Effects of Alcohol on the Individual: Review of the Literature of 1939.

Within a century a jungle of 96,000,000 words has grown around the problem of alcohol. The lack of comprehensive periodic surveys of this dense growth has made itself felt in the task of compiling a critical reference work on the effects of alcohol on the individual, as undertaken by the Research Council on Problems of Alcohol. For the facilitation of future enterprises of this nature it has been considered desirable to initiate an annual survey of the pertinent literature. The present review of the literature of 1939 is offered in the hope that interest in it will warrant annual publication. It should be understood that the contemplated reference work of the Council is not anticipated in any way by this review. The aims, the construction, and the method of surveying differ entirely in the two works.As the title of this review indicates, the literature pertaining to the social and the medicolegal aspects of the problem is not considered, although it is admitted that the indicated division, necessitated by...