, 1868-11-06
Can Drunkenness be Cured .
wHY no MEN nRINK z


intellects, wealth and position, become inebri.
ates We are more than ever impressed to
ask this question in all seriousness, after
studying the faces of the eighty or ninety
gentlemen assembled at the Binghampton
Inebriate Asylum. There we see represen>
tatives from all the learned professions, and
the mercantile, mechanical and agricultural
interests of the country, from Maine to Flor
ida So much intelligence and so much re-
hnement is seldom seen in so small an audi
ence. There is everywhere apparent the
ease and neglige of well bred men. Some of
them have commanding wealth aud once held
high official stations. What giant arm drag
ged them down No man becomes suddenly
a drunkard. Many of them pass a hong sea
son of education ins the primary schools of
intemperance. The first of these is the So
cial moderate drinking family, which dwells
10 mansions ofsweetness, cherish sympathies,
dispenses charities, and iEdulges in the wins
ming smiles and honied accents. Here the
taste is created and the habit confirmed.
Men and women in high position who can
sip the glass of ale are primary schools of
intemperance. Drunkenness is always the
failure Of an attempt to drink moderately
The interchange of family courtesies and hos
pitalities are frequently schools of intemper,
ance, All holiday occasions, such as New
Years and Christmas, birthdays, tin, silver,
and golden weddings, Dickens and literary
din2ers, club reunions, &C., are often schools
of intemperance. The graded schools of 10.
temperance are our billiard saloons, tenpin
alleys, and fashionable watering places the
high schools of intemperance from which
the poor drunkard graduates into the gutter
or the grave are our hotel bars, corner grog-
geries and fashionable sample rooms"
Men drink because they acquire the habit,
and in the end cannot control their appetite.
DIPsoMANIA.
This impulse to drink is now held to be a
malady, and the vice stands TO it in the rela-
liOn of effect instead of cause. Dipsomania
is from the Greek dipsa, thirst, and mania,
madness, or eager desire 1t denotes an ins
satiable craving for alcoholic drinks. In
Germany, men get drunk Oh wine, and they
have the term ionomania, or wine madness
This disease is specific and peculiar, uniform
in its symptoms and progress, and is essen
TALLY form of nervous poisoning-a toxico-
hOI m Tue system: Hrconor sets on me
nervous pulp Of the brain and produces an
exhaustion of the cerebral and muscular
functions. Ere long it begins to poison the
gray matter of the brain, so that every addi
tional drop thereafter brings it more and more
into poisoned condition. Persons of nerv>
GUS and sanguine temperament and constitu>
tion, and more readily men than women, are
apt to fall victims 20 this disease The
number of dipsomaniac women in the United
States are alarming. The poor victim from
the long tampering with the demon, loses
entire command over his will has no power
to resist the craving for alcoholic stimuli,
and is transformed into the involuntary slave
OF the insane propensity. Physically be has
lamentably broken down aspect; his limbs
are feeble and tremulous; visage pale, leaden.
colored or sodden; eyes watery or lusterless.
In the manifestations of mind and heart the
change is still sadder and more awful. As
the habit of indulgence continues, process
of mental deterioration goes on; the chief
aim of life is now to obtain liquor, and the
poison is swallowed, not socially and convivi.
ally, but as drug The moral feelings be-
come more and more perverted, the intellect
weakened, and unless control is obtained of
The unfortunate, he goes on from bad to
worse, and ends his career either as a homo~
eide or a suicide, or he becomes hopelessly
insane.
CAN THE DRUNKARD BE CUREDI
This is the question which the world asks,
and which it is anxious to have answered. In
most instances he can be. The experiment
is now being tried at Binghampton and
Wards Island. The Washingtonian Home,
at Boston, has had from two to three hun
dred cases annually, under treatment. What
lasting benefits the confirmed inebriates there
treated may have received, it is impossible,
in the absence of data, to say. Usually, pa
tients do not stay long enough at these insti-
tutions. They seldom go to the asylums
quite voluntarily, aud they make it point
to leave them as soon as they can get away
In few months abstinence from drink, Judi
cial medical treatment, good diet, pure air,
exercise, occupation and amusement SO inns
prove the physical condition that before a
radical change has been effected the patient
demands to be released. Years rather than
months of control are necessary to effect a
permanent cure. The fundamental basis for
all hopeful treatment must lie in the patients
own desire to get we'll. The appetite for
liquor cannot be removed from the patient,
and there is no specific which will prevent
further indulgence. A patient can remain
in Binghampton dozen years, and entirely
recover from the effects which alcoholic liquor
had produced on him; in short, be as healthy,
physically, as men usually are, and yet, if be
SO chooses, upon leaving, there is nothing to
hinder his palronizing the irst dram shop
which lies in his path A man may be con-
sidered cured when he has viii strong
enough to control his desires, and practices
total abstinence. All the hygienic treatment
and drugs in tho.EorId win not prevent him
from drinking, although clear head and
healthy body are great helps to that end.
If man return to his cups after treatment
at Binghampton or Wards Island, be does
so knowingly, and no one but himself is re.
sponsible for the act.-AHantic Monthly.
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