American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
Some doubly significant observations as to the practical effects
of beer and wine in dulling the faculties were made by Bayer, who
investigated the habits of 591 children in a public school in Vienna.
These pupils were ranked by their teachers into three groups, denoting
progress as "good," "fair," or "poor" respectively. Bayer found, on
investigation, that 134 of these pupils took no alcoholic drink; that
164 drank alcoholics very seldom; but that 219 drank beer or wine once
daily; 71 drank it twice daily; and three drank it with every meal.
Of the total abstainers, 42 per cent. ranked in the school as "good,"
49 per cent. as "fair," and 9 per cent. as "poor." Of the occasional
drinkers, 34 per cent. ranked as "good," 57 per cent. as "fair," and
9 per cent. as "poor." Of the daily drinkers, 28 per cent. ranked as
"good," 58 per cent. as "fair," and 14 per cent. as "poor." Those
who drank twice daily ranked 25 per cent. "good," 58% "fair," and 18
per cent. "poor," Of the three who drank thrice daily, one ranked
as "fair," and the other two as "poor." Statistics of this sort are
rather tiresome; but these will repay a moment's examination. As
Aschaffenburg, from whom I quote them, remarks, detailed comment is
superfluous: the figures speak for themselves.
Neither in England nor America, fortunately, would it be possible to
gather statistics comparable to these as to the effects of alcohol on
growing children; for the Anglo-Saxon does not believe in alcohol for
the child, whatever his view as to its utility for adults. The effects
of alcohol upon the growing organism have, however, been studied
here with the aid of subjects drawn from lower orders of the animal
kingdom. Professor C. F. Hodge, of Clark University, gave alcohol to
two kittens, with very striking results. "In beginning the experiment,"
he says, "it was remarkable how quickly and completely all the higher
psychic characteristics of both the kittens dropped out. Playfulness,
purring, cleanliness and care of coat, interest in mice, fear of dogs,
while normally developed before the experiment began, all disappeared
so suddenly that it could hardly be explained otherwise than as a
direct influence of the alcohol upon the higher centers of the brain.
The kittens simply ate and slept, and could scarcely have been less
active had the greater part of their cerebral hemisphere been removed
by the knife."
_The Development of Fear in Alcoholized Dogs_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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