On the Trail of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

    1450.  Gutenberg Press invented.  Books printed after this period were expensive and rare.  Because of the exclusivity of education to the upper classes, the majority of the population during the 15th and 16th centuries could neither read nor write.

    1621.  Ibid from A. Lynn Martin.  Martin mentions the work of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholia (1621), in which he talks of ancient Greek scholars and the topic of drinking during sexual activities and the outcome of the children.  Burton's work is also cited in Warner and Rosett (ibid).
   
    1627.  Sir Francis Bacon in Sylva Sylbarum (p.665) writes, "...if the mother eat onions or beans, or such vaporous food; or drink wine or strong drink immoderately; or fast too much;...it endangereth the child to become lunatic, or of imperfect memory..."  From Ernest Abel's Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects (1884).

    1638.  Another writer in Martin's article in Food and Foodways, Richard Young in his The Drunkard's Character (1638) writes, "...many of our children are half killed before they are born with distempered drink."
    Note:  Martin also found three references by 17th Century  writers who blamed the drinking of the fathers for the behaviors of their offspring.
    At the end of his journal piece, Martin asks, "What became of of those born with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects who survived?  Did the world we have lost contain many people who were hyperactive with poor attention spans, who behaved in an impulsive and uninhibited manner, and who had low intelligence?"
    (Note:  An FAS family from Canada has surmised that many of these children were probably placed in a religious setting.  The strict rules and unwavering schedules would have been perfect for adults dealing with the problematic life of FASD.)
   

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this