The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-04-23
WILL HE DRINK WINE?

le following essay, which is of pc
cuI-lr interest just now, in view of the
present agitation OF the temperance
question, was read by DR.. Swan NJ.
Burnett, of Knoxville, before the Ten.
nessee Medical Society, the subject of
the essay being Dipsomania":
VIII the coming man drink wine?"
A question more pregnant of interest,
or more important in it's 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 investigation,
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
lntemperance, we have trusted to the
Influences Of moral reformers and leg
Islatlve enactments long enough to have
demonstrated their utter futiIity.
Statistics show that, IN spite of tenn
peranCe organizations, Ito say nothing
OF crusaders) and Maine IiquOur laws,
the vice of intemperance is as rampant
IL our land as ever before. We cannot,
then, look to these for any help in stay
ing its progress, but must revert to the
scientific investigator who shall study
the subject IN all its bearings, hu2t out
its causes, and mark out its natural his
tory, just as he would that of any other
form of disease.
6 1t has always been thus in the his
tory Of the world. When pestilence
has stalked abroad, leaving death and
devastation IN it's train, efforts were
first made TO stop its onward march by
prayers and iUcantatiOns and later, by
Ill-advised legislation. It was only,
however, when the subject was handed
over to the scientist, who sought the
1O7l8 ct OrigO and applied his remedy
thereto, that any ameiiOration was OBJ
tanned. And thus, it seems, must be
the case with intemperance, which in
its effects is as terrible as the 'pesti-
lence that walked IN darkness"
g 1t 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-
perance upon which we have the honor
" IGEbOiB " yOus WIS III pSOLlduld.
"The first question that presents it
self is, is there such an a8e,tiOn as
dipsOmania per Sc 2 This must be an
swered jya Ij71li11e, for if there is not,
any further investigation will be only a
loss Of time and labor.
cat present the opinion on this point,
of the majority of those who have made
the subject of inebFiety in its various
forms a special study, seems to be
fixed, and the eneral verdict is in IA
vor Of the existence of a true mania for
drink.
CDR. Morgan, in recent work on
alcoholism, its various form, Ctc., "
says, that dipsomania is distinct form
of instructive mOno-mania. QuOtin
Trilah, he says that drunkards are men
who get drunk when they get the
chance of drinking, dipsOmanics 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, DR..
George Burr communicates in a paper
on the insanity of inebriety' several
interesting cases IN point.
CDR. Bush records a case in which he
saws. in reference to an habitual drunk
ard in Philadelphia, who, when
strongly urged by one of his friends to
leave of drinking, replied, were q keg
of rum in one corner of a room, snd
were cannon constantly discharging
balls between me and It, I couldnot re-
frain from passing before that cannon
in order 60 get at the rum. DR..
NcNeish 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 charac-