| Show attack on paris appetites the london pall mall gazettes paris correspondent writes A mo fentous decision in appearance has been taken by the chamber in a casual kind of way the manufacture and sale of absinthe and the other decock alons that go by the name of ers are to be forbidden in france such at any rate Is the purport ot an amendment tacked on to the drink bill that has just been voted the government Is invited to issue a decree tabooing all drink of which the consumption in the opinion of the academy of medicine Is a danger to the public health the realization of this revolutionary measure of which the author was very fittingly a socialist is ot course impracticable the government will quietly ignore the in vit atlon 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 tor the measure in itself but to suppress the practice of drinking aperitifs by a stroke of the pen is as feasible as it be to abolish smoking by royal proclamation during the past twenty years the habit has attained to appalling proportions in france it Is calculated that in paris alone some persons consider it impossible to dine until after they have swallowed a so called appetizer many people in bulge in the habit before lunch as well as before dinner and needless to say that the number of those who are not content with a single drink Is legion the consumption of aperitifs in paris after increasing for many years at the rate of 10 hectolitres a year has of late gone up by leaps and bounds and the annual increase is now 20 bee toll 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 pol boning the healthiest persons can not swallow these lethal decoctions with impunity they are a sure causa of nervous disease and physical degen 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 |
