CHILDREN REARED ON BRANDY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 615, 18 September 1909, Page 11

CHILDREN REARED ON BRANDY.

. The eensation. of the International Congress on Alcoholism, which has been sitting in london, was the revelation mado by Dr. Jure Doczi; official reporter to the Alcohol Commission in Budapest, of drinking allowed and encouraged amongst" the child population oi '.Hungary. . / : . He declared that in Hungary it is found that there are hardly any schools "in ■ which there is a.pupil who is a total, abstainer. On I ■ ■'■■■ ~ " ~ ~~~ ■ : —

such' occasions as holidays, l baptisms, Vcddint and funerals,', and harvest, time, 'greater , o portimitiea :of indulging in alcohol' are-givi to the : people and.to the children also. '■•'The opportunities •. for indulging in intoxicati] liquors have in some cases assumed sui dimensions that, according to reports receive pupils in the- first and Becond elemental classes come to tho scbuols in quite an into: cated condition , . Iteports have also heen i ceived. of cases of pupils being, too intoxicat to be able to, do their lessons. .-' . '.-... given bread.soaked' in brand; m i other instances brandy was given to chil ron",to .stop them crying. In consequencethe 'extraordinarycheapness of brandy soveral communities,. it is given to the chil Ton ■.•regnlarly , for breakfast. (Sensation.) i.'The-effect-, of. alcohol on : the mina ai character,-of. children, who indulged in it w most marked, continued the speaker. Thir peV.cent. of the children.<ircro inattentive, nc ■vous,'and , restless; 15 per cent, melancholy ai abnormaJlyshy; 30. per' cent, coarse and wit feeling; 9 per ■ cent., vindictive'. and" givi ■ 18; per'cent'; 'immoral; and 6 p (cent, particularly disinclined to learn. On '20 per cent..showed'no signs of any evil effec Concerning the bodily health of-alcoht reared children, three-fifths worn found to 1 of colourless complexion and pale, with sunki cheeks;'.one-fifth showed, arrested.'developme: .of^tho , -body; , and in only one-fifth was tl disturbing influence, of alcohol' unnoticed. : Mr. Gustav Spillei; urged, that alcohol, hoi erer ; small the quantity taken, was physiolori ally 'intellectually, and ethically deloteriou He had observed, ho said, at dinner that tl conversation of those who had only take even very little alcohol was less revelnnt, moi disconnected, and their oratory was affected i a more or lessprononnced manner. 1 ' Dr vC. W. Saleeby said that carefully pr Pared statistics showed that 45,445 women ai children were made widows and orphans evei year in Great Britain through the direct e fects of alcohol. , ;• ,