The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1918-07-19
French Doctor
Blames Alcohol
For War Insane
One Third of Cases Traced to Alcohol
AS Sole Cause

The following letter from Norman
P. Willard, a Chicago lawyer, gives
some very interesting facts and COM
ments in connection with the use of
beer and light wines in the army. The
! liquor interests, in spite of the fact
that the government prohibits the sale
of all intoxicants TO soldiers. have
been persistently contending h a t
beers and light wines are not injurious
10 fighting men. During the past year
tens OF thousands OF pieces of litera-
ture have been circulated by the vets,
calling attention to the use OF wines
| by French soldiers. Mr. Wizards let
ter shows what the vets would have
happen to thousands of our boys now
fighting in France.
To the Editor:
A physician friend has handed me
a new 20O-page monograph: "Trou-
bles Mentuax de Guerre," by Jean
Lepine. professor of mental and ner-
vous diseases at the University of
| Lyons. one OF the series of works re-
'ating to Medicine and Surgery of the
! War now being published by Mason
of Paris. From day to day the
wounded, diseased or insane French
soldiers from the firing line and else
where have been appropriately CLASH
| fed and sent to various hospitals
further back; and one OF the Military
| Hospitals for the insane and ner-
hoc hot "a
district of Lyons largely under the
direction of Prof Lepinc.
Upon glancing over the work | am
surprised to find decidedly important
statements which seem to me to have
an important lesson for the American
people. and which are deserving of
receiving general public attention at
this critical time. On pages and 6
of the introduction the professor says
in reference to his own observations
and the extent to which alcoholism
was responsible for military, mental
arrangement and insanity:
"The figures of my services ex-
tending over three years, and relating
to about 5000 different sufferers, ac-
cuse alcohol as being the sole or alb
solutely primordial cause of the dis
orders in more than one-third of the
cases. Taking into account those in
reference to which the statements are
not SO exact, it may be estimated that
more than one-half, perhaps at some
times almost two-thirds of our pa
tients have been influenced by alco-
hol"
And that similar conclusions may
be drawn concerning the French SOL
diers sent to the other military hos
pitfalls for the mentally deranged, may
be inferred from this paragraph taken
from page of the preface:
"The phychiatric center of the in
terror from which are drawn the con-
illusions (indications) which follow,
has already seen pass through it al
most 5000 patients. This number per-
mits the formation of these impress
sions, at least provisional and which
are, in addition, fortified by the read
ing of the reports and statistics of
the other centers of neuro-phychiatry
whose conclusions are practically
(sensiblemenD equivalent to our
own"
Most Americans have heard so Of
ten from our liquor loving friends the
praises of the light wines of France,
that for many it will be difficult to
realize that there can be in that coun-
try liquor evil of substantial magni-
tude. But the experts like Prof. Lee
pine who are closest to the facts re-
alize them the best Neither my friend
nor myself had any thought of the
liquor question when this book was
handed me.
Yours truly
Norman P Willard