INEBRIATE ASYLUMS.
The careful observation and study of inebriety by medical men, during
the past twenty-five or thirty years, as well in private practice as in
hospitals and prisons, has led them to regard it as, in many of its
phases, a disease needing wise and careful treatment. To secure such
treatment was seen to be almost impossible unless the subject of
intemperance could be removed from old associations and influences, and
placed under new conditions, in which there would be no enticement to
drink, and where the means of moral and physical recovery could be
judiciously applied. It was felt that, as a disease, the treatment of
drunkenness, while its subject remained in the old atmosphere of
temptation, was as difficult, if not impossible, as the treatment of a
malarious fever in a miasmatic district. The result of this view was the
establishment of Inebriate Asylums for voluntary or enforced seclusion,
first in the United States, and afterwards in England and some of her
dependencies.
In the beginning, these institutions did not have much favor with the
public; and, as the earlier methods of treatment pursued therein were,
for the most part, experimental, and based on a limited knowledge of
the pathology of drunkenness, the beneficial results were not large.
Still, the work went on, and the reports of cures made by the New York
State Asylum, at Binghampton, the pioneer of these institutions, were
sufficiently encouraging to lead to their establishment in other places;
and there are now in this country as many as from twelve to fifteen
public and private institutions for the treatment of drunkenness. Of
these, the New York State Inebriate Asylum, at Binghampton; the
Inebriate Home, at Fort Hamilton, Long Island; and the Home for
Incurables, San Francisco, Cal., are the most prominent. At Hartford,
Conn., the Walnut Hill Asylum has recently been opened for the treatment
of inebriate and opium cases, under the care of Dr. T.D. Crothers. The
Pinel Hospital, at Richmond, Va., chartered by the State, in 1876, is
for the treatment of nervous and mental diseases, and for the
reclamation of inebriates and opium-eaters. In Needham, Mass., is the
Appleton Temporary Home, where a considerable number of inebriates are
received every year.
Besides these, there are private institutions, in which dypsomaniac
patients are received. The methods of treatment differ according to the
views and experience of those having charge of these institutions. Up to
this time a great deal of the treatment has been experimental; and there
is still much difference of opinion among physicians and superintendents
in regard to the best means of cure. But, on two important points, all
are nearly in agreement. The first is in the necessity for an immediate
and
ABSOLUTE WITHDRAWAL OF ALL INTOXICANTS FROM THE PATIENT,
no matter how long he may have used them; and the second in the
necessity of his entire abstinence therefrom after leaving the
institution. _The cure never places a man back where he was before he
became subject to the disease; and he can never, after his recovery,
taste even the milder forms of alcoholic beverage without being exposed
to the most imminent danger of relapse._
The great value of an asylum where the victim of intemperance can be
placed for a time beyond the reach of alcohol is thus stated by Dr.
Carpenter: "Vain is it to recall the motives for a better course of
conduct, to one who is already familiar with them all, but is destitute
of the will to act upon them; the seclusion of such persons from the
reach of alcoholic liquors, for a sufficient length of time to _free the
blood from its contamination, to restore the healthful nutrition of the
brain and to enable the recovered mental vigor to be wisely directed,
seems to afford the only prospect of reformation:_ and this cannot be
expected to be permanent, unless the patient determinately adopts and
steadily acts on the resolution to abstain from that which, _if again
indulged in, will be poison, alike to his body and to his mind_."
In the study of inebriety and the causes leading thereto, much
important information has been gathered by the superintendents and
physicians connected with these establishments. Dr. D.G. Dodge, late
Superintendent of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, read a paper
before the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, in 1876, on
"Inebriate Asylums and their Management," in which are given the results
of many years of study, observation and experience. Speaking of the
causes leading to drunkenness, he says:
"Occupation has a powerful controlling influence in developing or
warding off the disease. In-door life in all kinds of business, is a
predisposing cause, from the fact that nearly the whole force of the
stimulant is concentrated and expended upon the brain and nervous
system. A proper amount of out-door exercise, or labor, tends to throw
off the stimulus more rapidly through the various functional operations
of the system. Occupation of all kinds, mental or muscular, assist the
nervous system to retard or resist the action of stimulants--other
conditions being equal. Want of employment, or voluntary idleness is the
great nursery of this disease."
