Educational film magazine; (19-)

"SAFEGUARDING THE NATION" By Martha Madison Smith LAWLESSNESS as regards the present prohibition statute has received a most. convincing and unanswerable chal- lenge through the production of this powerful new film which has already received the hearty commendation of temperance workers throughout the country. Strength, expressed by the excellent title, continues throughout the picture, gaining in intensity as the scenes are thrown on the screen. Safeguarding the Nation arouses interest at once, patri- otic interest, which tends to place the responsibility for enforce- ment of the prohibition law squarely up to the citizens of the country. Perhaps the most virile quality in the film is the absolute absence of propaganda and verbal argument. Nothing is said in an argumentative way either for or against the use of alcohol. Instead actual tests are used, their results placed before the be- holder in plain black and white, figures and charts, making the lesson so obvious that even a mind with the least degree of training cannot fail to grasp its significance. After arousing popular interest by opening the picture on a baseball diamond, the first reel states that actual tests show a batter's record for three days when he has had no alcohol to be eighty per cent liners, giving splendid chances for home runs. This efficiency was lowered by two glasses of beer so that but twenty per cent of the batter's record were liners. What alcohol is and a brief exposition regarding the production of energy by absorption of food through cell walls of blood and nerves, pro- ducing energy, follows. Just what happens when alcohol is taken into the stomach and small intestines is well handled in the second reel which states that the poison unchanged is absorbed into the blood and is carried to the cells of the body. As a narcotic drug alcohol lessens the amount of oxygen used by the cell and so reduces the amount of energy released. As the most highly organized in the body nerve cells are first affected. Marvelous pictures of the brain are shown with the statement that the gray matter contains the largest number of branching nerve cells, dendrites, while the white matter is composed of nerve fibres passing throughout the body. Clear explanations with splendid pictures show how impressions made by the outside world upon the or- gans of seeing, hearing, etc., are carried by the sensory nerves to the proper centers, and are connected with motor nerves which convey impulses to muscles. Tests are pictured with measure- ments of time in thousandths of a second, and the optience is shown how less than half an ounce of alcohol makes the subject's re- sponses slow. Examples used include a magnetic hoist where the man controlling must have steady nerves, signalmen, etc. A fraction of a second may decide between a sound body and a physical wreck. The reel closes with illustrations of practice shooting in which men without alcohol score an average of twenty- seven out of thirty shots, while those who have taken less than two pints of beer average, only three out of thirty. Reel three announces that alcohol first impairs ability by slowing response to signals, increasing wrong responses to sig- nals and reducing the steadiness of the hand. In a walking match, well illustrated, twenty-four men, abstainers, compete with fifly- nfne users of alcohol. Of tho ten winners, six were abstainers. two abstained during training, and two were users of alcohol. The fate of a nation may depend upon the endurance of its de- fenders, the film states. Using the printing room as an example, the loss of work was measured as nearly nine per cent when less than one-third of an ounce of alcohol was taken by the men. Tests of color accuracy are also given, showing the danger to the lives of travelers should the signalman or engineer be a user of alcohol. Concluding, the reel declares that alcohol weakens endurance, reduces output of skilled work, unfits mert for posi- tions of responsibility. The immediate effect of small amounts of the poison is not, the film says, so much a question of drunken- ness but of reduced efficiency; and the effect of one-sixth of an ounce of alcohol is shown by picturing a subject marking a point where two lines cross, before and after taking the narcotic. In the fourth reel and in the fifth the film reaches its greatest interest since the pictures of the human organs are most marvel- ous. The effects of continued use of alcohol on the stomach are shown in detail. Its effects on the blood vessels, mucous mem- brane and gastric juice are carefully explained in pictures. These conditions tend to become chronic and ulceration may fol- low. Red corpuscles of the blood are shown under the micro- scope carrying strength-giving.oxygen to the blood and all parts of the body. Since alcohol lessens the power of the cells to use oxygen the flame of life is lowered. A striking example of the death of a candle flame deprived of oxygen is used. It is a fact that the death rate from pneumonia among drinkers is very high and a chart demonstrates this. Deserving of especial mention are the pictures of the beating heart with attendant statistics showing that fatty and weakened muscles are frequently found among beer drinkers. Views of the lungs breathing are also wonderfully realistic and accurate. Dis- tension of blood vessels in the lungs, often caused by alcohol, results in congestion and prepares the bed for tuberculosis. A diagram shows clearly the contrast in recovery from this disease among abstainers, light drinkers, and heavy drinkers. The liver is treated in the last reel; fatty and diseased condi- tions shown caused by alcohol, and "hob nail" and "drunkard's" liver being illustrated. Attention is given to the brain, the think- ing power of which depends upon the health of its nerve cells and their connecting fibers. Views of these dendrites along which thoughts are transmitted are shown, with the buds which are points of contact with other nerve forces. In chronic poison- ing many of these tiny buds break down altogether. The disappearance of normal cell bodies from alcohol poisoning is pictured, showing that brains in this condition cannot do accurate and effective work. Protecting the human brain from alcohol is as necessary to public health, the film states, as protecting human lungs from tuberculosis. "The menace to future generations from alcohol" closes the film, showing the blighting effect of the drug on the cells from which life springs. Using guinea pigs to illustrate, the pictures prove that offspring of animals who have not received alcohol are strong and vigorous, while offspring of parents subjected to the fumes of alcohol are sickly, dwarfed, and deformed. "Protection of its children is the nation's greatest safeguard" the film affirms, adding that statistics gained from animal experi- mentation add significance to the large number of alcoholics found in the ancestry of physically and mentally deformed chil- 18