< b>Absinthe: Once a major medical hazard, absinthe is an emerald-green liqueur
flavored with extracts of the wormwood plant, licorice and aromatic flavorings in
a alcohol base. Absinthe was manufactured, commercialized and popularized in France
in the late 1700s by Henri-Louis Pernod. It became an extremely popular and addictive
drink. Among the famous figures who made absinthe a symbol of decadence were the
writer Oscar Wilde, the poet Charles Baudelaire, and the artists Edouard Manet,
Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso.
The first important medical research on absinthe was initiated in 1864 by a psychiatrist,
Valentin Jacques Joseph Magnan, who exposed a veritable Noah's arkful of animals
to wormwood oil (the essence of absinthe) and alcohol (the base of absinthe). He
put cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs under an individual glass case next to a saucer
of either wormwood oil or alcohol. The animals that breathed the alcohol fumes became
drunk while those that inhaled the vapors of wormwood had epileptic seizures, reported
Dr. Magnan in the medical journal The Lancet.
Prolonged drinking of absinthe causes convulsions, blindness, hallucinations,
and mental deterioration. Absinthe has been banned but something of its taste of
absinthe is still available in such drinks as ouzo in Greece and in France, pastis,
long considered "the mother's milk of Provence."
medical
dictionary, online medical dictionary, medical
terminology dictionary, free online medical
dictionary, medical dictionary, online medical
dictionary, medical terminology dictionary, free
online medical dictionary, dictionary medical,
dictionary medical online, dictionary medical
terminology, dictionary free medical online,
dictionary free medical, dictionary medical
terms, dictionary drug medical medicine,
dictionary health illustrated medical nursing
profession stedmans, dictionary English medical,
dictionary medical online terminology,
dictionary encyclopedia medical online,
condition dictionary medical, dictionary
medical, dictionary drug medical, medical
dictionary software, cyclopedic dictionary index
medical tabers thumb, medical dictionary, online
medical dictionary, medical terminology
dictionary
