The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-20
THE HORRORS OF ABs1NrHE.
It's Chief Ingredient Norwood. and
It Poisons the Body and Burns
Away the Brainsf &'

Away the Bra1ns.f
From the New York World
During the Algerian war, which lasted
from 1914 TO 1S47, the French army were
more in danger from African fevers than
from Algerian enemies. Several things
were tried as antidotes or preventiyes by
the skillful army physicians Finally alb
sinthe was nit on as the most effective
febrifuge.
The soldiers were ordered to mix il in
small quantities three times a day with
the ordinary French wine. The luckless
-go-lucky privates grew to like their
medicine, which at first they swore at
bitterly for spelling with its bitterness
that beautiful purple vinegar they fondly
fancy is wine. But when absinthe alone
began to usurp the time-houored place of
claret in the affections of the French
army. the evil became an unmixed one.
Absinthe straight as a beverage is a
direly different thing from absinthe
mixed as a medicine or an occasional
tonic. The victorious army on their tri-
umphal return to Paris brought the habit
with them. 1t is now so widespread
through all classes of Partisan society
and Paris gives the cue to E'rance-that
Frenchmen of science and publlcists re-
gard the custom of absinthe tipping as
vast national evil. -..'
The consequ ence 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 degree.
Many men of remarkable brilliapcy have
offered up their brains and their lives on
the livid altar of absinthe. Baudelaire.
VINO translated all Poe's works into
French, had a terrible, groJesque passion
for the pleasant green poison. In one of
his mad freaks this minor French poet
a5 boi, fl7ae
the beverage that corroded his brain
possibly from an odd fancy to have the
outside of his head correspond with or
match the inside.
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 frag-
mentary heart. A frighJful historic pun
occurred in this connection. Toward the
end, waen the great poet, growing more
morose every day, hid from his old COM
paniens and was missing from his favor
tie haunts, one man, not aware of his in
trinity, exclaimed: why is it that our
dear De Musset absents himself from US
nowadays9" And grim wit hspingly an
swered For woman'th reathon. my
friend; he abthinth himuhelf jutht be-
cauthe he abthinth himthelf." II sab
sente pareequil s'absinthe. =. Z .. E:
Paul Verlaine, French literateur and
criminal, still living, who had poem in
the May number of Mr.. Astor's English
magazine, is another absinthe tiend, and
Guy de Maupassapt is reported to have
burned his brains away with the same
emeraldiue flames. The brain disease
caused by this drug is considered almost
incurable. Far worse than alcohol or
opium, it can only be compared to cocaine
for the fellness of its clutch on poor
humanity.
Yet. we take 1t occasionally as an after
dinner settler of digestive debts in this
country, and quite often as an appetizer
or tonic before meals, while in New Or
leans, throughout the older quarter, little
cabarets, devoted almost exclusively to
the sale of it, are quite common.
What, then, is this dreadful drink com
posed of, and how is it made2 The an
sWer is easy enough, though the process
TO insure perfection in the evil, is not. So
Absnthe may be technically described as
rehabilitation 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 macerated, in chemist
lingo.
The chief ingredient is the tops and
leaves of the herb artemisia absinthium,
or NORWOOD, which grows from two to
four feet in great profusion. under Guilt
Walton, and which contains volatile oil,
absnthol, and yellow, crystalline, resi-
nous compound, called absinthin, which
N is the bitter principle. The alcohol with
which this and the essentials of other
aromatic plants are mixed holds these
volatile oils in solution.
1t is the precipitation of these oils in
water that causes the rich clouding of
n your glass when the absinthe is poured
on the cracked ice; double smblems or
warnings of the clopding and the crack
ily Thus every drink Of the opaline
Lqu!d IS an object lesson n chemistry
81 that carries It's own moral.
I'd Some barroom Columbus, ambitious to
Guido Dante and add another lower circle
TO the Inferno, recently invented or dis
covered the absinthe cocktail A little
whlsky-the bladder the better-a dash of
bltters, lutte sugar and plenty of iced
aosinthe make about the quickest and
wickedest intoxicant in the world Two
drinks might turn a Comstock into Billy
McGlory, or Parkhurst into a Tammauy
heeier. 1t temporarily exhilarates the in
tellect at the expense of the moral ma
ture.
4 The continued use of absinthe gives
rise to epileptic symptoms as an external
h expression of the profound disturbance of
II ~ VI uAAA anu nSINtS. Ju0 idISG uOS6 Oh
the essence of the NORWOOD. indeed,
E mas been noted as causing almost in
stantly epileptiform commissions in ami
mails
But the drug is not without its uses
from broad point of view. As the name
implies, it is an anthelmintic, or a pretty
sure cure for certain kinds of animal life
d that sometimes infest the intestines of
men, causing pain and death. This pecu-
lar property was we'll known to the
dreeks, who had a wine infused with
"Qrmwood called absinthites.
IN some parts of Germany NORWOOD
: used in lieu of hops for the brewing of
certain brands of beer, and it unques-
tl9haOly has valuable tonic properties.
hoslnthe is made almost everywhere, eX-
n tept IN the extreme tropics, and the New
II ork variety is just as good-or bad-as
MY The dutyon French absipthe is very
Z fIgnu-Sl2 a case of dozen bottles,
& Inc hrst effects of it are profound Sc
zeal;Jy Of temper and slight Tightening
n yne mental powers, coupled with bodily
pefua. This is the general rule, but, as
E famous physician once remarked Of a
4 %(eddlul disorder in his lecture room,
n Ggnt!emen, the chief glory of the beau
I U I'll disease / am now explaining is the re-
+ PARABLE variety of its manifestations +"
+ SOME SNAIL LORE.
singular Mollusk That is an Edible