COCKTAILS DISCUSSED.

White Ribbon, Volume 35, Issue 412, 18 November 1929, Page 5

COCKTAILS DISCUSSED.

At a recent session of the Academy of Medicine of the French Institute, the chief subject of discussion was cocktails. Said Prof. (luillain, of the Medical Faculty of the l’aris University: “I have found that if there be less illness due to alcoholism among the working classes, it is Immeasurably due to their lack of the cocktail habit. This mixture of liquors at bars, in family circles and seaside resorts, is particularly harmful. It causes gastric troubles, depression, undue excitement, and epileptic crises, and 1 declare that it is the direct oau ■° of numerous motor accidents.” Prof. Sergent: “At my own clinic, fully 80 per cent of the alcoholic cases that have come under my observation have been due to the cocktail habit. It increases the desire for alcoholic drink, particularly among women. I would suggest that the cocktail be prohibited by law.” British doctors have also condemned the cocktail. Sir Gilbert Barling, Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Birmingham: “The beastly modern habit of cocktail drinking is one of the most pernicious things introduced into the life of this country.” Professor Dixon: ’This form of drinking is particularly pernicious for young people of either sex. Not only does it impair their stomachs, but cocktail drinking helps to promote th*' habit of excessive drinking more than pny other type of beverage”