TOBACCO.
"_The use of tobacco predisposes the system to alcoholism,_ and it has
an effect upon the brain and nervous system similar to that of alcohol.
The use of tobacco, if not prohibited, should be discouraged. The
treatment of inebriates can never be wholly successful until the use of
tobacco in all forms is absolutely dispensed with.
"Statistics show that inebriety oftenest prevails between the _ages of
thirty and forty-five. The habit seldom culminates until thirty_, the
subject to this age generally being a _moderate drinker; later in life
the system is unable to endure the strain of a continued course of
dissipation._
"Like all hereditary diseases, intemperance is transmitted from parent
to child as much as scrofula, gout or consumption. It observes all the
laws in transmitting disease. It sometimes overleaps one generation and
appears in the succeeding, or it will miss even the third generation,
and then reappear in all its former activity and violence. Hereditary
inebriety, like all transmissible diseases, gives the least hope of
permanent cure, and temporary relief is all that can generally be
reasonably expected.
"Another class possesses an organization which may be termed an
alcoholic idiosyncrasy; with them the latent desire for stimulants, if
indulged, soon leads to habits of intemperance, and eventually to a
morbid appetite, which has all the characteristics of a diseased
condition of the system, which the patient, unassisted, is powerless to
relieve, since the weakness of will that led to the disease obstructs
its removal.
"The second class may be subdivided as follows: First, those who have
had healthy and temperate parents, and have been educated and accustomed
to good influences, moral and social, but whose temperament and
physical constitution are such _that when they once indulge in the use
of stimulants, which they find pleasurable, they continue to habitually
indulge till they cease to be moderate, and become excessive drinkers. A
depraved appetite is established that leads them on slowly, but surely,
to destruction._
"Temperaments have much to do with the formation of the habit of
excessive drinking. Those of a nervous temperament are less likely to
contract the habit, from the fact that they are acutely sensitive to
danger, and avoid it while they have the power of self-control. On the
other hand, those of a bilious, sanguine and lymphatic temperament, rush
on, unmindful of the present, and soon become slaves to a depraved and
morbid appetite, powerless to stay, or even to check their downward
course."
As we cannot speak of the treatment pursued in inebriate asylums from
personal observation, we know of no better way to give our readers
correct impressions on the subject, than to quote still farther from Dr.
Dodge. "For a better understanding," he says, "of the requisite
discipline demanded in the way of remedial restraint of inebriates, we
notice some of the results of chronic inebriation affecting more
particularly the brain and nervous system--which, in addition to the
necessary medical treatment, necessitates strict discipline to the
successful management of these cases."
RESULTS OF CHRONIC INEBRIATION.
"We have _alcoholic epilepsy, alcoholic mania, delirium tremens,
tremors, hallucinations, insomnia, vertigo, mental and muscular
debility, impairment of vision, mental depression, paralysis, a partial
or total loss of self-respect and a departure of the power of
self-control._ Many minor difficulties arise from mere functional
derangement of the brain and nervous system, which surely and rapidly
disappear when the cause is removed."
The general rule, on the reception of a patient, is to cut off at once
and altogether the use of alcohol in every form. "More," says the
doctor, "can be done by diet and medicine, than can be obtained by a
compromise in the moderate use of stimulants for a limited period." It
is a mistake, he adds, to suppose "that any special danger arises from
stopping the accustomed stimulus. Alcohol is a poison, and we should
discontinue its use at once, as it can be done with safety and perfect
impunity, except in rare cases."
