The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1877-02-22
From the Scientific American. j
Inebriety as a Disease.

Ethically, there is but oRe view to
take Of inebriety; and that necessarily
involves unsparing condemnation of the
practice, and earnest endeavors on the
| part of society to reclaim those ad-
dicted to it. But Science, on the other
hand. draws a broad distinction between
| drunkenness as a vice and drunkenness
as n disease. The man who drinks for
pleasure, it holds. may look for benefit in
the counsels Of others or in his own
strength of will; but he who drinks be-
cause he cannot help il, being led by an
irresistible impulse, is a sick man, and
needs not a temperance pledge but a
physician. 1t is in this last aspect that
we propose to consider the assertion,
quoted from a daily journal, that "intem-
perance Is a growing vice. bearing con-
stantly heavier upon the rising genera
tion," and incidentally the subject of in
ebriety generally in this country.
DR.. George NJ Beard, of this city, not
long since delivered, before the Ameri-
can Association for the Cure of Inebri-
ates, an address on the causes OF the re-
cent increase of inebriety in America"
in which he embOdies many Of the con-
clusions which medical mel have reach
ed relative to the disease superinduced
by alcohol. Inebriety he holds to be a
functional disease Of the nervous system,
and should be treated on the same prin-
ciple as other nervous diseases. II be-
comes classed, therefore, with dyspepsia
and neuralgia; and like neurosis, il pos
sesses periodicity, and-the fact is a
startling one-is hereditary. When he
reditary, it is all the harder to combat
in conformity with the laws Of inherit
ance, it may take the place Of other dis
orders, or may, in turn, lead to them;
and it often conduces to various forms Of
insanity. The periodicity of the desire
for liquor, the feeling which impels the
drunkard who has abstained for a certain
period to enter upon prolonged spree
is too well known to need more than
mere reference.
1t is a curious and somewhat paradox
ical circumstance that, while drunken
ness as a vice-public opinion to the con-
trary notwithstalding-is actually de.
creasing. the disease of inebriety is on
| the increase. There never was a time"
says DR.. Beard, "In the history of our
race, when in. proportion to the popula-
tion there was so little intemperance and
so little drinking among the higher
| classes as to-day" The nervous systems
of Americans are now such that we can
not bear alcohol as our fathers could
/ and there is no doubt but that the efforts
of reformers aud the general progress Of
culture has exercised a potent effect to-
ward temperance. Cases of drunken
ness were rare among the thousands who
visited the Centennial But on the other
hand that very heightened nervous sensi-
/ tiveness, which preveLts our indulging in
alcohol for pleasure, equally heightens
/ the susceptibility to nervous diseases /;
I Of afrTr 81 hi Il
cred it is well known the increase of late
years has been marked.
IL is not necessary here to repeat the
facts, which every observer Of American
habits has noted over and over again, in
order to prove that we live too rapidly,
for the pursuit Of wealth, we concentrate
an enormous quantity and intense quail
ty of work; we carry the seriousness Of
| labor into our amusements we crave
the sensational and the fever Of constant
! excitement; and under the terrible tax
put upon it, the nervous force necessarily
| weakens. Thus in accordance with all
analogies, nervous diseases increase with
the progress of modern civilization and
hence the greater prevalence Of the
nervous disease known as inebriety dur
ing the present time.
DIR. Resrd further supports his views
by inductiye reason based upon extended
examination. By comparing the higher
and lower classes, he shows that, among
tho latter, such functional nervous dis
eases as sick headache, neuralgia, and
hay fever are wanting; while the vice OF
drunkenness abounds in its most revolt
ing aspects. Comparing the prevalence
Of functional nervous maladies now with
the same half a century ago, he points
out various diseases, such as hay fever
now common but then unknown. lie
! also suggests various refnements in