The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-04-04
matter which characteristics it when IN the
open airy, J. Observer.


l. Dipsomania.
Il Some valuable and interesting information
on the subject of dipsomania or drunkenness
as disease is given in the first annual repor
of the New York State Inebriate Asylum
which has lust been published.
: 1t seems to be established that inebriety
like other disorders of the human system, cal
be corrected and cured by proper treatment
that the lost selfcOntrol can be restored, anC
the unfortunate victims of a terrible vice re
turned to lives of usefulness and respectable
= ity. Many eminent men, including Dr. Rush
have from time to time, during the last hal
century, given testimony in favor of medica
treatment in the management of drunkenness
7 When the public come to understand that thu
medical profession regard drunkenness or in
ebriety as disease, literally crazy thirs
inherited, or begottcn of excessive indul
gence, and that intoxlcation is the immediate
or remote cause of this disease, the subject
will not be treated in the flippant or noisy
|denunciatory style that is too frequently in
ldulged in by the press and the pulpit of the
day.
The physician of the New York State In.
ebriatc AS um cassifcs the different forms
of drinking AS accidental or social, habitual
or periodical An accidental or occasional
drinker is q sound man. and has the power OF
restraining HIMSELF but the habitlal drunk
ark is an lnsound man mentally, physically,
and morally. He has lost selEcontrol. The
appetite grows by what it feeds upon, and rs
Il rule, habitual drinkers as they Increase the
amount of stimulation, take correspondingly
less food Not a few patients have been re
ported as having taken from forty u fifty
glasses a day for as many days, with scarcely
any food until poisoned and exhausted, the
illuminating point is reached, and utter pros
traton, with or without commissions or mania,
or it may be death, follows. If they recover,
such persons soon relapse again, and gradu-
ally the whole being, moral and physical, is
changed. Slowly, insidiously, but surely,
the brain and nervous centers have been poiS-
oned. The tissues are inflamed, and harden
ing or sottening may follow; then comes con
fusion of thought, blunted perceptions, and
conscious or unconscious moral Obliquity
SuCn persons seldom see themselves as others
see them. They will, with apparent earnest
ness, deny the fact OF their drinking. In fact,
as they frequently go for days without reel.
ing, even their intimate friends may be de.
ceived. They say and do all sorts of absurd
things, for which in the restored consciousness
of sobriety they arc deeply penltent.
A majority of the persons who drink eX-
cesslvely have estimable qualities. They are
ordinarily of generous impulses, and with not
a little manly pride and delicate sensiblity.
Letters from friends furnishing the physician
with brief biographies of the patients, usu-
ally refer to the "ony one fault" That one
fault is vice; bat At the same time disease
from which the victim is as powerlesS, I'M
aided, to rid himself as the fever patient Graz
cd with the frenzy Of malaria is to restrain
his frenzy. He Graves the stimulus of alcohol
with the same intensity that starving man
Graves food Under such conditions food is |
rejected and positively loathed. A man in
this condition should be regarded as we would
regard a swimmer who, intent only on the |
pleasures Of bath, finds himself in the cur
rent of an undertow and unable to regain the |
shore In both cases the need of assistance
IS urgent Humanity demands that we
provide for the perishing the means
IF rescue.
When sufferers from dipsomania have reach
I'd the piteous condition described above, |
hey are too often treated with IneXCusable |
neglect by their friends. Through ignorance
and prejudice they have been left to founder |
and sink in the slough with that mockery of
consolation that they have only to stop drink |
ng and they will certainty recover. But no |
II istake could be more fatal to them. Ordi- |
nary observers can form no conception of
he weakness to which such persons have be
;ome reduced Careful investigation into
he condition Of patients coming under the
hargc of the State lnebriate Asylum has led
o the conclusion that not one of those who
lad drank to excess for year or more before
,oing to the asylum found his way to perfect
eath and complete emancipation from the
fleets of alcohol in less than a year; and
n other cases it requires great deal longer
ime.
1t is gratifying to be Informed that num-
,crs 20 from the institution really cured,
estored and reformed as much us possible in
uman nature. The system should not be
declared failure if these persons voluntarily
II carelessly relapse. The cases of complete
estoration, as Shown by official statistics and
etters on file from various parts of the coun-
ry, demonstrate satisfactorily that there is
10 reason for despair where there is u genu-
ne cooperation on the part of the patient.
n fact, the work Of restoration to mental,
moral and physical health has been accom-.
'lishcd even when the rebukes OF conscience,
he force Of public opinion, the admonltions
f the pulpit, the dcnunciations Of the press,
+ the sporadic cXcitcments of popular tenn
erance agitatlons have been of no avail
T. J. Sun.
Ny-au L.