To secure all the benefits to be derived from medical treatment, "we
should have," says Dr. Dodge, "institutions for the reception of
inebriates, where total abstinence can be rigidly, but judiciously
enforced for a sufficient length of time, to test the curative powers of
absolute restraint from all intoxicating drinks. When the craving for
stimulants is irresistible, it is useless to make an attempt to reclaim
and cure the drunkard, _unless the detention is compulsory_, and
there is complete restraint from all spirituous or alcoholic
stimulants."
REMOVAL FROM TEMPTATION.
In regard to the compulsory power that should inhere in asylums for the
cure of drunkenness, there is little difference of opinion among those
who have had experience in their management. They have more faith in
time than in medicine, and think it as much the duty of the State to
establish asylums for the treatment of drunkenness as for the treatment
of insanity. "The length of time necessary to cure inebriation," says
Dr. Dodge, "is a very important consideration. A habit covering five,
ten, fifteen or twenty years, cannot be expected to be permanently
eradicated in a week or a month. The fact that the excessive use of
stimulants for a long period of time has caused a radical change,
physically, mentally and morally, is not only the strongest possible
proof that its entire absence is necessary, but, also, that it requires
a liberal allowance of time to effect a return to a normal condition.
The shortest period of continuous restraint and treatment, as a general
rule, should not be less than six months in the most hopeful cases, and
extending from one to two years with the less hopeful, and more
especially for the class of periodical drinkers, and those with an
hereditary tendency."
A well-directed inebriate asylum not only affords, says the same
authority, "effectual removal of the patient from temptations and
associations which surrounded him in the outer world, but by precept and
example it teaches him that he can gain by his reformation, not the
ability to drink moderately and with the least safety, _but the power to
abstain altogether_. With the restraint imposed by the institution, and
the self-restraint accepted on the part of the patient, are remedial
agents from the moment he enters the asylum, growing stronger and more
effective day by day, until finally he finds _total abstinence not only
possible, but permanent_. With this much gained in the beginning, the
asylum is prepared to assist in the cure by all the means and appliances
at its command. With the co-operation of the patient, and such medicinal
remedies and hygienic and sanitary measures as may be required, the most
hopeful results may be confidently looked for.
"THE HYGIENIC AND SANITARY MEASURES
"consist in total abstinence from all alcoholic beverages; good
nourishing diet; well ventilated rooms; pure, bracing air; mental rest,
and proper bodily exercise. * * * Every patient should be required to
conform to all rules and regulations which have for their object the
improvement of his social, moral and religious condition. He must begin
a different mode of life, by breaking up former habits and associations;
driving from the mind the old companions of an intemperate life; forming
new thoughts, new ideas and new and better habits, which necessitates a
new life in every respect. This is the aim and object of the rules for
the control and government of inebriates. To assist in this work,
inebriate institutions should have stated religious services, and all
the patients and officers should be required to attend them, unless
excused by the medical officer in charge, for sickness, or other
sufficient cause."
THE BINGHAMPTON ASYLUM.
Of all the inebriate asylums yet established, the one at Binghampton,
New York, has been, so far, the most prominent. It is here that a large
part of the experimental work has been done; and here, we believe, that
the best results have been obtained. This asylum is a State Institution,
and will accommodate one hundred and twenty patients. In all cases
preference must be given to "indigent inebriates," who may be sent to
the asylum by county officers, who are required to pay seven dollars a
week for the medical attendance, board and washing, of each patient so
sent. Whenever there are vacancies in the asylum, the superintendent can
admit, under special agreement, such private patients as may seek
admission, and who, in his opinion, promise reformation.
The building is situated on an eminence two hundred and fifty feet above
the Susquehanna River, the scenery stretching far up and down the
valley, having features of uncommon beauty and grandeur. Each patient
has a thoroughly warmed and ventilated room, which, from the peculiar
situation of the house, commands a wide view of the adjoining country.
