The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-04-30
Popular Methods for Reforming Inc.
briates and Their Dangers.

~ Il n
The methods, both popular and pro-
fessional, proposed for the cure Of
drunkenness are as many and varied as
the phases of the disease itself. But
marked increase in the number of its
victims-as shown in the yearly returns
OF the causes of death-proves plainly
enough that there is no royal road out
OF the captivity of alcohol.
The treatment adopted by most ply
sicians is to entirely withhold the excit-
ing cause, to give nourishing food,
nervines and tonics, and to allow the
system free field for the action of its
marvelously active recuperative powers.
VI the popular remedies for the habit
administered for the most part by the
wives, mothers or sisters of the sufferers
few achieve any permanent success,
though they may appear for time to
be working well. Some of these sys-
TENS OF cure are peculiar in their action,
the doses being intended to influence the
moral or intellectual nature of the drunk
ard, while Others are expected to cause
the stomach to reject liquor or compel
the nervous system to abhor it. The
more ambitious popular remedies are
destined to intimidate the patient and
create a superstitious fear of alcohol.
The latter is the most illogical remedy,
as it tends through its severe action up
on the nerve centers to develop the very
excitement which it is the aim of all
treatment for dipsomania to allay.
These popular methods are often as
harmless as they are inefficacious, being
OF the kind of which it may be said that
if they do no good they will work no in.
jury. A certain class of them are,
however, far from harmless, while the
use OF several of the most popular of
these means is attended with great dan.
ger. aHf rr .u lU sI9... .,if
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; probably
because its administration comes directly
withing her own province. 1t is the idea
Of mixing alcohol with all of the patients
food and drink until both body and
mind repel it, or he becomes so thor.
oughly disguised with its taste and odor
as to remain thereafter forever weaned
from it.
That this method is extremely dan
gerous, and that it is frequently fol,
lowed by brain affections and loss of life
itself, is unquestionable. Where death
has supervened, it is oftener attributed
to the previous drunkenness than to the
remedy, and this is probably the reason
why the method has not yet lost its pop
ularity among those who are unable to
trace the course of disease induced
by drunkenness. ....,.t ..-
DIR. L. ID. Crothers calls attention to
the fact, in recent paper upon the
subject, that he received letter from
an Ohio physician in which it is related
that lady in his neighborhood had tried
the plan of saturating the food with al.
cohol upon an inebriate husband. The
result was to develop serious mania af-
ter five days of treatment, and the mans
commitment to an insane asylum as
dangerous person.
DR.. Beike, Swedish physician, has
given an account of this plan as tested
in Stockholm several years ago, al.
though no accurate knowledge of its re.
suit appears thus far to have reached
the popular mind through our periodical
| literature.
A clergyman in Sweden, who was also
a physician and man of wealth, OBJ.
tanned permission from the authorities
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 and drink, and were not al
lowed to take any form of food that was
not saturated with some form of alcohol.
Each patient was given the kind of spir-
its he had used commonly, in addition
to the brandy. In the course of two
months six patients were received and
treated on this plan. One of them died
two weeks after admission, of apoplexy
or cerebral hemorrhage; two developed
into dangerous cases of delirium tremens
and were sent to the hospital; the fourth
patient became violently delirious and
destructive in his mania, and was COM
mitted to an insane asylum; the other
two seemed to have gone on quietly, in
q condition of semi-stupor or alcoholic
narcotism. The authorities interfered,
and the clergyman was forced to move
away to escape persecution from the in
dignant friends of the patients. ..-.-
In the year 1860 DR.. Brown wrote to
the London Times that he had tried this
plan of treatment for two days, in three
cases, but the effects were SO alarming
that he gave it up. ''.I.
Other physicians, successors to the
clergyman physician of Stockholm, have,
here and there, approved of the plan,
for DR. Crothers tells us that he was once
informed by a physician that the treat
ment was successful in inebriety. 1t is
not likely that either DR.. Crothers or
many other physicians agreed with him,
for cases of successful treatment by these
means are very seldom reported, and
there is not a particle of evidence to
show that the same result might not
have been achieved without employing
them. The evidence showing the great
danger of such treatment is clear and
conclusive. 1t will be perceived that
this method, if used by really compe.
tent physician, would not be SO likely to
result in danger to the patient as it Ger.
tainly is when pursued by the average
housewife. No really competent physi-
clan would continue the treatment af-
ter the first indication of a bad result;
the wife would not understand what
conditions constituted danger. bstll.T
On the whole, this means of REFORM
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