The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-24

asylums like this, they have made it their
study, as other physicians have done
with consumption or deformlties; have
had in their own care thousands of
such patients, and cured them. Their state
ments are so simple that child can compre-
hend them. II claim for inebriates," says
DIR. Parrish, in his mastery analysis of the
philosophy of intenperance, that they
should not be made exceptions to the ordi-
nary rule, as it relates to the entire class of
invalids. The common ills, such as rheuma-
tism, gout. consumption, etc, are all trace
able either to direct hereditary taint or to the
accident of exposure, fatigue, etc. The same
may be said of intemperance. BY the here
ditary taint, he does not mean that the mere
taste for alcoholic liquors is transmitted from
generation to generation, but that men are
inheriting certain temperaments which drive
them to seek relief in these stimulants. They
are born suffering from the effects of an or
ganization which they did not create, and
from infirmities which they did not knowingly
promote"
''Tbey come, says Maudesley, ''into the
world weighted with destiny against which
they have neither the will nor the power to
contend; they are step-children of nature,
and groan under the worst of tyrannies-the
tyranny of a bad organization" The other
causes of exhaustion of nervous energy COM
mon among us, and which are increasing
every year, he states justly to be the inten-
sity of American social and business life-the
forcing of childrens brains, the incess ant
drain upon the supreme nervous centre in the
rivalry and struggle for money and power.
Whenever, therefore, from hereditary taint
or this exhaustion of nervous energy, the
patient seeks relief in alcohol, the disease
assumes q definite form, the symptoms of
which are given by DIR. Davis. Chief among
mi Gah1a fa he
the ignorant, is the diseased condition of the
gastric and ganglionic nerves, which constitutes
the morbid craving for rene wed stimulant that
is rallied against as temptation of the devil.
There would be quite as much reason in call
ing the chills in ague work of Satan. DIR.
Davis puts the case forcibly:-''If the inebri-
ate, then, is the victim of positive disease,
induced by the action of an alluring and de-
ceptive physical agent, alcohol, will any num-
Der of moral lessons addressed to his intel
lect, or any amount of denunciation hurled at
his degradation and his vices, cure or reform
him? Or will his arrest, arraigument in a
police court, and extortion of the few dollars
he has left as fine, eradicate the disease that
is preying upon the most delicate part of his
organization 2"
The remedy urged by both science and
humanity is the establishment of asylums for
the inebriate where he can be subjected to
medical treatment, receive brotnerly encou-
ragement, be given employment suited to him,
and secured q foothold in the outer world
when fit to enter it again. Such asylums
have been established by the State or private
enterprise in New York, Massachusetts,, Penn
sylvania, Texas, Illinois, and California. 1t
is not essential that these establishments
should be large. The most successful, pro-
badly, are those in which the number of
patients is 80 limited that each is brought
into direct and constant contact with
the superintendent, and receives indi-
vidual care and sympathy. Indeed,
the massing of any class of patients
together is always to be deprecated. No
power forces its way 80 rapidly as a true idea.
Slavery is blotted out, and intemperance, we
believe, will be the next stronghold to disap-
pear-not before fanatical outcry, but the
force of reason and science. Before many
years the drunkard, instead of being legally
amenable to fines and imprisonment, will re-
ceive the rational treatment awarded to the
insane, and be sent to an asylum.
For the statistics of the actual benefits
conferred by these asylums, We refer our
readers to DIR. Parrish's pamphlet of which
we published an abstract on the 9th ult The
average cured vary from 40 to 63 per cent,
an average which will, of course. be largely
increased when the subject is comprehended
in its true relations by the patients and
public