A FRENCH VIEW OF ALCOHOL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1402, 9 November 1886, Page 2

A FRENCH VIEW OF ALCOHOL.

In the last number of the Jtevue Scientifique appears a remarkable paper on '• Alcohol and Alcoholism,” which presents statistics and conclusions of a very startling nature. The author, M. Fournier de Flaix, affirms that the outcry against alcohol is utterly unmerited, as It does far more good than harm. To demonstrate this M. de Flaix, families tabular statements to show that not only in the French departments but In all other countries the birth rate is lower and the death rate higher wherever the consumption of alcohol is small. I: is further argued from these figures that netiher criminality nor suicide Is in proportion to alc ihol consumption. For instance, in the Seine et Oise the consumption of alcohol is just about half what it is in the Seine Inf rleure, yet the suicide rate is double in the f rmer. In England, again, more alcohol Is consumed than in France, and yet in Francs the birth rats, the death rate, the statistics of crime and suicide, are less favorable than In England. The comparisons for Daly, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia. Austria, and Germany, show analogous rnsu t . M. de Flaix’s conclusion is that it is the nations with the most vi<al powers, the greatest wealth, and the best morals who consume the most alcohol. Alcohol he maintains to be an alimentary element, whose consumption should depend directly upon the requirements of the climate. The late Prime Minister, among others, is cited by M. de Flaix in support cf his thesis. De says:—“ Mr Gladstone takes every day two glasses of claret at lunch and two at dinner, wi h a glass of port wine. His alcoholic oonsnmption has been estimated by his son | at seven gallons a year, which would be ; three and a half times the average consumption per head in England, and lour tad n half times the average In Swope.”