The tables are supplied with a variety and abundance of good food,
suitable in every respect to the wants of the patients, whose tastes and
needs are carefully considered. Amusements of various kinds, including
billiards, etc., are provided within the building, which afford pleasure
and profit to the patients. Out-door pastimes, such as games of ball and
croquet, and other invigorating sports, are encouraged and practised.
The asylum grounds embrace over four hundred acres, part of which are in
a state of cultivation. The remainder diversified in character, and
partly consisting of forest.
Gentlemen who desire to place themselves under the care of the asylum,
may enter it without any other formality than a compliance with such
conditions as may be agreed upon between themselves and the
superintendent. The price of admission varies according to location of
rooms and attention required. Persons differ so widely in their
circumstances and desires, that the scale of prices has been fixed at
from ten to twenty-five dollars per week, which includes board, medical
attendance, washing, etc. In all cases the price of board for three
months must be paid in advance.
From one of the annual reports of this institution now before us, we
learn that the number of patients treated during the year was three
hundred and thirty-six, of whom one hundred and ninety-eight "were
discharged with great hopes of permanent reformation." Fifty-eight were
discharged unimproved. The largest number of patients in the asylum at
one time was a hundred and five.
SAVING AND REFORMING INFLUENCES.
Of those discharged--two hundred and fifty-six in number--eighty-six
were of a nervous temperament, ninety-eight sanguine and seventy-two
bilious. In their habits, two hundred and thirty-four were social and
twenty-two solitary. Out of the whole number, two hundred and forty-four
used tobacco--only twelve being free from its use. Of these, one hundred
and sixty had been constant and ninety-six periodical drinkers. Serious
affliction, being unfortunate in business, love matters, prosperity,
etc., were given as reasons for drinking by one hundred and two of the
patients. One hundred and twenty-two had intemperate parents or
ancestors. One hundred and forty were married men and one hundred and
sixteen single. Their occupations were varied. Merchants, fifty-eight;
clerks, thirty-five; lawyers, seventeen; book-keepers, sixteen;
manufacturers, eight; bankers and brokers, eight; machinists, seven;
mechanics, six; farmers, six; clergymen, five; editors and reporters,
five, etc.
In regard to some of the special influences brought to bear upon the
patients in this institution, we have the following. It is from a
communication (in answer to a letter of inquiry) received by us from Dr.
T.D. Crothers, formerly of Binghampton, but now superintendent of the
new Walnut Hill Asylum, at Hartford, Connecticut: "You have failed to do
us credit," he says, "in supposing that we do not use the spiritual
forces in our treatment. We depend largely upon them. We have a
regularly-appointed chaplain who lives in the building;, and gives his
entire time to the religious culture of the patients. Rev. Dr. Bush was
with us eight years. He died a few months ago. He was very devoted to
his work, and the good he did, both apparent to us and unknown, was
beyond estimate. His correspondence was very extensive, and continued
for years with patients and their families. He was the counselor and
adviser of many persons who did not know him personally, but through
patients. I have seen letters to him from patients in all conditions
asking counsel, both on secular and spiritual matters; also the most
heart-rending appeals and statements of fathers, mothers, wives and
children, all of which he religiously answered. He urged that the great
duty and obligation of every drunkard was to take care of his body; to
build up all the physical, to avoid all danger, and take no risks or
perils; that his only help and reliance were on _God and good health_;
that with regular living and healthy surroundings, and a mind full of
faith and hope in spiritual realities, the disorder would die out. Our
new chaplain holds daily service, as usual, and spends much of his time
among the patients. He lives in the building, pronounces grace at the
table and is personally identified as a power to help men towards
recovery. Quite a large number of patients become religious men here.
Our work and its influences have a strong tendency this way. I believe
in the force of a chaplain whose daily walk is with us; who, by example
and precept, can win men to higher thoughts. He is the receptacle of
secrets and much of the inner life of patients that physicians do not
reach."
