Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-06
ABsINrHE.

| 1t is now nearly century since French
| refugee named Ordinaire settled IN the
small village OF Couvet, in the Val Tray
ers, in the canton Of Neuchatel, Switzer-
| land. DIR. Ordinaire was a medical man,
| and very clever one for the time in which
! he lived, and he soon made himself useful
to the people OF the Val Travers, among
whom doctors and medicine had hitherto
been almost unknown. The doctor pre-
pared his own medicines, as was not unu-
sual in those days. and though he seems to
have been regularly qualified practitioner,
1t is evident that he had not that contempt
| for panaceas which is usually to be met
| with in the profession. Indeed, there was
one universal remedy which he held IN
high esteem, and compounded with his
own hands from various aromatic herbs.
after a secret recipe known only to him.
self. This went by the name of Extract
of Norwood, " and as many persons de-
clared that it had completely cured them,
| the doctor naturally prescribed and recon-
mended it TO others. Before hls death he
gave the recipe to his servant, "Mamsell
Grandpierre" and she sold it to the daugh-
tiers OF Lieutenant Henriod, who grew the
necessary plants and herbs in their own
garden, distilled the elixir over the kitchen
fire and sold it to peddlers Since that
time the manufacture has increased in
other hands, until the quantity OF absinthe
now made in the Val Travers amounts to
81 400 gallons annually. 1t is from the
yellow flowers of the common NORWOOD,
Artemissia absynthium, that the tincture
and extracts of the Val Travers are made
and these are said to be very efficacious in
Of f,adfpcc4fnn Rhrt1frn tho rnnp1U
would seem at best to be but dangerous
one. If this were ALL however, there
would not be much to say upon the sub
iect it is when by the admixture of other
aromatic ingredients, the extract is con-
verified into the famous, or rather Infamous,
absinthe liqueur, that it is consumed in large
quantities, and becomes of really terrible
Importance. In what its peculiar charm
consists scientific men have strived in vain
to discover; but that it does possess
deadly and well-nigh irresistible power of
fascination is only too evident from the
large quantities sold in France, Germany,
Switzerland, England and North America,
notwithstanding the pernicious effects 1t is
well known to produce. The habitual use
of the poison, like that of opium, affects
the whole nervous system in general, and
the brain in particular it produces actual
| organic changes in the delicate network of
the brain, and these are, of course, accom-
panied by corresponding arrangement of
all the mental powers. The end OF the
habitual absinthe drinker is as terrible as
it is sure and inevitable. He becomes first
brutalized, dull and obtuse, then he goes
raving mad, and finally is either partially
or entirely paralyzed unless disease of the
liver or stomach puts a more speedy end to
his existence. The liqueur is the more Sc
ductive and dangerous because at first it
seems to invigorate the digestive organs,
while in reality it is doing them nothing
but harm. Until the very day when he
is seized with illness" says DIR. Defiant,
the victim seems to be in unusually good
health but the first time he is subjected
to a medical examination it is found that
his whole system is deranged. Nothing is
more difficult than to cure an absinthe
drinker, for his first illness is usually also
his last, and is terminated by death.
Great efforts are now being made in France
and Switzerland to check the practice OF
absinthe drinking, which is unhappily
largely on the increase. From the various
statistics published from time to time we
gather that whereas in the year 1864, out
OF q UuuuTSu cases OF insanity OF IuiOICy,
fourteen were traceable te dram drinking,
the percentage has since risen to twenty.
FIVE and four-fi Of the cases of insan-
ity occurring among officers may be put
down to the use of absinthe. 1t is, more
over, an established fact that the children
of absinthe drinkers are generally born
with tendencies to some of the worst forms
of diseases, such as epilepsy, etc. The
most efectual way of meeting the evil
would be by prohibiting the manufacture
of the lqueur but as this is impraeticab!e,
all that can be done is to point out the
fatal danger OF absinthe drinking, and to
urge those who are not yet utterly en-.
shaved to save themselves by gradually d.
minishing their accustomed potion. In a
month they viii become reconciled to TAX
ing only half their usual quantity ; in three
months, if they persevere, the victory will
be won. They will find their confessedly
difficult task easier if they take cup OF
coffee in place of the absinthe.