WOMEN WHO 'DRINK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 178, 22 April 1908, Page 3

WOMEN WHO 'DRINK.

A, sensational statement has 1 (says . the Melbourne " Ago") just : been made ,bv, an American nerve Specialist. In his-daily'busi-ness ho comes in contact with 'representative people of the highest classes-of.society, and ho announces that tho increaso in tho amount of alcohol consuiiiod by' fashionable' women is truly alarming. ' Speaking to a representative of the Press, ho said:— ' It is with real alarm that I note-tho rapid', growth of tho drink habit among: women in New York City. I have been .in''a position to watch that growth closely, and I can say .with! full, knowledge that ten . women drink to-day whore one drank'a'dozen years ago... ,'• %.' '. •; - , ' A . ' . The-growth 'of 7 tho habit has boeri amongwomen of-all classes, tho rich and. the poor, youug and old. 'Girls in their teens evidently, see no impropriety whatever: in:drinkirig pub.licly with men companions. - Very often indeed I havo' had young girls brought to mo for treatment, hysterically-drunk. :. ! , .1 have treated within a. year whoso weekly, bill for champagne alono - was £20, and who,filled up the .intervals between their draughts of ,winF /: .with high-balls and., cocktails. One \ woman drank a quart of cliampagnb, every, morniiig, .'and when ready, to go out her custom was to order her maid -to bring her another quart. Then before, leaving the house to enter -her carriage she 'would empty the bottle to " steady-li.er nerves." ; School, missss and, collage girls' in great numbers are among the throng ..of women drinkers.' A. case'was pointed out recently of a .luncheon, given -here -in New York; at; whidi .twenty-four, debutantes drank, tliirtysix bottles of champagne, and fifteen of , them smoked. seven dozen, cigarettes. .. As everyone: knows, tTie punch howl figures largely in the growth of tho drink habit among women of New York. 1 It ,is found at all functions, and many, a,girl has got her ■first' taste of liquor by. a dip into it. The punch bowl; however;, is not . to be' blamed entirely; Many women dip into it, and may' do it many times . without acquiring the drink habit, . but many, get their , start there. It' does give them I the'taste of liquor, and then, •with many of them, the taste for liquor. Many women ha-ve fallen into" the drink habit , through; the' use of patent,modiciries containing .large percentages of alcohol, for it is an easy step indeed from such disguised alcohol ,to the - real, pure, open and, "above board whisky. . I have treated in the last eight years 700 cases of alcoholism, with a large percent-ago of women, and I have found in ' many cast's where the patient was a woman that sho did not, deep down in her heart, want to be cured, of the habit. This fact is true, especially in tho case of the rich society woman. She usually comes to m,e either at the urgent solicitation of relatives, .or friends, or with only a surface desiro to.be rid of .'tho-habit. Very few of them honestly and truly, and with their whole heart, want to be.cured.