Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1873-06-27
FRIDAY
"DnPSOMANIA.-

This is evidently coined word. as it
is not founl in the latest edition of Web.
ster's Unabridged. ''Dipsosis' is the
nearest approach to it. and from that
word the coined expression was doubtless
derived. Dipsosis, in medicine, signifies
excessive thirst, produced by disease.
The term is applied by the New York
Journal Of Commerce in a thoughtful
article on intemperance as a disease,
prompted by perusal of the report of
the Inebriate Asylum at Binghampton,
New York. This is an able article, and
from a highly respectable journalistic
source. 1t is forcibly maintained in the
article alluded to that people of normal
appetite, accustomed to control them
selves, cannot easily understand why
there are other people totally powerless
to regulate their use of ardent spirits,
and of whom it may he said that they
are absolutely incu liable by self help.
But it is a well settled fact that some
persons, by inherited tastes or by excess
sive addiction to intoxicating drinks, are
in that lamentable state. Good resolu-
tons are but waste paper with such I'M
fortunates; the best of advice is thrown
away upon them; no hope of reward and
no fear Of disgrace or death avail to save
them from destroying themselves body
and soul. As long as liquor can be pro-
cured-and it always can be, whatever
laws may be passed to prohibit its sale
50 long will there be Il small percentage
of these persons who are sure to use,
and therefore abuse it. The number of
confirmed or constitutional drunkards
is happily not large; but it comprises
startling proportion of men of talent,
good business position and excellent
family connections, whose uncomfortable
vice strongly appeals to our sympathies.
For such poor, shiftless creatures the Inc
briate Asylum seems to afford the only
hope, when they are willing to enter it
with an honest desire to be cured of
''dipsomania. A cure, even of the
worst cases, is regarded as possible. A
plain regimen, the use of sedatiyes AMI
other prescriptions from an experienced
physician, regular habits, cheerful So
ciety, fresh air and pleasant surround
ings, do, in the course of time, appear
to win the patient from his diseased
tastes, and he is finally sent back to his
friends, if not thoroughly cured then
with great hopes of a permanent reforma-
ton. From the report of the Bingham
ton 1nebriate Asylum We gather the fol-
lowing interesting statistics:
great majority of the inmates of the
asylum are persons Of sedentary habits,
professional men, or others who have
not taken much physical exercise Out
-. of 249, tabulated by occupations, G2 were
merchants, 81 clerks, II lawyers, 10
book-keepers, IL physicians, bankers
and brokers, civil engineers, > clergy
men, and journalists. From that nu-
merlcally very large class, farmers, "
there are but Z representatives, while
the great division OF mechanics" has
but 6, and the immense trade, "ma-
chinists, only. OF men who could
be classified as common laborers there
is not single one. If the asylum were
an aristocratic institution, opened only
to the favored few, and high-priced, we
might more easily explain the absence
of working-men. But it is opened to the
admission of poor persons, free OF all
pay, and they are made welcome and
receive the best of treatment equally
with the weathiest class. These statis-
ties only confirm and prove the old opin-
ion that hard work, out of doors, is one
of the best preventives of "dipsomania, "
and, we believe, might be greatly relied
on as cure if men would try it with
persistence. The sound health of the
every day laborer throws off the morbid
passion for firing the brain with alcohol
Under the heading, kind of liquor
drank, wo find that 1873 confessed to
whisky" as the cause of their woes,
while 81 ascribed their degradation to
brandy, gin, wines, etc.