Year: 1871

DRAwING-ROOM ALCOHOLISM.
A Cry OF Alarm from England What
the Ladies Of the Aristocracy are ND


to Need Of Reform. ,7s-
Drunkenness among women, we
are informed by no less an authority
that the Saturday Review, is becom-
ing alarmingly prevalent in Great
Britain; and this organ Of the
aristocracy has the candor to con-
fess that the vice, far from being
confined to the outcasts Of society,
is familiar to some Of the fashiona-
bic drawing-rooms of Belgravia,
and to insist upon some sincere
effort ''to check habits which are
notoriously on the increase, and
which threaten to degrade women
even of the well-born and educated
classes beyond the help of theories,
however brilliant, Of their rights"
From a recent article. on the sub
= : entitled "Drawing- rooTss-.AA..co-
ho1ism," We make the following ex-
tracts:


"The rich escape the publicity Of
their practices which befalls our
poor, and consequently we cannot SO
well guess at the cause of that
failure in duty at home and indiscrc-
tion abroad which appears to be OH
the increase; but there is reason to
believe that the frequent pick me
up the midday and afternoon
sherry or champagne, may have
much to do with the pace atS which
young men and maidcns, old men
and children, Ma ayfair mothers and
Belgravian beauties are passing
down hill.


eve could multiply stories Of the
shifts to which well-fenced-in ladies
have been reduced when, in their
own houses, spirits were not easily
attainable; how one took to stealing
the spirits of wine used for lamps,
and another employed an old clo'
man to fetch her champagne. Tho
strategy used to secure the private
drains of London ladies', would
suffice to outwit Bismarck, Won
Moltke, and all their followers, and
would battle an Asmodeus.


"We are sensible Of a distinct
moral relaxation among women, and
OF new sort of unwomaniy reck-
lessness in the presence of men.
We complain of a prevalent coarse
ness even among the virtuous, not
only of manner, but of imagination
and pursuits, and we are sometimes
tempted to prefer the age of Nell
Gwynn or Madame de Pompadour
to the actual confusion of daredevil
women and unabashed spinsters.
1t would seem that alcohol has
something to do with this disorder,
for the physical effects of it on
women ar. proved by the medical
investigation to be precisely what
would denaturalize them"


The habit Of dram drinking
among women of culture and refine
ment is traced to the over-prescrip-
ton of stimulants practiced few
years ago. That the .stimulants
were necessary when prescribed,
and that they restored the patient to
health, may be admitted; but the
difficulty seems to have been that
the doctor was not consulted about
the disuse Of the drains he had
ordered for some special need. The
patient found the tablespoonful of
brandy so agreeable a stimulant
that she added to it second and q
third, to meet the strain on nerves
and stomach which her social duties
involved, until she became imcapa-
bic of recognizing the boundary
line between the needs of physical
disability and depraved appe-
tite.


\ women in average good health,
who feels Inconvenience if she can
not have her tavorite dram once or
more day, may be considered on
the brink of destruction; and in this
category are to be placed most of the
fashionable female inebriates of Lon
don. The results of this wide
spread profigacy are less apparent
now than they will be generation
or two hence, when the hereditary
taint shall have affected the physical
and moral health of those claiming
to represent the upper classes OF
England.


1t is, therefore not = moment too
soon that the Saturday Review
sounds the note Of alarm. ''It will
need some courage" says that jour
nal, "to oppose fashion, and keep
away from bad example, and strug-
gle with hereditary depression.-
But one important event will be
gained if the use of stimulants be-
tween meals is sedulously checked.
The test of safety in the moderate
use of alcoholic drinks seems ta sc.
the power in persons of tasn health
to leave otftheir accustomed beer or
sherry without Inconvenience or
moral effort. This suggestion may
be commended to men and women
in America as well as in England,
who feel that the unnecessary indus
gencc " stlpglants is becoming a
habit with them.


|