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Abstract
It was the use of absinthe drinkers as subject matter, and, more specifically, the rejection by the art establishment, of the painting The Absinthe Drinker by Manet, that led to the birth of the Impressionist school of painting and the lessening of the influence of the conservative Institut de France. Adams argues that the fears and concerns surrounding the growing popularity of absinthe consumption and its depiction were inextricably linked with, and symptomatic of, wider social trends and concerns during a time of great turbulence and uncertainty (the section on the fears surrounding increasing absinthe consumption among young emancipated women is oddly redolent of the current moral panic concerning the "binge drinking" habits of young, financially-independent British women). These associations with the drink are shown by the author to be more important than any properties inherent in absinthe itself. After some discussion of absinthe's psychoactive ingredient (thujone, a constituent of wormwood) Adams describes the drink as a "mildly hallucinogenic green liquid", arguing that its perceptionaltering powers stemmed from more than the mere combined effects of its constituent parts. It gained its power from the codes and connotations interwoven around its use, and the rituals involved in its consumptionsuch as the use of paraphernalia like the slatted silver absinthe spoon, a device that we learn originated from rich absinthe drinkers seeking to set themselves apart from their less welloff countrymen.