In another letter to us, Dr. Crothers says: "Every asylum that I know of
is doing good work, and should be aided and encouraged by all means. The
time has not come yet, nor the experience or study to any one man or
asylum, necessary to build up a system of treatment to the exclusion of
all others. We want many years of study by competent men, and the
accumulated experience of many asylums before we can understand the
first principles of that moral and physical disorder we call
drunkenness."
TREATMENT.
"As to the treatment and the agents governing it, we recognize in every
drunkard general debility and conditions of nerve and brain exhaustion,
and a certain train of exciting causes which always end in drinking.
Now, if we can teach these men the 'sources of danger,' and pledge them
and point them to a higher power for help, we combine both spiritual
and physical means. We believe that little can be expected from
spiritual aids, or pledges, or resolves, unless the patient can so build
up his physical as to sustain them. Give a man a healthy body and
brainpower, and you can build up his spiritual life; but all attempts to
cultivate a power that is crushed by diseased forces will be practically
useless. Call it a vice or a disease, it matters not, the return to
health must be along _the line of natural laws and means_. Some men will
not feel any longing for drink unless they get in the centre of
excitement, or violate some natural law, or neglect the common means of
health. Now, teach them these exciting causes, and build up their
health, and the pledge will not be difficult to keep. This asylum is a
marvel. It is, to-day, successful. Other asylums are the same, and we
feel that we are working in the line of laws that are fixed, though
obscure."
DEEPLY INTERESTING CASES.
The records of this institution furnish cases of reform of the most
deeply interesting character. Here are a few of them:
CASE No. 1. A Southern planter who had become a drunkard was brought to
this asylum by his faithful colored man. In his fits of intoxication he
fell into the extraordinary delusion that his devoted wife was
unfaithful; and so exasperated did he become when seized by this insane
delusion, that he often attempted her life. She was at last obliged to
keep out of his way whenever he came under the influence of liquor. When
sober, his memory of these hallucinations was sufficiently distinct to
fill him with sorrow, shame and fear; for he sincerely loved his wife
and knew her to be above reproach. After the war, during which he held
the position of a general in the Southern army, he became very much
reduced in his circumstances, lost heart and gave himself up to drink.
The friends of his wife tried to prevail on her to abandon him; but she
still clung to her husband, though her life was often in danger from his
insane passion. Four years of this dreadful experience, in which she
three times received serious personal injuries from his hands, and then
the old home was broken up, and he went drifting from place to place, a
human ship without a rudder on temptation's stormy sea; his unhappy wife
following him, more or less, in secret, and often doing him service and
securing his protection. In the spring of 1874, his faithful colored man
brought him to the asylum at Binghampton, a perfect wreck. His wife
came, also, and for three months boarded near the institution, and,
without his knowledge, watched and prayed for him. After a few weeks'
residence, the chaplain was able to lead his mind to the consideration
of spiritual subjects, and to impress him with the value of religious
faith and the power of prayer. He became, at length, deeply interested;
read many religious books, and particularly the Bible. At the end of
three months his wife came to see him, and their meeting was of a most
affecting character. A year later, he left the asylum and went to a
Western city, where he now resides--a prosperous and happy man.
CASE NO. 2. A clergyman of fortune, position and education lost his
daughter, and began to drink in order to drown his sorrow. It was in
vain that his wife and friends opposed, remonstrated, implored and
persuaded; he drank on, the appetite steadily increasing, until he
became its slave. His congregation dismissed him; his wife died of a
broken heart; he squandered his fortune; lost his friends, and, at last,
became a street reporter for some of the New York papers, through means
of which he picked up a scanty living. From bad to worse, he swept down
rapidly, and, for some offense committed while drunk, was, at last, sent
for three months to the State prison. On coming out, and returning to
the city, he became a fish-peddler, but continued to drink desperately.
