Litchfield enquirer., 1877-01-04
A State Inebriate Asylum.

One of the most important measures coming before the legislature which com. mences it's regular session, this week, will be the question of a State appropriation to the Walnut Hill Iuebriate Asylum. This corporation organized over year l since, and funds to the amount of $21 ,625 have been raised by private subscription with which a farm of forty acres was bought on Walnut Hill, near Hartford !; | and now the institution needs state as- sistance for the erection of buildings on the site thus obtained which is thought to be very advantageous one. In addi- tion to cash subscriptions, some $40, 900 have been promised this Asylum by will It seems pretty evident, however, that this method for reform of inebriates, which is no longer an experiment, needs the assistance of the State for becoming of immediate use to the large and suffer ing class of our community which is now a source of weakness 10 the state and of untold suffering to the family.
 The second annual report of the Asy- lum at Walnut Hill IS now before us, cop- taining petition to the legislature and request that an appropriation of $25, ,0O0 be made for the erection of build. ings and the immediate utilization of the property already owned by the asylum. This asylum is not designed for the re- form of criminal inebriates-"for they cannot be cured without change in their whole moral nature." It is intended to meet the case of non-criminal inebriates, such as have lost control of their appe- tites from hereditary or other predispo- sition to inebrity, ,or from habits of indul- gence. This is class which are not off, ten reformed by mere moral suasion. They are treading the pitiless path to the drunkard's grave. They have passed the point where their drunkeness is vice and have reached the almost hopeless condition in which their drunkeuess is a disease. Their physical systems demand the accustomed stimulus with a force against which the will struggles in vain. The only hope of reform for person so diseased IS in the forced abstinence of an asylum till the physical system can adapt itself to the absence of stimulants. With renewed physical health the abnormal appetite for stimulus no longer exceeds the restraining power of firm will. The disease is thus brought under control. if not altogether cured; and in at least a third of the cases treated, as it appears from the experience of the inebriate asv- lums now in successful operation in oth. CT states. the patients are restored to lives of usefulness. We give the state
 ment of the report on this fundamental matter, in full:
 In the reports ofseven inebriate asylums for the year 1875, the lowest estimate of cures was thirty-three per cent, and the highest slxty-two per cent, the latter at Binghamton, N. Y. These accurate sta. tlstlcs indicated this percentage of those wno renamed cured or temperate after a period of five years or more. The perma. | ~~SoS OA~S va SAA0 0AcOAOCIs 1IhG OI0Gf 0lS. eases, is governed by subsequent condi- tions of feeble health and exposure to ex- citing causes. Early and sufficiently long continued treatment in a large proportion of cases results in positive cures. No other affection depending on the brain and nervous system is more curable.
 To weigh properly the usefulness of the proposed reform we must remember that the class thus saved from the lingering death of the drunkard is in a condition ordinarily reckoned as hopeless. Now and then cases of reform under special relie- ious or temperance effort do uudoubted- iy occur. Our own observation would lead us to believe that the proportion of drunkards thus. reformed is exceedingly smali-certainly not one in ten.
 l The only mode of reforming the ine-