The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-04-29
WILL HE DRINK WINE?

a5 4OA4O "1uS EbSdyg WHICH Is OF Pc
cullar interest just now, in view of the
present agitation of the temperance
question, was read by DR.. Swan M.
Burnett, of Knoxville, before the Ten
nessee Medical Society, the subject of
the essay being A" DipsOmania':
"'W Viii the coming man drink wine?"
A question more pregnant of interest,
or more important in its bearing to-
wards our future civilization, could
hardly be asked of the scientific man.
For such magnitude and form has the
question assumed that it is now, by
general consent, given over to the man
of science for his earnest investig gation,
and to him we look for an answer. OF
course we mean, shall he drink wine to
excess not shall he use it, but shall
he abuse it? For the suppression OF
intemperance, we have trusted to the
influences of moral reformers and leg
islative enaetments long enough to have
demonstrated their utter futility.
Statistics show that, IN spite of tenn
perance organizations, (to say nothing
of crusaders) and Maine liquour laws,
the vice of intemperance is as rampant
in our land as ever before. We cannot,
then, look TO these for any help in stay
ing its progress, bat must revert to the
scientific investigator who shall study
the subject in all its bearings, hut out
its causes, and mark out its natural his
tory, just as be would that of any other
form of disease.
' 1t has always been thus in the his
tory of the world. When pestilence
has stalked abroad, leaving death and
devastation in its train, efforts were
first made to stop its onward march by
prayers and iucsntations and later, by
ill-advised legislation. It was only,
however, when the subject was handed
over to the scientist, who sought the
fO7ls ct Origo and applied his remedy
thereto, that any ameliOration was OBJ
tanned. And thus, it seems, must be
the case with intemperance, which In
its effects is ns terrible as the 'pesti-
lence that walked in darkness"
"It is only one form of this evil that
we shall present to your consideration
at this time. The general influence of
alcohol upon the human economy in
health and disease, and drunkenness in
the form of alcoholism, we shall leave
out of consideration, except as they
may bear upon the one form of intem-
perancs upon which we have the honor
to report to you, viz, dipsomania.
''rhe first question that presents it
self is, is there such an afiection as
dipsomania per Sc 2 This must be an
swered an linlipe, for if there is not,
any further investigation will be only a
loss of time and labor.
Eat present the opinion on this point,
of the majority of those who have made
the subject of inebriety in its various
forms a special study, seems to be
fixed, and the eneral verdict is Ia ia
vor OF the existence of a true mania for
drink.
cdr. Morgan, in a recent work on
alcoholism, its various form, etc, ,"
SAYS, that dipsomania is a distinct form
of instructive mono-mania. Quotin2
Trilah, he says that drunkards are men
who get drunk when they get the
chancs of drinking, dipsomanies are
people suffering from disease who get
drunk whenever they have an attack of
their peculiar disorder. There are too
many histories on record of this morbid
impulse to drink TO admit of a doubt of
its existence. In the December num-
Der of the New York Psychological
and Medical Surgery Journal, DIR.
George Burr communicates in a paper
on ths insanity of inebrieiy' several
interesting cases in point.
cdr. Bush records e case in which he
says, in refereT ce to an habitual drunk
ard In Philadelphia, who, when
strongly urged by one of his friends to
leave off drinking, replied, were a keg
of rum in one corner of a room. and
were q cannon constantly discharging
balls between me and it, oouldnot re-
frain from passing before that cannon
in order to get at the rum. DIR.
MeNeish describes in his Anatomy of
Drunkenness a case where a friend
painted to him the distress of his fam
ily, the loss of his business and chaIac-
ter and the ruin of his health, to which
he replied: My good friend, your re-
marks are just: they are indeed too
true but can no longer resist tempta-
tion. IL bottle of brandy stood at
one hand and the pit of hell yswned at
the other, and were convinced that I
should be pushed in as sure as ] took
one glass. could not refrain The
late DIR. r. ID. Mussy, of Cincinnati,
relates another case. A few years ago
a tippler was put in an alms-house in
this State. Within a few days he had
tried various expedients to get rum and
failed. At length, however, he hit
upon one which was successful. He
we Mt into the woodward of the estab-
lishment, placed one hand upon the
block, and with an axe in the other
struck it off with a single blow. With
the stump raised and streaming, he ran
into the house and cried, Get me ruml
Get me rum my hand Is of In the
confusion and hustle of the occasion, a
bowl Of rum was brought, into which
he plunged the bleeding member of his
body; then, raising the bowl to his
mouth, drank freely and exultingly ex-
claimed, Now I am satisfied 7 DR.. J.
T.. Turner relates a case of gentleman
who, while under treatment for inebri-
ely, during four weeks secretly drsnk
the alconol from six Jars containing
morbid specimens. On asking Linn
why he committed this loathsome act,