Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1911-02-04
The Truth About Wine Drinking Countries.
BY Matthew Woods, M. D.

Justice, gives the following stats
ties Of the condition of Belgium
Seventy-fiye per cent of all the
convictions in the criminal courts
come from the use of alcohol
seventy-nine per cent of all pau
pers are drunkards; eighty per
cent Of all suicides have a simll-
ar origin; forty-five per cent OF
all lunatics come from the eXces-
sive use Of alcohol. He conclude!
that the drink problem is very
serious one in the deterioration
of the country. Yet national,
state, and municipal governments
he declares, make no attempt to
abate the evil, because the only
method Of dealing with it, as
they think,-high license yields
revenue. And yet, he significant
ly continues, this revenue is not
sufficient to meet the costs OF
its own evil work.
According to Robert Jones, NJ.
d., Lect. on Mental Diseases,
Westminster Hospital Medical
School, London; Crimes due to
alcohol have in Germany reached
the figure of Alt per cent of the
total crimes. In Hungary delin-
quency through alcohol has reach
ed to IS percent of total crimes;
in Norway to 44.4, and in the dis
tricts surrounding st. Peters
burgh to At per cent. In England
with it's addiction to "'alf and
'alf," porter, ale, and the strong
er drinks, so per cent of all
crime is attributed to the abuse
of alcohol.
According to DR.. Brunon in the
Normandie Medicale, the popula-
ton of Brittany is being decima-
ted by alcoholism. Alcohol in
some form has become a part OF
the staple food of the home.
Bread, coffee, and brandy form
the basis of the dinner, and fire.
quently even the coffee is absent.
The more distressing feature OF
the case is the lamentable effect
this use of alcohol has on the
young. The infantile mortality is
enormous. Of fifty children who
had come to the free dispensary
of DR.. Brunon, two began to
drink coffee and alcohol before
they were a month old, four at
three months, two at five months
five at eight months, one at ten
months, five at eighteen months,
fifteen at a year, and nineteen
at three years. AS consequence,
he says: "The population of
France is diminishing, rural pop
ulations degenerating, crime and
insanity are increasing, and in
dustry is on the decline. "
1t would seem from the opin-
ion of many authorities that light
wines are no preventive of intern
perance. DR.. Frank Merlin, an
eminent French physician, in
one of the leading French medi
cal journals, called attention to
the fact of there having been thir
ty thousand more deaths than
births in France during 1903, and
the constant growing decrease of
the population for the last twenty
years, which he attributes to the
annual increase Of wine-drlnking
from 100000 hectolitres in 1885
to 1,735000 in 1892.
The demoralizing influence of
alcohol in wine-producing coun-
tries is further shown by an ar
ticle contributed to the =" Annales
d Hygiene, which is distracted
in Good Health as follows:
The writer calls attention to
the fact that the official Stats
tics of the police courts of Paris
show that for several years past
there has been a rapid increase
in juvenile criminality. Even
murders there is found a |
large percentage of young people,
some almost children. This in
crease of juvenile crime is char
ged to alcohol, which has been
shown to act not only directly |
but indirectly through heredity |
Alcoholic insanity is greatly in
creasing in Paris. Alcohol is per-
haps more active than any other
agent in producing human degen-
eracy, and is one of the most di-
rect causes in the production of
criminality and insanity.
Further, as relating to France,
Mile. d 'Aubigne, daughter Of the |
famous historian, at a meeting at
Vermont, October, 1907,
told of the unhappy condition of
IA l., A. l,xI n g..