The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1881-04-21
Cure for Drunkenness.

We are so perfectly convinced tina
not one man in 1000 has strength te
cure himself OF drunkenness after be
coming thoroughly saturated with IL
auor. that we desire to draw particular
attention to a prescription which sew
e al years ago was printed by the bcte"'
tfc 4mericua, which Is said to have
pro, ed a practical and efficient remedy
for the chronic love of strong drink II
is described as follows:
There Is a prescription In use III
England for the cure OF d~ruDkcbness'
by which thousands are said 10 have
been assisted In recovering themselves
The receipt came into notOrlety through
the efforts of John Vine Hall, comman
der of the u. eat E.sterG steamship.
He hal fallen lutO such habltual druuh
enness that his most earnest efforts To
reclaim himself proved %unavalllng. Al
length he sought the advice OF an emI
nent physician, who gave him a pre-
scription which he followed faithfully
for seven months, aud at the end ut
that time had lost ali desire for liquor,
although he had for many years been
led captive (Which he afterwards put
lishcd, and by which SO many d%runkards
have been assisted to reform, as follow
rs Ilphate Of iron, five grains peppe .
mint water, eleven drachms; Spirit 1
nutmeg, one drachm twice a day.
This preparation acts as a stimulant
and tonic, and partially supplies the
place of the accustomed liquor, and
prevents that absolute physical and
moral prostration that follows a sudden
breaking from the use OF stimulating
drinks
We commend this receipt to the con
sideration of our physicians and drug
gists. There are many men addicted
to strong drink, who are worthy objects
of commiseration, lost beyond their own
mental and moral powers for recupera-
ton and reform. If there is anything
in the world hat can help them out Of
the slough of despond in ehich they
find themselves, it is a blessing which
ought to be disseminated.
THE INEBRIATE ASYLUM CURE.
Your laboratory need contain only a
small quantity of cayenne pepper, a pot
of concentrated extract of beef, and a
few grains Of bromide Of potassium.
When the desire for alcoholic drinks
re ours, make a tea from the cayenne
pepper, as strong as can be taken with
any degree of comfort; sweeten it with
milk and sugar, and drink. This tea
will supply the same place that a glass
of liquor would fill, and will leave no in
furious effect behind. Repeated dali,
as often as the appetite returns, it viii
be but a few days before the sufferer
will have become disguised with the
taste of the pepper, and with the ap
pearance OF this disgust d slppears the
love OF liquor The fact is proved ev
cry day. The extract Of beef is to be
made into beef tea. according to the
directions on the pot, in such qIanii
ties as may be needed for the time lie
ing, and furnishes "a cheap easily III
gested and healthy nutriment, it being
made to stay on the stomach Which,
heavier articles Of food would be re
jected. The bromide of potassium i,
to be used carefully, and only in Csc
ot extreme nervousness, the dose being
ilom fifteen to twenty grains, dissolved
in water.
Perhaps the most hazardous of all the
popular remedies for drunkenness is the
one to which the female mind has be
come most largely attached. 1t i the
Idea OF mixing alcohol with all OF the
patient food and Drink until both body
and mind repel it, or he becomes so
thoroughly Disguised with its taste and
odOr as to remain thereafter forever
xeaned from it.
That this method is extremely dan
gerous, and that it is frequently follow
ed by brain affections and loss OF life
itself, is unquestionable. Where death
has supervened, it is oftener attributed
10 the previous drunkenness than to
the remedy, and this is probably the
reason why the method has not yet lost
Its popularity among those who are I'M
able to trade the course of diseases in
duced by drunkenness.
DIR. T. ID. Crothers calls attention to
the fact, in a recent paper upon the
subject, that he received a letter from
an Ohio physician in which it Is related
that a lady in his neighborhood had
tried the plan of saturating the food
with alcohol upon an inebriate husband.
The result was to develop a furious
mania after FIVE days of treatment, and
the mans commitment to an insane
asylum as a dangerous person.
DIR. Belke, a Swedish physician, has
given an account of this plan as tested
in Stockholm several years ago.
A clergyman in Sweden, who was
al.O a physician and a man of wealth
obtained permission from the authori-
ties to receive inebriates in his home for
treatment by this method. Three
chronic cases were put under his charge.
The patients were given brandy in all
their food aud drink, and were not al
lowed to take any form Of food that was
not saturated with some form of alec
hol. Each patient was given the kind
of spirits that he had used commonly,
IN addition to the brandy. In the
course of two months six patieuts were
received and treated on this plan. One
OF them died two weeks after admission.
OF apOplexy OF cerebral he%morrhage:
two developed into dangerous cases of
dellrlum tremens and were sent to the
hospital the fourth patient became
violently delirious and destructive in
his mania, and wa committed to an
insane asylum the other two seemed
to have gone on quietly, in a condition |
OF seml-stupOr or alcoholic narcotism.
The authorities interfered, and the
clergyman was forced to move away to
escape persecution from the indignant
friends of the patients.
In the year 1860 DR.. Brown wrote to
the London Times bat he had tried