Morning journal and courier., 1886-10-02

| moralizing force, the influence of which had
been clearly perceptible in France during
the last fifteen years. So to what the French
call alcoholism is, according to the chief au-
thorities Of the academy, to be attributed
the growth of moral and physical feebleness
among all classes of French population, the
lowering of the birth rate and the augmenta-
tion of the number of crimes and suicides
But now appears upon the scene a certain M
Fournier de Flax, who in the latest number
of the Scientific Review boldly and energeti-
cafly defends the of alcohol. He natu-
rally does not undertake to apologize for its
abuse; but his theory is that used in mode
ration, or even used more freely than the
Academy of Medicine would think necessa-
ry, it cannot have dangerous results. He
has accumulated formidable lot of statis-
tics, by which he processes to show that the
birth rate is less and the mortality greater in
those departments of France where there is
but small consumption of alcohol. Further
more that criminality does not increase pro-
portionately with the consumption of alco-
hol. Thus he says in the department of the
Seine ct Disc, where less alcohol is consumed
than in the department of the Lower Seine
the rate of suicide is twice great. More
alcohol is used in England than in France,
and yet France appears as inferior in birth
rate and as having greater mortality, crimi
nality and greater number of suicides than
England. Italy uses but little alcohol, yet
its crime rate is high. Spain consumes one
third less alcohol than Italy, but the number
of crimes committed in Spain is double that
shown by Italian statistics. In Sweden,
Norway and Denmark the consumption of
alcohol is three times greater than in Italy,
but there is not one-tenth much crime in
Scandinavia as in the italian peninsula.
Russia drinks four times as much alcohol as
France, but its birth rate is double that of
France. Austria and France use about the
same amount of alcohol, yet Austria's birth
rate is fifty per cent. higher than that of
France, and France has twice as many sui
cides as Austria. Finally M. Fournier
brings forward with a triumphant flourish
the condition of Germany, in which country
there is two-thirds more alcohol used than in
France, but where there is one-third less su-
icides and a birth rate five times as great as
in France. He claims that those people who |
have the most vitality, who the richest |
and the most moral use most alcohol. The |
prediction, he says, of the destruction of the |
human species and of civilization itself by |
alcoholism cannot be sustained by facts If |
France, whose vitality is undergoing crisis, |
figured among the nations who use the most |
alcohol, it might serve for the basis of an |
but it has only an average con-
sumption of alcohol, and besides it is clearly |
established by statistics that the most ener- |
getic parts of France are those where alcohol |
- oA1~~ - 49,
fact alcohol is an element of alimentation,
and the rate of its consumption depends |
entirely upon the exactions of climate NJ. !
Fournier goes on to tell us how Pitt and Fox /
never ventured to speak without having
swallowed certain Quantity of port. Now
M. Theirs always had one or two glasses of
malaga daily, and now Mr.. Gladstone gets
through seven gallons of claret year.
1t is but fair to say, however, that the
Scientific Review, which made room in its
columns for NJ. Fournier's theo-
ry, publishes the following note: "We
must leave M. Fournier the whole response
bility for his opinions, which are not from
any point of view our own. Our readers,
may be their own ideas, will GER
tainly find that the documents collected by
our contributor are of great interest, and our
mpartiality compels to publish them
But we must repeat that for us alcohol and
alcoholism are but parts of one serious ques-
lion, and alcoholism is danger and shame