Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-01-22
BREAKING ALCOHOLICS GRIP.
The Successful Treatment Of Inebriate Pa
tients---A Home in which the Cure OF
Women as well as Men is Attempted.

tients---A Home in which the Cure of
Women as well as Men is Attempted.
The New York Sun tells us of visit
paid to an inebriates' home and what
was seen there "When man comes
here" said the superintendent, "suffer-
ing from acute alcoholism and in danger
of falling into delirium tremens, I put
him in here" and he threw open heavy
door, with small panel opening in it,
and showed fair sized room, comfort
ably but by no means lavishly furnished.
The window was protected by heavy
wire grating, admitting abundance of
air and light, but effectuallg providing
against the patient breaking the glass,
or throwing himself out in his delirium.
The door was padded with felt, and
when it was closed the chamber was per-
fectly sound proof. "Men on the verge
of delirium tremens are very sensitive to
noise. When / get them in bed sit
and talk with them till they fall asleep;
then I close the door and watch the
patient through the panel"
There are several cells constructed for
the treatment of delirium tremens
patients. In these there is little furni-
ture beyond the bed, and the windows
are doubly guarded; otherwise they are
not like the rooms already described.
Gases of death are said TO be exceedingly
rare in the institution, only occurring
when the patients are brought in so en-
feebled as to leave no chance for re-
covery.
For the most part the paying patients
are wealthy men, including lawyers,
doctors, merchants, and artists. Many
of them have, by their own consent,
been committed by their wives, and
more by. themselves. There are, be.
sides, great number of young unmar-
ried men, clerks, students, and rich
mems sons, who have voluntarily gone
to the inebriates' home. Married men
very ordinarily are nursed by their
wives, who remain with them in the
home, which provides quite as good ac-
commodation as first-class hotel. But
there are other women in the institution
besides those who go there voluntarily
to attend upon their husbands. Many
of the best and most luxuriously fur
nished apartments are occupied by
ladies, whose friends suppose them to
be travelling for the benefit of their
health, or visiting relations in tho coun-
try. 81 don't at all like female pa
tients, said the superintendent; "one
OF them causes more trouble and anxiety
than dozen men. Even those who oc-
cupy the best rooms in the front of the
house, and pay large prices for their ac-
commodation, seem to have little or no
sense of propriety. I have to watch
constantly to prevent them from stand
ing at the windows, waving their hand
kerchiefs, and flirting with the male in
mates walking below. Occasionally |
have been obliged to punish them for
doing this by removing them to the
back of the house and placing them
among the female non-paying patients.
But my influence among them is very
slight, and I seldom have an opportu-
nifty to effect cure. Their husbands
bring them here in carriages, and COM
nit them for six months or SO, they CIV
ing their consent freely because they
know there would be no use in refusing
it. But in few days their husbands
come to see them, and they tell them
they are perfectly cured. After two or
three visits the gentlemen usually yield
and take them home, not unfrequently
to bring them back again in four or five
months"