It is already some time ago now, that I have taught children. But if one teaches four young lads from a specific family for many years, then one has the opportunity not only to observe these four children, but the children of acquaintances and so on as well. There is ample opportunity to observe this or that being done by the children or what is done with them. Now there was at the time a very peculiar medical prescription, which nowadays, thank goodness, is not prescribed that often any more: it was the practice to give toddlers a glass of red wine, in order that they would become strong. This was given not once only at mealtimes, but even several times a day. One held that for something very splendid. I could observe many children, who were raised with red wine and other children whose parents had refused to do so.
By now, these children, who were two and a half to four years old at the time are adults of about thirty or going on to forty years of age. All persons who were treated on red wine as little ones in order to strengthen them have become restless nervous people. They stand out very clearly from those who did not have red wine as children. One must therefore take into account that it needs nearly a quarter of century in order to observe the result of this practice.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 127 – Die Mission der neuen Geistesoffenbarung – Wiesbaden, 7th January 1911 (page 33)
Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger
Previously posted on October 30, 2014
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