The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-06-02
PRIVATE RETREATS IN DEMAND.
How Alcoholism and the Opium
Habit are Cured.

The alarming increase in nervous and
mental disorders, consequent upon the
habitual use of stimulants and narcotics,
has resulted in a corresponding increase of
private retreats within the last year.
Though given the less offensive titles of
retreats and ''homes, these places are
really nothing more or less than Warehouses,
where patients are placed under medical
surveillance. They flourish in the rural
districts, but pay best when near some me-
tropolis. New Jersey has many of these
homes, where the unfortunates from New
York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Mary
land find refuge Connecticut and Rhode
Island offer like Accommodations to New
England patrons, while Nebraska is the
favored State for victims of diseased minds
in the West The South is as yet compare
lively unprovided in this peculiar though
it is q noticeable fact that this section of the
country sends as many patients to the New
Jersey institutions us any other. Although
all classes of patients are admitted to these
reformatories, the majority of them are
treated for chronic alcoholism. Opium and
morphine eaters come next on the list, while
the "hopelessly 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 retreat
where he remains with his tongue hanging
out of his mouth in anxiety for one drop of
whiskey until it is time for him to return
from his trip abroad. This usually takes
about six weeks.
There are as many ways of treating con-
firmed drunkards and opium eaters as there
stefan to reporter recently. !" If little
judgment is used they can be cured and
that too quite thoroughly They imagine
they must have their favorite stimulant and
if possible they will get it. Some physicians
use the padded cell. The poor inebriate is
brought in suffering with the delirium tire,
mems. After large doses of bromide OF
potassium have been forced down the poor
fellows throat he is thrown into the padded
cell, where he groans and means, for days
sometimes, in despair. Often times the
poor wretch beats his head against his cell
walls in his frenzy. Such treatment is
positively cruel, and patients many times
are seriously injured The theory of stop
mans whiskey and he won't get drunk
may be very good as theory, but it does
not stand n practical test. To suddenly
stop anything to which the system has long
been accustomed, is a serious thing. The
most judcious and humane plan is to grad
ually decrease the amount of patients
stimulant until lie can do without it alto
gether. This accomplished the treatment
proper begins. The drunkard is not cured
when he finds he can exist comfortably
without his glass Neither is he ready to
be discharged. Unless his impoverished
system be built up six months after he
leaves the institution he will be as before
he entered. He requires 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 innocuous white
substance, 80 ms to keep up the size of the
dose in appearance, until finally the patient,
instead of taking morphine is taking regu-
lar doses of some effective tonic and he il
soon in condition to leave the institution.
Women addicted to the opium habit
arc the hardest class of patients to treat.
They are naturally more delicately organic
ed than men aud it requires much longer
time TO cure them. Unlike the men how
ever, a woman once cured seldom has re-
lapse"