Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-08-27
PHILOSOPHY OF DRUNKENNESS.


of insanity" The object of the writer is to
show that drunkenness in many Of its phases
is a mental disease, sometimes hereditary, and
sometimes arises from other causes. He di-
vides the disease of drunkenness into three
casses--shutting out occasional inebriety, and
cases evidently comfortable by the drunkards
volition, from the classification. The three va
rietes of Ononld7lia, according to the writer in
the Journal, are acute, recurring and chronic.
The accute generally occurs after vital pros
tration produced by fatigue, excess or other ex-
element, and is the form of the disease most
easily cured. The patient feels an irresistible
desire 20 indulge in intoxicating drinks. He is
generally alive to the improperly of his conduct
but finds it impossible to resist the mania for
liquor if there is any possible way of crafty
ing it. If he can be prevented from taking in
toxcating fluids until the vital powers rally, the
disease disappears for the time being, and in
some instances forever. 1t is alleged that this
phase of oinoma,,ia, like the recurrent and the
chronic, is sometimes hereditary.
The recurrent form of the disease is more
frequent than the acute, and more difficult to
cure. 1t comes on in paroxysms. Patients so
affected, says the writer referredto, may abstain
for weeks or months from all stimulants and
uneasy, istless, depressed and irritable. They
feel restless; they are incapable of exertion.-
They are conscious, all this time, of the impen-
ding paroxysm, and generally struggle against
it till the impulse becomes irresistible, and then
they plunge suddenly into the widest intoxica-
ton, imbibing quantities that would be thought
sufficient to kill ordinary men, After an inter-
val of a few days the paroxysm passes off,
ba ipfap Ion for lie held
and the patient returns to the ordinary mode Of
life. The victim of this recurrent form of DIN
Omonia, frequently before the paroxysm comes
on, leave their families, seclude themselves in
distant taverns, and there drink to intoxcation
till the attack passes off; others shut them
selves up at home, denying themselves to all
visitors; and others again wander about the
streets, till arrested or picked up by some friend
Hospital the only fit place for such persons un-
cured and the cure usually requires not less
than two years. The victims of recurrent DIN
Oanonia, except during their paroxysms, are in
I'LL respects sane, which renders the dealing with
such cases delicate, and frequently shuts the
eyes even of intimate friends TO the real insan-
ity of the patient.
The worst, most common, and least manage
victim here is tormented necessarily by an al
most overwhelming impulse to swallow stimu-
lants. Comfort, decency, the prospects of life,
and even the happiness of his family, are help
lessly sacrificed, by the pitiable victim of chron-
ic oiaOmania. Too often the world censures,
when it ought to commiserate such n person,
for he generally derives no pleasure from his
rotations, and even bitterly laments the uncon-
Ia of III. oh bo - Al
awful depression Of spirits, forever tempting
suicide, and sometimes leading to it, is to be APP
peased only by inordinate stimulants, and then
merely for a season; for soon the mental hor-
ror returns and with it the diseased thirst again
he drinks, again he finds a momentary Letbe,
and again the hour of torture comes back more
terrible than ever. And so the miserable vic
tim goes on, unless rescued by some friendly
hand, until he becomes maniaca or imbecile, or
dies. Nor will any rescue avail, unless it is that
of aphyscian. The pledge cannot save such
men, for their disease is an insanity Nothing
but seclusion in Hospital will ever work a
permanent cure, and even this cannot always
be effected.
Such is the view taken of the subject by a
writer who appears to have studied it pretty
thoroughly. We do not wholly agree with him.
Hdo IlC CoiuImtu Is iilSdIlc, we ;tTc
not prepared to deny; but we think his insani-
ity is not the cause but the result of his drunk
enness. We cannot believe that it is not in the
power of any man to resist the inclination for
strong drink at the outset. A contrary doctrine
would exonerate every man who is classed un-
der the "acute," "chronic" or recurrent''
head, from all moral or legal responsibility for
his actions. This would be dangerous doc
trine. In the hereditary transmission of an APP
petite for liquor, we firmly believe and it should
be the strongest of all arguments against even
moderate drinking with every young man who
expects to become a husband and father.
N. Y. Star.
Here's definition of what constitutes a
modern infdel, worthy of being carved on ev-
cry door-post in Christendom:
MODERN MFIDEL-The man who has no faith
in the good and beautiful the scofier at human
virtue; the skeptic in human progress the
doubter of mans capacity for self government
above all, beyond all, the unbelever in woman's
goodness.
Why was Jonah in the fishes belly like a
fashionable young lady?
Because he had more whalebone about him
than was good for him
A lady on a cold morning, seeing all the win.
dows and blinds of a wealthy bachelors room
thrown wide open, inquired the reason of it.