The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-06-26
POPULAR METHODS
For Reforming Inebriates and
Their Dangers,

-
yearly returns ofthe causes of death
proves plainly enough that there is q
roya road out Of the captivity OF alec
mol.
The treatment adopted by mos
physicians is to entirely withhold tn
exciting cause, to give nouEishini
food. nerVines and tonics and to al
low the system free field for the &C
ton OF its marveloasly active recu.
perstive powers. Of the popular rem
edies for the habit administered TO
the most part by the wives, mother
or sisters of the suferers-few achiev,
any permanent success, though they
may appear for time to be workins
well. Some of these systems of cure
are peculiar in their action, the doses
being intended to influence the
moral or intellectual nature of the
drunkard. while others are expected
to cause the stomach 10 reject liquor
or compel the nervous system to alb
hor 1t. The more ambitious popular
remedies are destined to intimidate
the patient and create superstitions
fear Of alcohol. The latter ia the most
illogical remedy, as it tends through
lts severe action upon the nerve CEN
ters to develop the very excitement
which it is the aim of all treatmen,
for dipsomania to allya.
These popular methods are often
as harmless as they are ineffi cacious,
being of the kind OF which it may
be said that if they do no good they
will work no injury. 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 danger.
Perhaps the most hazardous OF all
the popular remedies for drunkenness
is the one to which the female mind
has become most largely attached,
probably because its administration
comes directly witbing her own prov
ince. It is the idea of mixing slco.
hol with all of the patisnt's food and
drink until both BODY and mind repel
it, or he becomes 90 thoroughly dis
gusted with this taste and 0dor as to
remain thereafter forever wesned
from it.
That this method is extremely dan
gerous, and that il is frequently fol-
lowed by brain affections and loss OF
life itself. is unquestionable. Where
death has superVened, is is oitener at
tributed to the previous drunkenness
than to the remedy, and this ia prob
ably the reason why the method has
not yet lost its popularity among
those who are unable to trace the
course of disease induced by drunk
ennes.
DR.. T. D. Ofothers calls attention
TO the fact, in recent paper upon
the sablect, that be received letter
from an Ohio physician in which it
ia related that a lady in his neighbor-
hood had tried the plan of saturstiDg
The food with alcohol upon al inebrl
ate husband. The result was to de-
7elop q serious mania after FIVE days
Of treatment, and the mans COM
nitment to al insane asylum as a
dangerous person.
DR.. Beike, a Swedish physician,
las given an account of s,'plan as tes
ed II stockholm several years ago,
although no accurate knowledge Of
ts result appears thus far to have
cached the popular mind through
Mr. ncYjodical IiserAtuYa
A clergyman in Sweden, who was
Ilso a physician and man OF wealth,
obtained permission from the author
ties to receive inebriates in his home |
or treatment by this method. Three |
chronic cases we're put under his
,harge. The patients were given ]
brandy in all their food sDd drink, |
md were not allowed to take any !
orm OF food that vas not saturated
With some form of alcohol. Each |
patient was given the kind OF spirits
le bad used commonly. in addition
0 the brandy. In the course OF two
months six patients were received
md treated on this plan. One OF
hem died two weeks after admission
4 apoplexy or cerebral hemorr hage;
NO developed into dangerous cases
1 Gelirium tremens and were sent to
be hospital; the fourth patient be
anne violently uelirlous aud destruc-
we in bic mania. and vas committed
} an insaDe asylum; the other two
eemed to have gone on quietly, in 3
ondition OF semi stupor or alcoholic
arcolism. The authorities ipteriered
ID the clergyman wa forced to
lovs away to escape persecution
ON the indignant friends OF the pa
ents.
In the year 1860 DR.. Brown wrote =
} the London Times that he had
led this plan OF treatment for two
avs. in three cases, but the effects
ERE SO alarming that he gave II
p.
Other physicians, successors to the
ergyman physician of Stockholm,
ave, here. and there, approved OF
lie plan, for DR.. Crothers tells US he
as once informed by a physician
lat the treatment was successful in
lebriety. It is not likely that either
'r. CrOthers or many other pbysic-