WOMEN AND ALCOHOL.
THE extreme bitterness with which the Saturday Review usually writes of women—the undertone of annoyance at their impudence in being so important as to deserve discussion—always impairs the effect of its diatribes against feminine aberrations ; but it hit a blot the other day, when it denounced as a growing vice among women the habit of taking stimulants. Of course, the Review was only too delighted to be able to produce so good a reason for being angry, and represented everything in as sensa- tional a light, not to say as ill-natured a light, as possible. That goes without talking, but still the Review was right, and in the right, doing good service to society by exposing an evil which is growing, which is grave, and which can be cured only by exposure. The medical journals all admit the truth of the main charge, that refined women of the wealthier classes are living lives so full of excitement as to tempt them more and more to seek an artificial support in stimulants which have a ruinous effect alike upon mind and character. The Lancet, after certain re- serves as to the sensational form of the statements made, openly acknowledged their substantial justice ; and now the Practitioner, a quiet, thoughtful magazine, which tries as far as possible to be strictly scientific, admits and endeavours to account for the grow- ing mischief. Its statement is in substance that of the Saturday Review,—that women of the higher middle-class with much leisure and much money show a new disposition towards a vice supposed to be exploded among men ; that they swallow in the morning, at lunch, at dinner, and at evening parties, quantities of wine or liqueurs which keep them in the condition known as permanent alcoholization, the most dangerous condition into which a man can fall, and from physiological differences infinitely more dangerous to a woman. She cannot endure it for half the time, and owing to her lesser degree of nervous strength, her exemption from labour, and her disinclination to severe exercise, its effect tends much more directly to diminish nervous power, that is, in fact, to obscure the mind, to deteriorate the moral character, and to increase the liability to insanity.
There is no smoke without fire, medical men of high repute do not assent to charges telling directly against themselves—for the doctors have advised the practice they now deprecate—without reason, and there are many reasons why this charge should a priori be con- sidered possible. The pace of life has increased for the higher classes of women until it is now much faster than for men. They have more to do, a shorter time to do it in, and are more admired for doing it well than was ever the case before. A young woman in good society in London nowadays is worked from three o'clock in the afternoon till three o'clock next morning, twelve con- secutive hours, almost as severely as an actress—who, after all, undergoes her full strain only from eight p.m. to midnight, and gets jaded upon that—and with much shorter intervals of real relief ; and as no natural strength, except in the most exceptional instances, will respond to such a demand, she naturally looks around for some artificial support, fur a whip to keep her from flagging. Where is she to find one? Hest is impossible without breaking with all the rules of her world, which no woman will do ; she knows nothing of physiology, nothing of the commonest principles of diet—which men, on the whole, do obey—and nothing of the real effect of alcohol. She never learns what men learn from being really drunk, in the police-court sense, perhaps once in their lives ; never recognizes clearly, as all men do, even drunkards, that at some depth or other there is poison in the cup, poison producing illness as certainly as any drug. She eats her only full meal in the middle of the day, instead of eating it when the system most requires strength, namely, in the time of exertion ; she does not smoke— tobacco is probably injurious to the sedentary, but to the active it is a sedative—and she is taught to consider the only stimulant which for her is tolerably healthy, malt liquor, vulgar and dangerous to the complexion. What wonder that she takes the only " support " which seems satisfactory, strong, loaded wine, or poisonous, tartarized light liquors, and half- unconsciously repeats the dose three or even four times a day, a mistake no man, unless very far gone indeed, ever attempts. Men, unless they are drunkards, never drink more than twice, and very seldom more than once a day. Considering how rapid the stimulant is in action, how greatly it increases for the moment with women the apparent intellectual power, and how completely the sense of weariness disappears under its influence, the wonder is not that the habit should prevail, but that it should be limited to so very few. Just let a Saturday reviewer try to talk pleasantly, and if possible fascinatingly, to an infinite succession of people for eleven hours a day for four months on a stretch, and then sea what he would do or abstain from doing to get a little relief. It is of no use to say the doctors are to blame. No doubt, disease having assumed a low type, and nervous disease tending to be- come as common as " a full habit" was common once, doctors are tempted to recommend alcohol as a stimulant, and do recommend it very carelessly ; but their advice would be disregarded, just as their advice to swallow asafoetida pills is disregarded, did not their patients feel that it exactly met their case,—that, in fact, it was very pleasant advice. Women never learn to like alcohol for its flavour, or they would be as particular as men are about the form in which it is conveyed, and they take it only because they learn to feel that the dangerous " whip " is the only one which meets their spe- cial necessity. It is ruin for them, as it is for men, and in both cases for the same reason, because any narcotizing poison once in posses- sion of the system paralyzes the will ; but it is ruin far quicker, and, owing to the organization of society, more complete. We are not inclined to believe what the Saturday says and the Prac- titioner hints, that liquor impairs chastity in women more than in men ; but women depend more upon the will, which the influence of the poison cripples, and suffer more visibly when its paralysis has thrown them back defenceless upon impulse, whether the im- pulse be kleptomania or concession to solicitations.
