Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-12-11
Habitual Drunkenness.

"A controversy sprung up In Lon
don while the hAbitual drunkards
bill was pending in Parliament, a. to
whether drunkenness was, In all cases,
disease. DR.. Charles Bucknill, f. r.
s., maintained that while the appe-
tite for drink in some cases was inher-
tied, drunkenness was generally q
vice, not disease. His arguments on
this head provoked number of
sharp criticisms, in Parliament and
out, and he replied sharply. His let.
tors have now been collected in thin
volume and published by Macmillan
& Co.
DR.. Bucknill's theory is in opposi.
ton to that of most medical men in
this country. The important Gomez
quences OF it is that pathological
treatment Of drunkenness 10 absurd,
and institutions for the cure of drunk
enness had best be at once abandoned.
DR.. Bucknill does not shrink from &C.
cepting this conclusion. He has Wis
tied nearly all the so.called inebriate
asylums in this country, and he be-
lieves that with the exception of q re-
formstory in Philadelphia, which
does not pretend to cure drunkenness,
they are fraudulent or ineficaciOas,
or both. In most Of them, he learned
from personal observation, the pa
tients could and did obtain as much
liquor as they desired. In some In.
stances, patients were detained un-
justly to promote the designs OF their
relatives upon their property; in 9TH
ers, the restraint exercised upon them
was merely nominal, but In all the
evidences of improvement were want
ing. "My own impressions of the in
ebriate asylums of America" writes
DR.. Bucknill, "are most unfavorable.
l believe the treatment of drunksrds
tor the cure of their supposed dis.
ease to be unsound from top to bot.
tom and every where, make no ex.
ception. The State Inebri.
ate Asylum at Media has been cup
pressed because it was said to be a
failure. The New York Inebriate
Asylum at Wards Island has been
ordered to be suppressed for the
same reason. The Government at Al
bauy has consented to give the Bing.
hampton Asylum trial for one year
more, after which time, unless 1t re.
deems it's character, the building 10 to
be devoted to other purposes" OF
Binghampton DR.. Bucknill writes
''lt has been q scandal from its incep
tion. The utter hollo wness,
or rather the total absence, Of any at
tempt at discipline and treatment was
most obvious" -
DR.. Bucknill regards habitual
drunkenness as an incurable vice II
can be restrained only, he believes, BY
punishment. Confinement is often q
hardship to drunkard's family, but
tino snd imprisonment for every case
Of drunkenness would, Or. Buckniil
believes, be more beneficial to the
community "a whole than any sys.
TEN Of pampcring in public institu.
tions. Where tried this remedy has
been known to work remarkable
changes In the habits Of drinking
men. 1t is, however, q dreary out.
look that DR.. Bucknil' presents. Ha.
bitna! drunkards, he says, must and
will kill themselves and 1t will be
better for them to do SO, and leave
:heir places and possessions TO others
unVtu "Vbtu5 Ok tucius AEuuAcuHcet,
again, Ia a direct cause Of sterility
and 40 isa new and awful example OF
the Survival of the Fittest.
For all this, DR.. Bucknill does not
believe that spiri,uous liquors are
never useful. They do In some in
stances "knit up the raveled sleeve OF
care" Alcohol IL, In some conditions
Of the body, food. He has himself
no doubt that . moderate use of fer
mented drink is useful in the treat
ment Of mental disease. "As alcohol,
by causing partial paralysis of the
nervous mechanism, will sometimes
offend the shock of physical injury
which would otherwise be fatal, it
will deaden the blow Of mental pain,
which would otherwise destroy the
reason. But he would not be mis-.
represented as recommending strong
drink as remedy for grief and care
when they threaten sanity. Though
1t is such remedy. 1t is most unsafe
one" Though there are possible oc-
casions of its use, "it more commonly
enters a. an evil spirit into herd of
human spirits seeking their own de-
struction.0