The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-09
IS A DREYFUSARD.
Prof. Forel Believes
in the Mans
Innocence.
BROUGHT SHAME UPON FRANCE.
Thinks Her System of JUS
tice Must Be Re-
organized.
BROUGHT SHAME UPON FRANCE.

Prof. Forel of Zurich has one of the
most interesting personalities among
the visiting European savants at the
Clark University decennial celebration.
In figure he is a typical German, being
six feet two or three and stout proper
tionally, with fine, scholarly head set
on his broad shoulders. Gray hair and
grizzled gray moustache and beard,
with a pair of kindly eyes looking out
from behind goTd-bowed spectacles
complete the professional impression he
creates upon the spectator.
While in Worcester. he has been the
guest of Dr. Adolph Meyer of the in
sane hospital compatriot of his.
As Prof. Forel comes from Switzer-
land, which is half French in its Ian
guage and sympathies, The Spy's rep
resentative naturally wanted to know
what he thought about the Dreyfus
case.
Il have not been in France recently
and know of the progress of the Drey-
fus case only through the press" said
Prof. Forel, but my feelings on the
subject are intense.
Il am a Dreyfusard; 1 believe in his
innocence. My chief thought at this time
is the wonder whether France will get
through the affair without revolution
1t has brought shame upon France and
has brought horrible suffering and dis
grace upon an innocent man. 1t will be
necessary for France to come to a re-
nj . q finn Of hor ctr Of )
In this, it may be said, Prof Forel
and Prof. Picard do not agree. Prof
Picard has expressed himself as a be-
lever in Dreyfus' guilt and supporter
on the whole of the processes of the now
famous trial.
Prof. Forel has come to the United
States with perfectly clear notion of
what he wants to bring back with him.
Strictly speaking, it may be comprised
in the one word ants. AS soon as the
Clark University celebration is con-
Guided, he will devote himself to catch
ing the harmless, necessary ant
But it must not be supposed that
either hypnotism, upon which he lee
tured Friday. nor ants, the subject Of
his lecture yesterday, concludes the list
of things in which Prof. Forel is deep
ly concerned. Temperance interests him
almost more intensely than either of
the other two. Temperance he combines
with ants in this, his first visit to Amer
lea and before coming to Worcester he
had lectured upon it in Montreal.
The manner in which this man of sci
ence came to have his attention at
tracted to a matter which in this country
has been the cause of so much pas
sionate insistence Is interesting. AS is
known, Prof. Forel is an insanity ex-
pert, a man who stands at the top in
the diagnosis and cure of mental dis
eases. The combination of temperance
and ants with this pathetic branch of
study is one of the picturesque elements
in the individuality of this eminent
savant. -~5. 800 L
up to 1884" says Prof. Ford, IT had
to reproach myself with the thought
cure alcoholism and that I was unable
to do it. One day in that year shoe
maker came to the house. bringing
some work he had completed, and l Of
fered him glass of wine. He refused
it.
Now, that is just what 1 have
wanted to see, to get acquainted with,
said 1. I have tried to discover some
way to break UP the alcoholic habit;
you have done it for yourself How
did you do it?'
"'Send your patients to our absti-
nence society and they will be cured,
replied he.
so for two years I sent this man my
patients. At the end of that time I
said to him: Here you are curing my
patients, and 1 am giving employment
to shoemaker, who does my work for
me. The only difference between you
and me that 1 can see is, you drink no
wine; ! do
From that day l saw that it was alb
solutely essential for men of fntelli-
gence to be total abstainers. 1t is not
enough to be temperate, for whenever
so-called temperance men get together
to drink they always drink in excess
Of temperance. For one who is in
charge of alcoholic patients, it is also
absolutely necessary.
Since then / have tried to help on
the struggle for prohibition on the
ground of abstinence. not as is done
here. by forcing physiology into a
dogma of what it is necessary to pro-
hibit, but treating it as a social and
hygienic question. letting physiology
be a pure science, not a servant Of
ethics. 1t would be a pity to weaken
a cause which without this is strong
enough.
"A number of textbooks on physiology
prepared by the w. c. T. U. and de-
signed for use in the public schools,
have been sent to me. 1 am strongly
opposed to the way the subject of
temperance is treated in them. The
absurd claims made by the authors
weaken rather than strengthen the
cause"
How do you carry on your crusade
for temperance? was asked.
by having even the school children
join abstinence societies, and placing
the entire movement on the ground Of
hyglenic and social habits, not taking
1t as the outcome of physiological
teaching. 1t has no connection with re-
ligion or the churches. We are trying
to free the subject from the religious
bigotry that has attached to il by
founding abstinence societies that shall
be absolutely free from that faint. ON
the other hand, l have founded the
Good Templars' order in Switzerland
which has many branches and numer.
GUS followers all through that country.
The movement there is more liberal
than 1t could be here, for one reason
because the churches there are not sec
tartan, neither are they social centres. ("
PROF. MOSSO TALKS.