Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1875 — Fatal Absinthe. [ARTICLE]

Fatal Absinthe.

The Paris correspondent of the St. Louis Qlobe writes: “ Absinthe has greatly increased in popularity during the last five or six years. Its drinking was formerly confined to the well-to-do classes. It was a sort of artistic and literary dissipation; painters, sculptors and authors sipping it daintily and commenting on its delightful effects. It is still drank by all the boulevard loungers and promenaders, and drank more than ever, but it has grown to be a democratic potation also. Laborers and mechanics quaff it at the wine shops on the street corners, and women in every grade of society are reported to yield to its seductions. It is largely manufactured in this country and liberally exported to the French colonies, Great Britain and America. Very insidious is absinthe. It acts very differently from liquor, and is regarded by the medical faculty as much more dangerous and harmful. It steadily destroys the finer feelings, wastes the faculties, corrodes the stomach, obliterates the memory, extinguishes the senses. It acts directly on the nervous system and its stimulating influence on the brain is one of the reasons why it is so alluring. A distinguished physician says that it gradually poisons the whole system, soon or late producing despair, insanity and disease. The symptoms that precede dissolution are indecision of the muscles, indicated by spasmodic contractions and trembling of the limbs, pricking and tingling of the skin, heaviness and numbness of the arms and legs, weakness of the knees, general languor, spiritual depression, inability to stand or sit with ease, steady wasting away, physical agonies and mental torture, relieved only by death. Absinthe, signifying wormwood, is distilled not from wormwood alone, but from anise seed, flag root, angelic root, sweet-majoram and other plants. All these being macerated and put in high-proof alcohol for eight or ten days the mixture is distilled, and a small amount of the Ail of anise added to the distillation. Not unfrequently various coloring mixtures, such as indigo, tincture of circuma and sulphate of copper are used, and augment its poisonous

qualities. What the charm of absinthe is I cannot divine. It certainly does not taste well; and, though I have often taken it for experiment, I have never been able to discover that it had any effect on me. Of course it would have in due time, but I don’t intend to give it an opportunity to tyrannise over my nerves and brain. Although these may be of small value, they are quite useful to your correspondent in so many ways that he intends to keep them unimpaired so long as it is possible. The subtle green liquor is recommended as an appetizer. Not a few persons, from taking it for this purpose, have grown to be its victims—have sunk into imbecility and gene to the cemetery by a circuitous road of suffering. I have tried absinthe a number of times before dinner, and if I had any appetite it destroyed what I had. Ido not think lam in any danger from the emerald demon, as it has been styled.. It seems more like noxious medicine than anything else, and it is not a medicine for a mind diseased, since it creates what it assumes to cure. Absinthe has done incalculable harm to artists and litterateurs. Some of the most gifted of the order have been killed directly or indirectly by the cunning poison, and a great many more will be. The French seem unable to resist absinthe after it has once obtained a hold upon them. Its fatal effects have been so clearly demonstrated that the Government has forbidden its use in the army and navy, even to the officers, and has, I think, interdicted its exportation to some of the colonies.”