On a New Illness of the Youth (Anonymous)This article, which was published in the issue of the

On a New Illness of the Youth (Anonymous)This article, which was published in the issue of the Journal de Paris of 25 Messidor Year III (11 July 1795), is a satirical comment on the various idiosyncrasies of the jeunesse dorée: their habits and customs, as well as their styles of clothing and speech, are ironically portrayed as symptoms of a new illness, named Semsa or Sexa (i.e. the Muscadin pronunciation of “qu'est-ce que c'est que cela”). While bemoaning the severe effects of this “illness”, the author expresses the hope that it can be cured, and goes as far as to outline a few possible “remedies” to this condition.It is not without reason that the philosophers complain about the degeneration of humankind, in spite of the regular care that one takes daily to cross the races. Until now, I had regarded these assertions as melancholic declamations, ordinary for old men, and every time that I heard these grievances, I cited the remark of this old man, who claimed that, in his time, the peaches were more beautiful; and the one of this old lady who, looking at herself in a mirror, found that the reflection had changed quite a lot. Some time ago, I began to believe that these complains might as well not be too wrong, and repeated observations have convinced me that a perceptible bastardisation was manifesting in humankind, whose symptoms have, as far as I know, been described by neither Hippocrates nor Linnaeus.  One shall judge based on those that I will trace, which particularly seem to affect the generation that is being raised, [which is a] determining reason for a good citizen to ring the alarm and to call public attention to an accident which menaces the patrie in the blossom of its population.The pathognomonic signs of this degeneration are, first of all, a total loosening of the optic nerve, which obliges the ill person to constantly use spectacles, whose necessity increases as a result of the proximity of the objects; and a cooling of the natural warmth, which is difficult to overcome, unless [one wears] buttoned, tightly packed clothes, a cravate sextuplée where the chin disappears, and which even threatens to mask the nose. Until now, the legs have appeared to resist to the progress of the cold. At least one remarks that the feet are almost uncovered, and that the clothes, which take a quadrilateral form, barely reach the knees. Apart from the shortened stature, the skinny waist, and the short-sighted vision of the individuals, another proof of the weakening of the species is the use of a short and leaded stick, whose two ends are of equal size, and which, to me, has appeared to fulfil the effect of the counterweight which ropedancers use.But the most distinctive diagnosis is the beginning paralysis of the speech organ. The unfortunate young people who are suffering from this avoid consonants with extreme attention, and are, so to speak, reduced to the necessity of deboning the language. The strong articulations, the vigorous touches of pronunciation, the stressed flexions that produce the charm of the voice, are forbidden to them. The lips barely seem to move, and from the light friction that they exercise against each other, a confused buzzing results, which resembles the pz-pz-pz, with which one calls a small lapdog. There is nothing that is less intelligible than the conversations between ill persons. The only words that one distinguishes in this series of vowels are those of ma paole supême, incoyable, hoible, and other words [that are] disfigured in this manner. A man [who was] gifted with extraordinary wisdom has wanted to translate into French what he believed to form phrases, but the insignificance of what he worked out repulsed him from continuing such an infertile work. What is no less distressing, is that the same symptom manifests among the young persons of the [fair] sex, and it is sad to think that the [fair] sex, which usually makes such pleasant use of the speech organ, is at the eve of losing it entirely, and of thereby depriving us of one of our most pleasant enjoyments.I am, however, far from believing that this illness is incurable, and I love to recall here that this same youth, whose infirmity causes me [to have] civic concerns, was, at the occasion, able to grab a sabre, wield a rifle with as much vigour as skill, and make resound male sounds, moving songs [and] cries of war and victory. But the relapses are dangerous, and since the illness, as it seems to me, appears to be at its climax today, I recommend it to the patriotic and beneficial cares of our most adept health officers, as well as of citizen Sicard, and, without allowing me to prescribe anything of this kind, I reckon that shower treatments for the distressed patrie, a frequent repetition of the grammar lesson of Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, and, if possible, some of the most harmonious tirades of Voltaire and Racine, will be able to [contribute a lot to] the curative diet.Source: Histoire parlementaire de la Révolution française […]. -- source link

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