The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-14
THE SOCIAL GEHENNA.
From the N Y, Tribune.

7CfOHt tS I've I' xBtOUfto.
The Saturday Reoieso, which delights in
dragging to light ali diseases and weaknesses
in the feminine body and soul, has fallen
lately on a promising cancer in what 1t deli
cateiy calls "Drawing- Room Adjudication.
The London Lancet, treating the subject
from the physicians point of view, admits
that the increasing prevalence OF intem-
perance among educated English women is
becoming alarming, and asserts that medical
men fail to see and act up to their duty in the
matter ga careful practitioner it says,
''should remember the peculiar sensitiveness
of women during certain portions of theirlife
to the influence of narcotics. Hence, if he
prescribes alcohol for them at all, it should
not be for trivial ailments which are liable to
recur frequently, and for which the patient
will only be too ready to apply the agreeable
remedy which was found SO efficacious be-
FORE" The Lancet also urgently deprecates
the practice of allowing young girls between
the ages of fifteen and twenty to acquire the
habit of taking a regular and often large
quantity of wine on account OF supposed
delicacy. s"The practice" it AYERS, sis utterly
unjustifed by any physiological need Gin the
absence of positive disease) and the results
are most disastrous.
1t is worth our while to look at home and
see how this matter stands with us. There is
such a sense of chivalry toward the weaker
sex and faith in their purity among Ameri-
cans that a statement that drunkenness ex-
listed to any appreciable amount among edu-
Gated women would be received with disgust
and incredulity Yet there are certain facts
which it is high time should be taken at
once into the gravest consideration by beth
the pulpit and the press. To physicians they
are, unfortunately, but too familiar. Among
these is the too large proportion of female pa
tients in insane asylums, who have become so
from the use of stimulants. Inebriate asylums
for women have been lately established in this
State and Pennsylvania, and are filed out OF
the high ranks of society. The American
fashionable woman, as we all know, drinks
often, at her own table, wines of a strength
which her European sister would not dare tc
touch. She 'mixes her liquors, too; in hei
teens is connoisseur of champagne, deli
cately sips sherry cobblers and Roman
punches and all this with her indoor life
her limp constitution, her bilious habit, ant
under climatic influences which to the strong
est man make alcohol a poison. There are
certain quiet "ladies' restaurants" in all the
seaboaId cities, SO squiet and modest in ap
pearance that gentlemen are not tempted
into them, where respe ctabIe women resort
for the stimulapt which is probably inacces
sible at home Deaths from 1naiata-a moth
have occurred this winter, and that not in the
debased lower classes, but among cultured
delicately-reared women; some of then
young, generous, lovable girls This is an
ugly and almost incredible story. If we die
not feel that the danger was imminent, We
would not drag such foulness out from it,
hidden corners into the public air
so lar the women who have sinned hav,
done so unconsciously or ignorantly. Th,
hurry and struggle of life in this countr,
have told upon their physical health fa
more than upon that of men. Tha over
work, the haste to be rich, the in5essan
effort to urge their husbands, thei
children, or themselves up to a highs
plane of social life, together with that heredi
tary lack of bodily stamina and the high ner
vous organization peculiar to American wo
men, all drive them to the Use of artihcis
stimulants. The baby at the breast is dose
nightly with soothing syrups the sickly sehoc
'irl has her drops night and mornings Will