The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-07-12
Temperance Reading.
INSANITY AND INTEMPERANCE,
"A REVIEW BY REV. C. G. BArEMAN.1

|
one of sentimentalism; it can be moth
ing to-day if not practical. Its advo-
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
question not unworthy of their closest
attention. The causa causarum 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 q source of
menace and evil to the State. No cues
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. lectGred and lis
tened to, till now man who pro-
I 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-
! CCoSlNC uoC VI ulCOlOl contributes 10 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 constant waste
OF mind force going on in the Nation,
/ (Which seems pretty certain) as a re-
( suit OF intemperauce, then there would
! seem to be an additional reason for
supposing, from the standpoint of polit-
/ zeal economy, that such a 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 a 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 Asvlums, the history OF five
I hundred inebriateS. " etc, etc. As the
book is published by 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 df the volume. 1t is not
often one sees a book that was born in
d 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,w have to do entirely with
what he says 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.. ID. ID. Richardson, Physi-
| cian-in-Chief OF the Philadelphia Hos
pita, says Up. 13D: aside from her
/ edity, | believe there is no cause so fire.
quently productive of insanity as the
! excessive use of intoXicants." DR.. II.
NIathewson, of the Nebraska Asylum
| for the Insane. writes thus to the author:
81 can not give the statistics you ask.
I 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 Infirmary for the
Insane in Troy, n. Y, in 1882, out of
PA patients admitted, 10, 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
tents admitted, Z2j, or forty-five and
e-half per cent, We're 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
! idiotic born of Incorporate parents! AS
an indirect cause DR.. A. b. Richardson
| Up. 1907 of the Iowa Hospital, testies
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 Il sum total of one-half
! of all the patients admitted. 1t is true
the testimony of all the physicians
quo.ed is not equally strong, but we
7 Foo Il