of disease, whose progress and termination can often be predicted with positive certainty.—Journal of Inebriety.