Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-07-06
AWFUL ABSINTHE.
TIE HORRIBLE DRUG WHICH IS Pop
UlAR IN FRANCE.
Its Chief Ingredient Is wormwood, and It
Poisons the Body and Burns Away the
Brains Of It's victims-The Wickedest In
toxicant In the World

OAoOAAD VIC AOuy una burns AWAY tho
Brains Of Its victims-The wickedest In
toxicant In the World.
During the Algerian war, which last
ed from 1874 to 1S47, the French army
were more in danger from African fe-
vers than from Algerian enemies. Sew
eral things Were tried as antidotes or
preventives by the skillful army physi-
clans. Finally absinthe was hit on as
the most effective febrifuge.
The soldiers were ordered to mix it
in small quantities three times day
with the ordinary French wine. The
luckless happy -go-lucky privates grew
to like their medicine, which at first
they swore at bitterly for spelling with
its bitterness that beautiful purple vine
gar they fondly fancy is wine. But
when absinthe alone began to usurp the
time honored place Of claret in the af-
fections of the French army the evil be-
came an unmixed one
Absinthe straight rs beverage is
direly different thing from absinthe
mixed as a medicine or an occasional
tonic. The victorious army on their
triumphal return to Paris Brought the
habit with them. 1t is now so wide
spread through al classes of Partisan
society-and Paris gives the cue to
Francs-that Frcnchmen of science and
publlcists regard the custom of absinthe
tipping as vast national evil.
Tho consequence of the use-and use
of this drug ripens to abuse, even with
men of unusual will power-has been
in France disastrous to dreadful de-
gree. Many men of remarkable bril-
liancy have offered up their brains and
their lives on the livid altar of absintho
Baudelaire, who translated all Poe's
works into French, had a terribly gro
tesque passion for the pleasant green
poison. In one of his mad freaks this
minor French poet actually painted his
hair the same tint as the beverage that
corroded his brain, possibly from an
| odd fancy to have the outside of his
head correspond with or match the in
side.
Alfred de Musset, who was the French
Byron, plus tenderer, naiver touch,
| also fell victim to the drug after
George Sand gave the final smash to his
fragmentary heart Guy de Maupassant
Is reported to have burned his brains
away with the same emeraldine flames.
| The brain disease caused by this drug is
| considered almost incurable. Far worse
than alcohol or opium, it can only be
| compared 70 cocaine for the fellness of
Its clutch on poor humanity.
Yet we take it occasionally as an
after dinner settler of digestive debts in
this country. and quite often as an ap-
| petizer or tonic before meals, while in
New Orleans, throughout the older quar-
ter. little cabarets, devoted almost ex-
| clUsively to the sale of it, are quite
| common.
What, then, is this dreadful drink
composed of, and how is it made? The
answer is easy enough, though the proc
ess, to insure perfection III the evil. is
not so. Absinthe may be technically
| described as Redistribution of alcoholic
spirits (made originally from various
things potatoes, for instance), in
which, to give it the final character.
absinthium with other aromatic herbs
and bitter roots are ground up, or mac
Grated, i'll chemist lingo.
The chief ingredient is the tops and
leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium.
or wormwood, which grows from two
to four feet in great profusion under
cultivation, and which contains q VIOLA
tile oil, absinthol, and yellow. crys-
talline resinous compound called alb
sinthin, which is the bitter principle.
The alcohol with which this and the
essentials Of other aromatic plants are
mixed holds these volatile oils in solu-
ton.
1t is the precipitation of these oils in
water that causes the rich cloudinC of
your glass when the absinthe is poured
on the cracked ice-double emblems or
warnings of the clouding and the crack
ling OF your brain if you take to 1t
steadily. Thus every drink of the opaline
liquid is an object lesson in chemistry
that carries its own moral.
Some barroom Columbus, ambitions
to Guido Dante and add another lower
circle to the inferno, recently invented
or discovered the absinthe cocktail. A
little whisky-the worse the better-a
dash of bitters. little sugar and plenty
of iced absinthe make about the quickest
and wickedest intoxicant in the world.
The continued use of absinthe gives
rise to epileptic symptoms as an external
expression of the profound disturbance
of the brain and nerves. One large dose
of the essence of the wormwood indeed
has been noted as causing almost instant
ly epileptiform commissions i'll animals.
But the drug is not without its uses from
a broad point of view. As the name i'm
plies, it is an anthelmintic, or pretty
sure cure for certain kinds of animal
life that sometimes infest the intestines
of men, causing pain and death This
peculiar property was well known to
the Greeks, who had wine infused
with wormwood called absinthites.
In some parts of Germany wormwood
is used in lieu of hops for the brewing
of certain brands of beer, and it unques-
tionably has valuable tonic properties.
Absinthe is made almost everywhere,
except in the extreme tropics, and the
New York variety is lust as good-or