The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-07-04
Temperance Reading.
INSANITY AND INTEMPBRANCR.

80 ~ - hOe PAdSllcdl. 1IS dQVO-
Gates can beg no longer the privilege
OF the public ear, in order that they
may, with dramatic elocution. play
upon the sympathies of the popular
heart. The publicist, economist and
financial philosopher regard it as n
question not unworthy of their closest
attention. The causa eausarum of race
and national deterioration and decay is
studied as never before. Men of mas
culine brains and public spirit claim
that aside from morals, whatever weak
ems the productive power of the citizen
or restraints the most enlarged growth
OF his every capacity, is a so1rce of
menace and evil to the State. No ques-
ton has been so thoroughly studied for
the past fifty years as that of Temper
ance. 1t has been preached and prayed,
sung and shouted. lectured and lis
tened to, till now a man who pro-
mulgates new idea in reference to it
is in positive danger of being immor-
talized for his brilliant discovery. The
latest phase of this subject is an attempt
to discover just to what extent the ex-
cessive use of alcohol contributes to the
prevalence of insanity.
1t has been asserted many times by
the advocates of total abstinence that
strong drink is largely responsible for
the rapid spread of insanity among the
American people. Now, if it can be
proved that there is a constant waste
OF mind force going on in the Nation,
(Which seems pretty certain) as a re-
suit Of intemperanee, then there would
seem to be an additional reason for
supposing, from the standpoint of polit-
ical economy, that such waste was
detrimental to the growth, progress and
perpetuity OF the State. For it is held
to be philosophically true that upon the
power of the citizen depends the mate
rial prosperity of the Commonwealth.
1t was with desire to refute the
the charge so often made, viz: that in
temperance produces to a great extent
the insanity of the country that Mr. G.
Thomann has written pamphlet of
some size, entitled Real and Imagin-
airy Effects of Intemperance," of which
one copy has been sent to the Peoples
Cause. The book is published by the
United States Brewery Association of
New York City, which is, of course, a
pledge Of good faith that the author is
in favor of-beer. The work purports
to contain "letters and statements
from superintendent of eighty Amer
lean Insane Asylums, the history of five
hundred inebriates. ETC., etc. As the
book is published by a Brewery Asso-
citation, every statement is necessarily
correct and none of the figures lie. We
therefore accept everything said as
thoroughly impartial, in Difference to
the birthplace of the volume. 1t is not
often one sees a book that was born in
30 brewery. We are not sure but the
author has immortalized himself. If the
statements upon the subject of insanity
are correct this is the best book of the
year for the Temperance cause; if false,
no great harm is done.
Passing over the first half of the
work, which is in many instances soph-
istical in argument and fictitious in his
torical data, we have to do entirely with
what hesays of the insane. The author
wishes to show that intoxicants do not
produce insanity to any great extent,
but we must say that the statistics he
cites, and the physicians he quotes, are
very damaging to his cause. We should
not care to be tried before Judge who
would pass sentence ere the testimony
was taken. This, in our opinion, is
just what his authorities do upon the
question of alcoholic insanity. We are
told that DR.. D. D. Richardson, Physi-
cian-in-Chief OF the Philadelphia Hos
pital, says Up. 1919: ''Aside from her.
edity, [ believe there is no cause so fire.
quently productive of insanity as the
excessive use of intoxicants. - DR.. Fl.
Mathewson, of the Nebraska Asylum
for the Insane, writes thus to the author:
Il can not give the statistics you ask.
| know it is bad enough-bad beyond
comprehension.
All the physicians whom the author
addressed for information were not
equally prepared to answer. with those
above mentioned, but nearly all point
out intemperance as an efficient cause
of insanity. We CLEAN some startling
facts from Mr.. Thomann's pages which
we wonder he did not break down I'M
der. At the Marshall lnfrmary for the
Insane in Troy, N. Y, in 1882. out of
274 patients admitted. 115, or nearly
forty-two per cent, were there from
drink. In the New York City Insane
Asylum in the year 1877, out Of 494 pa
tients admitted, 225, or forty-five aud
one half per cent, were insane through
drink. We select at random twenty
three asylums from the number he |
mentions, and we find that in the year
1888 they contained 1890 patients, or
nearly ten per cent. of the whole num-
Der of inmates. And this estimate, it
must be remembered, does not include
those in whom .''alcohol was an excit-
ing cause" or in other words who
were predisposed to insanity prior to
forming the habit; nor does it embrace
those who, though free from the habit
themselves, lost their minds through the |
habits OF others. This moreover, does
not even include the feeble-minded and |
idiotie born of intemperate p'arents As
an indirect cause DIR. A. B. Richardson |
Up. 1860 of the Iowa Hospital, testifies |
that twenty-five per cent. of the pa
tients were insane through drink as |
direct cause and twenty-five per cent. |
more as an indirect factor in their in |
sanity making a sum total of one-half |
of all the patients admitted. 1t is true
the testimony of all the physicians
quoted is not equally strong, but we
confess we have never read expert
testimony on an examination of a pa
tent SO uniformly agreed as this. The
preponderance of evidence is against
alcohol, though the author OF this
pamphlet has written in Che interest
of alcoholic beverage. We accept his
statements as inspired on insane
asylums and lunatics he has evidently
had excellent facilities for the study of
both. He has opened up a wide field Of
investigation and we can not see why
he should not push the inquiry a little
farther in the interest of Temperance.
There are many more asylums to
hear from, both in this country and inI
foreign lands. We can only say that
if this book proves anything, it proves
every thing for the authors opponents,
and we would kindly suggest that the
grinning skeleton Of the crazy man,
which he has drawn from the closet to
testify for Temperance, bodies no good
to the beer interest. -