ABSINTHE. 17 
nervous temperament, acting closely after the manner of those 
alkaline bromides which constitute drug remedies as prescribed 
almost specifically for these same bodily ailments. Suitable 
allowances of the diluted liqueur will promote salutary perspira- 
tion, and may be given, moreover, for successfully expelling 
intestinal worms. The use of Absinthe as a stimulating dram, 
with comforting effects, prevailed at one time amongst French 
soldiers at Algiers, but led to baneful results because taken too 
freely. It is now, therefore, forbidden throughout the French 
army. 
Wormwood, as employed in making this liqueur, bears also the 
name ‘‘ wermuth,” or ‘‘ keep mind” (preserver of the mind), 
from its supposed medicinal virtues as a nervine, and mental 
restorative. 
Inferior Absinthe, such as is retailed at the popular bars, and 
cheap cafés in Paris, and the French provinces, at three halfpence 
the glass, is generally adulterated with copper for producing 
the characteristic green colour. To swallow repeated doses 
of this pernicious stuff in the early morning is called “ killing 
the worm.” Inveterate absintheurs are found to drop down 
dead in the streets every day that dawns in Paris, either from 
apoplexy, or because of heart failure; yet merrily “ strangling 
the parrot” (as the term goes) is continued, and jests about 
“taking the blue” are as lively as ever! Unhappily, too, 
Absinthe may now be bought at most of our London West End 
public houses, and even the most casual observer can notice in 
these places that the absinthe habit is growing in our midst. 
To order an absinthe is regarded as a mark of some distinction. 
“Yet,” said The St. James’s Gazette, August 7th, 1902, “Absinthe 
is a liqueur which is particularly unsuited to the English tempera- 
ment, except for medicinal uses under the guidance of a skilled 
doctor.” The intensely bitter taste resides in its “ absinthin.” 
Pepys tells in his Diary, November 24th, 1660: “ Creed, and 
Shipley, and I to the Rhenish Wine House, and there I did give 
them two quarts of wormwood wine.” ‘‘ Medical observation 
in France” (says Herbal Simples) “shows that this liqueur 
exercises through the pneumogastric nerve a painful sensation 
which has been taken for that of extreme hunger. The feeling 
goes off quickly if a little alcohol is then given, though it is 
aggravated by coffee : whilst under an excessive use of absinthe 
from day to day the stomach will cease to perform its duty, 
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