Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-02-23
published by Request.)

bors of DR.. Albert Day, at the Washing
tonian Home, Boston, and subsequently at
the New York State 1nebriate Asylum,
Binghamton. Since that time we have re-
ceived two additional BinghamtOn reports
namely, those for 1869 and 1870. The
former of these reports bears the signature
of DR.. Day, is written in the same genial
and hopeful spirit as his former reports,
records many remarkable cases of cure,
and affords no indication of any impend-
ing changes in the institution, which he
had worked up, against many drawbacks,
into state of thorough efficiency. In the
latter, which is signed by Doctor Dodge,
there is positively not even passing allu-
sion to the labOurs of his predecessor, who,
as we have been informed, on good author.
ity, felt compelled early in the spring to
send in his resignation, in consequence of
the factiOus opposition he encountered
from certain influential members of the
committee, from whom he had every right
to expect cordial support. Whether he
published an account of dOlngs i'll cGnnec-
ton with the Hospital that were not in
tended or suited for publication we do not
know and do not care to inquire; but at
all events, the place knew him no more,
and not only is he totally ignored, as we
have already remarked, by his successor,
but, at the kind invitation of that per-
son, John NJ. POmerOy, Esq, late inebri-
ate, gives the result of his inquiries and
observations, and offers some remarks in
reference to the Asylum and its best in
terest,U which are published by direc-
ton of the Superintendent" 1t will hard
ly be credited that this DR.. Daniel Dodge
has directed the late inebriate to write as
follows respecting DR.. Day and himself:
1.-The institution has passed through
troubled existence, and it has at length
been placed upon a sure basis. For the
first time since its foundation, we find its
internal management in the hands of a
man who unites medical science with adj
ministrative ability, and who commands
the respect of every patient"
We don't grudge Daniel Dodge the re-
spect" of the sOts by whom he is sur
rounded, for any respect that more credit
able admirers may have entertained for
him will probably by the total absence of
professional etiquette that he seems to
have exhibited. Statistics, unfortunately,
do not speak so favOrably for DR.. Daniel
Dudge as we should have inferred from
the late inebriate's eulOgistic statements.
Our readers, in going over the following
numerical results, must bear in mind that
DR.. Day had charge of the Asylum not
only during the whole of 1869, but till at
least the end of April, 1870 and that it
was only during the last eight months of
the latter year that DR.. Dodge was Super
intendent:
1869 1870.
Number of patients received during
the year.. .............. pa 20
Average number per week............ II 60
Largest number per week 81 y
Smallest number per week............ % 48
Paying patients " .........,.. 205 181
The deleterious influence of Dr. Dodge
is perceptible i'll all these comparisons. AS
in paper on Restraint as Remedy in
the Treatment of Inebriety," published in
the Proceedings of the American AssO-
citation for the Cure of Inebriates," DIR.
Dodge admits that previous to the last
six months we !. e. DR. DOdge1 paid no
more attention to this subject than usually
falls to the lot of all practitioners" and
as he tells the trustees that he had in some
measure to learn the peculiar practice es-
sential to the treatment of drunkards, we
need not refer further to this report, to
which we have nothing special to object,
except the statement (Which he makes as
if it were highly creditable One) that he
had printed and widely disseminated
addresses delivered by patients" one be-
ing the obnoxious article by Mr.. POmerOy
already noticed.
We feel bound in honor to our readers to
place these unpleasant facts on record, be-
cause we did hold up BinghamtOn, both
in these pages and elsewhere, as a model
institution, and do hold very different
opinion regarding it under its present
management, and we are i'll a position to
add that our present views are i'll accord
ance with those of the leading New York
physicians.
Whether the " American Association for
the Cure of Inebriates - will do any real
service we cannot yet tell. The proceed
ings of their first meeting, held last No
Vember in New York, are now lying be-
fore us. At that meeting, seventeen
physicians, superintendent, and friends
of inebriate asylums" were enrolled as
members, and various papers were read.
These papers, as might be expected,
vary extremely i'll their value. DIR.
Davis, of Chicago, after noticing ex-
periments on alcohol by Boxer (Sic) and
BOucherdet (sic), tells us that the fact that
" its presence in the system reduces the
temperature was first fully established by
the result of a series of experiments per-
formed by myself in 1850" 1.-The tests
were applied to both wine and whisky"
by which we presume he means drinkers
of those fluids.
We fear that this gentleman's facts are not
more accurate than his grammar. For ex-
ample, he tells us that /" the eminent DR..
Todd testified strongly to the sustaining
and beneficial influence of alcoholic drinks
in the low forms of fever, yet statistics
show that in the London fever hospitals,
with which ne was connected, the ratio of
mortality increased pdri 19oSSn with the
increased use of alcoholic drinks as RENE
dies" If these pages should by chance
reach the eyes of DR.. Davis, we trust he
will name the fever hospitals he refers to
and give his authority for his statement
regarding the increased mortality. Our
English physicians will, however, doubt
less thank him for the information that
'fevers placed in tents, with plenty of
fresh air and nOurishment," give NOR
tality of only one in seventeen" when
they have clearly elaborated the meaning
of that very remarkable statement We
trust that the printer is responsible for the
" censorium to which the morbid i'm
pressions of drunkards are transmitted.
There is much that is worth reading in |
the essay on The Philosophy of Intern |
npranpn ~ Int Tlr lilo DF Davis