Why say all this? First, because it is true, and the world gains by any kind of truth the statement of which does not tend to increase the evil, as happens in the case of at least two forms of evil, lust and cruelty ; and secondly, be- cause we believe it possible for the profession which has partly caused and now fears the evil to help society to the remedy. It may do much by private advice, more by diffusing or helping laymen to diffuse a little ordinary knowledge. For instance, it could very easily indeed do one most important service, prohibit altogether, as the Lancet has in over-reticent phrase advised, the use of alcohol by girls under twenty-one. They should have none, simply. If they cannot get along, they should have less work, more sleep, or, what is nearly as good, more opportunity of lethargic quiescence, and endless milk, but it should be " good form " for them to be absolute teetotallers. They do not care in the least for the flavour of wine. They, like the Madrassees, "no drinkee for drinkee, but drinkee for drunkee,"—that is, for the sake of the stimulating effect, and they should be compelled by household opinion to go without altogether. It is nonsense to say this could not be effected. Fifty forms of restraint much more irk- some than this are borne by girls without flinching, or indeed perceiving that there is any restraint to flinch from. The doctors circulate through society a dozen roles of different kinds for the management of children, girls, everybody who is managed, about which nobody talks, but which are never dis- obeyed, and they could add this one, as the Lancet advises, if they liked. Then let them teach everybody a little more truth about diet, the reason, for instance, why large doses of tea swallowed by sedentary men or by women predispose them to think that they want " support." How many people are aware of the extra- ordinarily pernicious effect of tea—in itself pleasantest and least hurtful of all stimulants — upon some temperaments, and especially upon the more " highly strung" organizations,— organizations with a tendency to neuralgia, irritability, or " the fidgets." Or let the phyaicians tell the public, as the Practitioner of this month does so clearly, the point at which by the consent of all physiologists alcohol ceases to yield force and becomes a narcotic poison to the nervous system —a poison, that is, which takes the edge off the intellect, weakens the will, and makes the muscles tend to tremble. The statement certainly came on us, who probably know more of the matter than most women, with a distinct shock of surprise, and we reproduce it textually as by far the most beneficial statement yet made on the subject by good authority :—
" In former papers, in this journal and elsewhere, we have shown that 11 ounces of absolute alcohol, or two in the case of unusual exercise of body or mind, is about the maximum standard for the allowance of adult men : and the recent researches of Dr. Parkes confirm this belief, at least so far as showing that indubitably evil results follow when it is considerably exceeded. If such a quantity be the proper allowance for a man weighing 160 lb. (mostly bone and muscle), and always engaged in powerfully exerting either his muscles, or his brain, or both, it would surely seem reasonable to say that a woman, weighing say 120 lb. (much of it fat), and hardly ever using either her muscles or her brain vigorously and continuously, ought, at the outside, not to exceed the daily
quantum of ounce absolute alcohol, which would repre- sent about two ordinary glasses (two ounces each) of the usual highly fortified sherry or port which ladies prefer ;" —two such glasses in the whole day mind, or say, to put the matter in a still more intelligible form, one glass of port or one fair tumbler of Bass at each of the principal meals, any quantity beyond that being mere injury, as much injury as a slight nervous shock per diem would produce. That statement, if confirmed, as, according to the Practitioner, it would be by all considerable physiologists, is by far the most important piece of information communicated during the struggle about the effects of alcohol, and whatever the doctors may think, is entirely unknown to the mass of English mankind. We now want one bit more, which perhaps the Lancet can give us, and which would be almost equally
valuable. Does there exist, or can there exist, any drug, form of diet, or method of training, which will enable weak frames to get through extra work as alcohol does ? —which will prevent the nervous depression incidental to modern life, without so rapidly exhausting nervous energy ? Sleep, we know, would give the requisite strength, and we are half inclined to believe that the popular notions about sleep are the cause of much mischief, that the regular seven hours is the proper stint for a milkmaid, not for an over-worked London woman. But is there nothing besides sleep,—even if sleep were attainable—no truth, for example, in the profound Hindoo faith in the strengthening quality of milk or other digestible form of food? We do not say there is, we do not know ; but we do know that if there is none and London life keeps up its pace, drinking among the nervous will continue. And finally, let the doctors make known clearly the external symptoms of permanent alcoho- lization, so that every man or woman who drinks may enter society sure of immediate detection. If everybody could recog- nize at a glance the signs of addiction to alcohol, its use would be at once pronounced bad tone.
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