CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL 277 



so has the nature and form of drunkenjiess changed. Instead 

 of the " boon companion " of former days who could drink 

 astonishing quantities of Burgundy without affecting his health ; 

 who, after a night's carousal, was brought home, slept soundly, 

 and went about his usual business again the next day without 

 feeling any effects beyond unusual heaviness ; who could con- 

 tinue thus for a lifetime, and yet remain — at all events, ap- 

 parently — as sound in physique as a total abstainer— instead of 

 this jovial drunkard of former days, we have to-day the alco- 

 holised drunkard, the typical product of modified social condi- 

 tions, tainted with the external stigmata of his vice, incapable 

 of doing anything settled, going every year to swell the growing 

 host of good-for-nothings and loafers, of criminals and the other 

 waste products of society. This alteration in the symptoma- 

 tology of the drunkard is incontestably due to a change in the 

 nature of drink itself. Whereas formerly drink was relatively 

 pure, to-day the drinks which are at the disposal of the working 

 man are contaminated with every sort of poison. Thus absinth, 

 for instance, owes its aroma largely to the mixing of the essence 

 of numerous plants, such as mint, fennel, aniseed, angelica, 

 origanum, in the proportion of from 0-05 gramme to O'l gramme 

 of the essence of absinth itself, and of 0-3 gramme to 0-8 gramme 

 of the essence of the other plants, for two dessert-spoonfuls. 

 When we bear in mind that 2 grammes of essence of absinth 

 suffices to produce an epileptiform attack in the case of a dog, 

 we can judge of the nervous disorders which must ensue in the 

 case of a human being when he drinks absinth as a frequent or 

 regular habit. But not absinth alone is thus toxic in its effects ; 

 every spirituous drink is compounded of several alcohoHc sub- 

 stances, such as ethylic, propylic, and amylic alcohols, all of 

 which are toxic, but especially the latter. 



We have said that the working classes are especially prone 

 to alcoholism ; but the working classes have not the monopoly 

 of it. If it affects the workiag classes in particular, alcoholism 



