The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-10-08
Best Cure for Intoxicating Habits.

AO'NAS
Best Cure for Intoxicating Habits.
The question has often been asked, in a simply
medical point of view, how the habit of intoxlca-
ton is best aVerted or cured. 1t is well known
to all physicians that some persons are c%onstitu-
tionally more disposed to it than others some
hereditarily, and some from the effects of indul-
gences long since abandoned so far as in their
power, yet SO inclined to it that their selfcontrol,
their sanity, and strongest powers of will, though
they may be perfect at all other points, are COM
pletely frustrated here. 1t may be said, indeed,
that this, being the result of former indulgences,
is their own fault but this even does not make
it less their misfortune, and if such are sincere
in their efforts TO abandon it, so much the more
are they deserving of all the assistance that can
be rendered to them.
1t belongs to all wrong doing thus to generate
a tendency to reproduction. If the man who has
thus injured himself is to be esteemed ever so
guilty, the question might yet remain in morals
precisely whether the guilt lay chiefly in the
present, as in the past acts of his life, whether
he is not now to be regarded and treated rather
as morally insane on this topic, than Immediately
and simply reprehensible. Almost all men have
their weak spots, and few can boast Of a perfectly
sound physical, mental and moral constitution.
The physician can sometimes cure these cases
best, because it is not his duty to consider where
the fault lies, but only how it is to be remedied.
1t is well known that Coleridge had become SO
infatuated by and addicted to the use of opium,
that his friends had all given him up for lost.
One of his warmest admirers hired a man to
watch bin night and day, and prevent his getting
access to the perniciOus drug. But he baffled his
guard, again and again. At last, after suffering
agonies of remorse, such as even his own graphic
pen c~onfesses itself unable to describe, in the
depths of humility and contrition, he sought out
q iudiciOus physician, to whom he revealed his
whole case, his struggles and his desires, placed
himself under his control and care, and lived,
and finally died. in that mans house, after a
successful reformation of five and twenty years.
The confession of his weakness, and the realiza-
ton that however guilty in it's causes, it was now
a case of moral insanity, we suppose was what
saved him to be cured by medical means.
There are many men who, from various causes
of early habits, seem periodically to require some
great eXcitement,e either physical, mental or moral.
Hence the uncomfortable spells of drinking into
which some men will fall occasionally, in the
absence of mental stimulants, bitterly as they re-
greet it, and mourn over it at other times, resolve
against it, or VOW against it. The butler of the
celebrated William Pitt used to relate that his
master would first of all give him strict orders
before dinner not to bring up more than so much
wine, and afterwards, when it was gone he would
call for more, order, threaten, rave, and once
dragged the butler down stairs to the cellar, by
main force, to get more wine.
Very frequently it is found that great mental
excitement and ~exertions may be substituted for
these physical paroxysms. Thus it was remarked
of the late Senator Rusk, that, although in early
life much addicted to occasional revels of this
kind, yet that, as he warmed in political life these
periods became more and more rare, and that in
proportion to the excitement of any occasion, he
would rise to 1t, calm and clear. Strong mental
or moral excitement, then, seems to form one of
the very best counter-irritants or remedies against
this craving thirst for physical stImulants. The
only danger is, that in any moment of reactiOnary
depression, always liable to recur after great cx-
oitpmant the danuar of fallinn into the usa of
stimulants is proportionably great. With proper
medical care and watchfulness, these periodical
cravings for excitement will, however, become
less and less frequent, and also subside in violence.
The strength of this craving, however, when
once aroused, is so vehement, that we can only
conjecture that without some mode of satisfying
it, 1T would perhaps prove fatal. Indeed, the
sudden and total cessation of the use of stimulants
is one of the most frequent causes of mania "a
potu. But the substitution of one form of excite
ment for another, gradually tapering off the
whole into a healthful regular activity of the
whole man, is what is to be aimed at in all such
cases, while care must be taken to allow full scope
for this excitability of temperament in some other
way than by drink, until it subsidies of itself.
A mere physician of the body would utterly fail
in such a work as this. The whole man, physical.
mental and moral, must be considered, studied.
watched, excited or Gained to just the proper de-
gree, as the only means of restoring to his right
mind and true nature, one who has wandered
from the paths of reason.
Could a private hospital be formed, under the
charge of some physician of ability, to reach the
whole complexities of these cases, study their his
tory and desire, there are hundreds, perhaps
thousands of families of large fortune, who would
willingly pay any fair amount, and who would
rejoice to place their friends, and some to enter of
themselves, under the care of so valuable a friend
as such a physician would prove.-Philadelphia
Ledger.
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