One day he was picked up in the street in a state of dead intoxication
and taken to the hospital, where he was recognized by the doctor, who
had him sent to Binghampton as a county patient. Here he remained for
over a year, submitting himself to the regime, and coming under the
salutary influences of the institution, and making an earnest, prayerful
and determined effort at reform. At the end of this period he left the
asylum to enter upon the duties of a minister in the far West; and
to-day he is the president of a new college, and a devout and earnest
man! He attributes his cure to the influence of the late chaplain, Rev.
Mr. Bush, and to the new life he was able to lead under the protecting
influences and sanitary regulations of the asylum. This is a meagre
outline of a very remarkable case.
CASE NO. 3. A poor farmer's boy acquired, while in the army, an
inordinate appetite for drink. He was sent to the New York Inebriate
Asylum, but was expelled because he made no effort to reform. Six months
afterwards he joined a temperance society, and kept sober for a year;
but fell, and was again sent to the asylum. This time he made an earnest
effort, and remained at the asylum for seven months, when he was offered
a situation in Chicago, which he accepted. For a year he held this
place, then relapsed and came back to the asylum, where he stayed for
over twelve months. At the end of that time he returned to Chicago and
into his old situation. He is now a member of the firm, and an active
temperance man, with every prospect of remaining so to the end of his
life.
THE CARE AND TREATMENT OF DRUNKARDS.
The subject of the care and treatment of habitual drunkards is
attracting more and more attention. They form so large a non-producing,
and often vicious and dangerous class of half-insane men, that
considerations of public and private weal demand the institution of
some effective means for their reformation, control or restraint.
Legislative aid has been invoked, and laws submitted and discussed; but,
so far, beyond sentences of brief imprisonment in jails, asylums and
houses of correction, but little has really been done for the prevention
or cure of the worst evil that inflicts our own and other civilized
nations. On the subject of every man's "liberty to get drunk," and waste
his substance and abuse and beggar his family, the public mind is
peculiarly sensitive and singularly averse to restrictive legislation.
But a public sentiment favorable to such legislation is steadily gaining
ground; and to the formation and growth of this sentiment, many leading
and intelligent physicians, both in this country and Great Britain, who
have given the subject of drunkenness as a disease long and careful
attention, are lending all their influence. It is seen that a man who
habitually gets drunk is dangerous to society, and needs control and
restraint as much as if he were insane.
LEGISLATIVE CONTROL.
In 1875, a deputation, principally representative of the medical
profession, urged upon the British Government the desirability of
measures for the control and management of habitual drunkards. On
presenting the memorial to the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, Sir Thomas Watson, M.D., observed: "That during his very
long professional life he had been incredulous respecting the
reclamation of habitual drunkards; but his late experience had made him
sanguine as to their cure, with a very considerable number of whom
excessive drinking indulged in as a vice, developed itself into a most
formidable bodily and mental disease."
In the early part of February, 1877, "A Bill to Facilitate the Control
and Care of Habitual Drunkards," was introduced into the House of
Commons. It is supposed to embody the latest and most practical methods
of dealing legally with that class, and is of unusual interest from the
fact that it was prepared under the direction of a society for the
promotion of legislation for the cure of habitual drunkards, recently
organized in London, in which are included some of the most learned,
influential and scientific men of the Kingdom.
This bill provides for the establishment of retreats or asylums, public
or private, into which drunkards may be admitted on their own
application, or to which they may be sent by their friends, and where
they can be held by law for a term not exceeding twelve months.
