Litchfield enquirer., 1877-01-11
WHOLE NO. 2641.

cess Ot prudence on the one nonQ, or want of it on the other. In women of culture, it should be noted, drunkenness, after it exists, is usually disease, rarely Q vice. Female inebriates, though not so abun- dant as reports would have us believe, arc yet frequent enough, both in England and America.
 This method of augmentation seems to drive us without chance of escape to- wards the conclusion that. modern civili- zation, particularly since the time of the railroad, the telegraph, and the news paper, has tended to develop new forms of nervous disease, as we'll as general ner- vous impressibility, among all the brain working and indoor classes.
 This effect of civilization is most con- spicuous in the northern and western part of the United States. The reasons for this are manifold. When one is cast away on an unknown land, the first in- quiry is, not what is the geology of tho region, but what. shall be had for break fast, and until the first meal is made sure there will be much work and worry. For over two eenturie8 the American people have been trying to get something to eat, and, as is natural. there has been great fear lest the pursuit would fail. The ner- vousness of our people. which is unprec- edented in the history of nations, takes it's root in this fact, and is nourished by @ complex variety of influences. The pe- culiar dryness of our climate as distin- guished from that of Europe, feature which is common to nearly every section. and is particularly noticeable in Califor- mia, together with alterations of extreme heat and extreme cold, tend by excess of stimulation to produce the condition of exhaustion which is so common among us. A moist atmosphere, and climate uniformly hot, have directly opposite or sedative effect; hence we find far less of ofnervousness in the south than in the north. Hay. fever, for example, good type of functional nervous disorders, di. minishes by quite regular gradations Rs comparatively rare; and sufferers from this disease, like nervous victims in gem eral. are likely to be benefited by a res- idence south. The southerners can drink more alcoholic liquor without at once feeling or showing the effects of it, than the norLherners; and throughout the south, coffee can be used much more free ly than here. Among the better classes of the south there is more drinking, but less inebriety, than among the same class es in the north. In New York there is more of total abstinence and more ine- brity than in New Orleans.
 In opposition to all this course of req soning, it may be urged that brain work CTS are much longer lived thin muscle workers, and that longevity increases with civilization, and is highest among the most civilized classes. These points must be admitted; they seem to me to be established absolutely by researches which I made years ago, and which I | have published elsewhere (Trans. Am. Public Health Ass, vol I); but longevity is only one element of health: it may con- sist, as all observers know, with manifold diseases. and with the highest nervous | impressibility. Sensitiveness of constltu- tion is indeed an aid to longevity, and in various ways; it compels caution makes imperative the avoidance of evil habits, and early warns us of the approach of peril. Bulwer wisely says that it needs strong man to be dissipated. AnOthere com. pensation of these nervous disorders is, that they act, or seem to act, as anti dotes to many acute and inhammatory disorders which are likely to prove fatal, and some of which seem to diminish in frequency as nervous troubles increase.
 Probably no great class of people in the world live longer than the professional and business men of America-the very class among whom these nervous disor- ders are so often found, the class that supplies the victims for our inebriate | asYlums.
 l To find the cause of disease is not of necessity to find the cure, but the cause indicates the direction where we are to look for cure. Specifics for constitu- tional disorders are only looked for by | those in whom survive the superstitious of onr ancestors. There can be no spe- cific for inebrity; there is no special an- tidote that will remove it from the nation. Even if the alcoholic liquors of the world were annihilated. a vast array of stimu- lants and narcotics are ready to take their place; already, indeed, chloral inebrity is
 becoming sufficiently common to excite
 attention.
 The first step in the treatment of ine-
 brity, is the confinement of the patient in some institution where alcoholic liquors cannot be obtained; this is the object of this Association. Confinement does for the inebriate even more than it does for the insane; in many cases of inebrity 1t is more,indispensible than in many cases of insanity. As the neuralgia sufferer some times finds it of advantage to go to some 1 climate where he shall not be exposed to dampness and cold, SO the inebriate often needs to put himself where alcohol cannot reach him; the sight of it, or the smell of it, will excite all the symptoms.
 Beside this negative measure, positive | treatment is oftentimes required. Seda- tives and tonics and nutritious food may be needed, as in the case of allied disOr- ders, to build up the system after the wonted stimulus has been withdrawn.
 Inebrity has been especially observed in America, because, like other nerve maladies, it is especially frequent here. It is for this reason mainly that asyllms for inebriates were first organized Tn this country. England, however, is feellng the same need, and is beginning to follow our example,
 As means of prevention, abstinence from the. habit of drinking is to be en- forced. Such abstinence may not have been necessary for our fathers, but it is rendered necessary for Q large body of the Awerican people on account of our greater nervous susceptibility. It is possi- ble to take chloral or opium withoueform- ing the habit of taking these substances. In certain countries and climates where the nervous system Is strong and the tenn perature more equable than with us. in what I sometimes call the temperate belt of the world, including Spain, Italy,
 CONCLUDED ON FOURTH PAGE
 T know not where to find better demonatratsopoS oS the lack of logical ana scientific training among ed- ucated men, than in the published reports of the dis cusson on this question of the increase of nervous diseases at the recent meeting of the Interpationa Medical Congress. While the weight of opinion. so far that goes in favor of the views avo,atea