Login:
 
The Practitioner; 2009 – 253 (1724):14

Female inebriety

15 Dec 2009

AUTHORS

The Practitioner's editors in 2009

Article

Is drunkenness among women on the increase in England? And, if so, why? There are of course no tabulated figures available for answering them. All that one can say for certain is that the number of female inebriates, among the poor and the well-to-do-classes, is larger than it ought to be, and that no single cause can be held responsible for all the phenomena observed.

Overwork among the women of the labouring classes is one of the causes suggested; but we should not be disposed to lay great stress upon it. The women of the same class in France work harder and drink less.

The much abused grocer's license may be a factor; but only a very sanguine reformer would expect the abolition of grocers' licenses to work any remarkable change. Secret drinkers whose whisky appears in the grocer's bill as tea are probably not numerous, and would most likely  be able to find wine merchants willing to supply it under the name of Evian water or Montserrat lime juice.

The wine bars in confectioners' shops may also play their part in encouraging the evil, for well-dressed women with sodden faces are often to be seen there; but even these we imagine, more often offer opportunities for indulging a bad habit than occasions for forming it.

The real crux of the difficulty is to determine the circumstances in which the women who become drunkards first take to drink. Not until that point is settled can we attack the evil at its source.

Ill-ventilated workrooms are probably responsible for a good deal; for one never feels the need for an alcoholic stimulant more intensely than after immediately quitting an atmosphere supercharged with CO2.

In a vast number of cases, too, the habit is acquired during convalescence from illness; and especially during convalescence after childbirth; and those of course are cases where it is incumbent on the doctor, unless he knows and can trust his patient, to be very careful indeed. It may be desirable, and even necessary, for him to prescribe alcohol to women in this condition - a condition, be it noted in which the inhibitory power of the will is weak - but it is quite unnecessary and most undesirable that there should be any vagueness in his prescription as to the size or frequency of the doses.

Nothing is more dangerous than to advise women in such a state to take a glass of wine or spirits 'when they feel they require it'. The consequences of doing so may be as grave in the end though not so immediately catastrophic, as would be those of advising them to take chloral under the same indefinite conditions.

Many inebriates, we feel convinced, have been launched upon their course of inebriety by putting too liberal an interpretation upon loose medical advice.