Show attack on oil parts arretis a the london pall fall mall gazettes paris correspondent writes A momentous decision in appearance has been taken by the chamber in a casual kind of way the manufacture e and sale of absinthe and the other decoe cons that go by the name of 0 ers are to be ba forbidden it in france such at any rate Is the purport ot of an amendment tacked on to the drink bill that has just been voted the government Is In to issue a decree tabooing tabo all drink ot of which the consumption in fr the opinion of the academy of 0 medicine is a danger to the public health the realization ot of this revolutionary measure of which the author was very fittingly a socialist ci Is ot of course impracticable the government will quietly ignore the invitation vi they have received and the chamber will have sufficient sense to forget its bootless vote not indeed that there is not much to be said for the measure in itself but to suppress tho the practice of drinking aperitifs by a stroke of the pen Is as feasible as it woul woud be to abolish smoking by royal proclamation during the past twenty years the habit has attained to appalling proportions in france it la Is calculated that in paris alone some persons consider it impossible to dine until after they have swallowed a so called appetizer many people indulge in the habit before lunch as well as before dinner and needless to say that the number of those who ar are e not content with a single drink is legion the consumption of aperitifs in paris after increasing for many years at the rate of hectolitres a year has of late gone up by leaps and bounds and the annual increase Is now hec toli tres there are no two opinions as to the fact that these aperitifs among which absinthe Is no worse than the many varieties of bitters represent the very direst form of alcoholic poisoning the healthiest persons cannot swallow these lethal decoctions decoct ions with impunity they are a sure cause causa of nervous disca disease se and physical degeneration era tion the ravages they are causing in france are universally recognized A serious effort to grapple with the evil Is assuredly imperative unhappily the vote of the chamber is not serious |