In the State of Connecticut, there is a law which may be regarded as
embodying the most advanced legislation on this important subject. The
first section is as follows:
"Whenever any person shall have become an habitual drunkard, a
dypsomaniac, or so far addicted to the intemperate use of narcotics or
stimulants as to have lost the power of self-control, the Court of
Probate for the district in which such person resides, or has a legal
domicil, shall, on application of a majority of the selectmen of the
town where such person resides, or has a legal domicil, or of any
relative of such person, make due inquiry, and if it shall find such
person to have become an habitual drunkard, or so far addicted to the
intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants as to have lost the power of
self-control, then said court shall order such person to be taken to
some inebriate asylum within this State, for treatment, care and
custody, for a term not less than four months, and not more than twelve
months; but if said person shall be found to be a dypsomaniac, said term
of commitment shall be for the period of three years: _provided,
however_, that the Court of Probate shall not in either case make such
order without the certificate of at least two respectable practising
physicians, after a personal examination, made within one week before
the time of said application or said commitment, which certificate shall
contain the opinion of said physicians that such person has become, as
the case may be, a dypsomaniac, an habitual drunkard, or has, by reason
of the intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants, lost the power of
self-control, and requires the treatment, care and custody of some
inebriate asylum, and shall be subscribed and sworn to by said
physicians before an authority empowered to administer oaths."
LOSS TO THE STATE IN NOT ESTABLISHING ASYLUMS
In a brief article in the _Quarterly Journal of Inebriety_, for 1877,
Dr. Dodge thus emphasizes his views of the importance to the State of
establishing asylums to which drunkards may be sent for treatment:
"Every insane man who is sent to an asylum, is simply removed from doing
harm, and well cared for, and rarely comes back to be a producer again.
But inebriates (the hopeful class) promise immeasurably more in their
recovery. They are, as inebriates, non-producers and centres of disease,
bad sanitary and worse moral surroundings. All their career leads down
to crime and poverty. The more drunkards, the more courts of law, and
almshouses, and insane asylums, and greater the taxes. Statistics show
that from fifty to sixty per cent. of crime is due to drunkenness; and
we all know how large poverty is due to this cause. Drunkenness is alone
responsible for from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of all our insane.
"We assert, and believe it can be proved, that reclaiming the drunkard
is a greater gain to the State, practical and immediate, than any other
charity.
"It is a low estimate to say it costs every county in the State three
hundred dollars yearly to support a drunkard; that is, this amount, and
more, is diverted from healthy channels of commerce, and is,
practically, lost to the State. At an inebriate asylum, but little over
that amount would, in a large majority of cases, restore them as active
producers again.
"Figures cannot represent the actual loss to society, nor can we compute
the gain from a single case cured and returned to normal life and
usefulness. Inebriety is sapping the foundation of our Government, both
State and National, and unless we can provide means adequate to check
it, we shall leave a legacy of physical, moral and political disease to
our descendants, that will ultimately wreck this country. Inebriate
asylums will do much to check and relieve this evil."
We conclude this chapter, which is but an imperfect presentation of the
work of our inebriate asylums, by a quotation from the _Quarterly
Journal of Inebriety_, for September, 1877. This periodical is published
under the auspices of "The American Association for the Cure of
Inebriates." The editor, Dr. Crothers, says: "We publish in this number,
reports of a large number of asylums from all parts of the country,
indicating great prosperity and success, notwithstanding the depression
of the times. Among the patients received at these asylums, broken-down
merchants, bankers, business men, who are inebriates of recent date, and
chronic cases that have been moderate drinkers for many years, seem to
be more numerous. The explanation is found in the peculiar times in
which so many of the business men are ruined, and the discharge of a
class of employees whose uncertain habits and want of special fitness
for their work make them less valuable. Both of these classes drift to
the inebriate asylum, and, if not able to pay, finally go to insane
hospitals and disappear.
"Another class of patients seem more prominent this year, namely, the
hard-working professional and business men, who formerly went away to
Europe, or some watering-place, with a retinue of servants; now they
appear at our retreats, spend a few months, and go away much restored.
The outlook was never more cheery than at present, the advent of several
new asylums, and the increased usefulness of those in existence, with
the constant agitation of the subject among medical men at home and
abroad, are evidence of great promise for the future. Of the Journal we
can only say that, as the organ of the American Association for the Cure
of Inebriates, it will represent the broadest principles and studies
which the experience of all asylums confirm, and independent of any
personal interest, strive to present the subject of inebriety and its
treatment in its most comprehensive sense."