The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-06-03
PRIVATE RETREATS IN DEMAND.
Places Where the Victims OF Opium
and Alcohol Are Cured.

- hIc Nv OGViSiNO
Places Where the Victims Of Opium
and Alcohol Are Cured.
The alarming increase in nervous and
mental disorders, consequent upon the
habitual use of stimulants and narcot-
les has resulted in a corresponding in
crease of private retreats within the
last year, says The New York Mail and
Express. Though given the less often
sive title of retreats and ''homes,"
these places are really nothing moro
nor less than madhouses, where pa
tients are placed under medical surveil-
lance. They flourish in the rural dis
%tricts, but pay better when near to some
metropolis. New Jersey has many of
these homes, where the unfortunates
from New York, Pennsylvania, Della
ware, and Maryland find refuge. Con-
necticut and Rhode Island offer like ac-
commodations to New England patrons,
while Nebraska is the favored state for
victims of diseased minds in the west.
The south is as yet comparatively I'M
| DAofl Ill III pal JlCulslt UIOUOu IL ID
a noticeable fact that this section of the
country sends as many patients to the
New Jersey institutions as any other.
Although all classes of patients are adj
mitted to these ''reformatories,n the
majority of them are treated for chronic
alcoholism. Opium and morphine eat
ers come next on the list, while the
''hopelesslv insane" receive no treat
ment at all. The young man about
town, who has INDUCED his appetite TO
excess, ''goes to Europe for his health"
Europe in his case, however, is often
times a retreat, where he remains with
his tongue hanging out of his mouth in
anxiety for n drop of whisky until it
is time for him to return from his trip
abroad. This usually takes about six
weeks.
''Ihere are as many ways of treat
ing confirmed drunkards and opium
eaters as there are physicians to treat
them," said a physician to a reporter.
IF a little judgment is used they can
be erred, and that, too, quite thorough
ly. They imagine that they must have
their faVorite stimulant, and if posi-
BILE they will get it. Some physicians
use the padded cell. The poor inebriate
is brought in suffering with the delir-
ium tremens. After large doses of
bromide of potassium have been forced
down the poor fellows throat he is
thrown into the padded cell, where he
means and groans, for days sometimes,
in despair. Oftentimes the poor wretch
beats his head against his cell walls in
his frenzy. Such treatment is positive
ly cruel, and the patien:s many times
are seriously injured. !'he theory of
stop Il mans whisky and he won't get
drunk may be very god as a theory,
but it does not stand q practical test.
To suddenly stop anything to which the
system has been long accustomed is a
serious thing. The mos judicious and
humane plan is to gradually decrease
the amount of Il patient stimulant I'M
til he can do without it altogether. This
accomplished, the treatment proper be-
gins. The drunkard Is not cured when
he finds he can exist comfortably with
out his glass. Neither is he ready to
be discharged. Unless his impover-
ished system be built up, six months
after he leaves the institution he will be
as bad as before he entered. He re-
quices tonics until his system rallies
from the shock caused by the poison of
the alcohol. Morphine patients should
be fed on the drug regularly. The
doses should be decreased daily. This
can be done by substituting some in
white substance, SO as to keep
up the size of the dose in appearance,
until finally the patient, instead of
morphine, is taking regular
doses of some effective tonic, and he is
soon in 4 condition to leave The institu-
ton.
women addicted to the opium hab-
it are the hardest class of patients to
treat. They are naturally more deli
organized than men, and it re-
quires a much longer time to cure them.
Unlike the men, however, a woman
once cured seldom has Il relapse"