New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-19
H1BITUAL DRUNKENNESS.

an interesting paper on Habitual Drunken
ness,n by can Habitual Drunkard." The
text taken is the practical usefulness of the
Habitual Drunkards Act of 1879, under
which tho establishment Of retreats for
habitual drunkards was authorized, the ar
rangement being that such persons as wished
TO be cured should themselves sign GER
tifcate authorizing the keeper of retreat
to detain them during given period, they
to be deprived as far as possible Of all oppor-
tunity to drink during this time Of seclusion.
Tho law is as yet in the experimental stage,
only five retreats having been opened under
it. The data for definite conclusions as to
the effectiveness of the system are not yet
available. Many hndrances to success have
been developed in practice, the most serious
being the persistent efforts Of class OF
habitual drunkards to break the regulations
whose maintenance in their integrity can
alone save the victims Of dipsomania. The
writer IF "The Westminster Review article
is an educated and intelligent man. He in
herited the appetite for drink, and he
sketches his life, showing how position after
position was lost through his growing weak
ness. until he was reduced to penury from
4 condition Of comparative aflluence.
The passion which ruined him he describes
as irresistible His own experience leads him
TO the belief that dipsomania is ga disease
OF the mind, due to physical causes, the vic
tins of which are Incapable of managing
themselves or their affairs" The habitual
drlnkard, he holds, is being who has I'M
dergOne n structural change for the worse OF
the tissues of several of the most important
organs of the body" The common theory
that the exercise Of vOlition will overcome
the passion for drink he considers falacious,
because as he says, the habitual drunkard is
"that man or woman whose craving for in
toxcants is greater than the power of the
will TO resist drinking them, when that power
is excrted at its maximum strength" In
other words, the will power of the habitual
drunllard is ubordnated to the ycarning for
drink. One might say that his will power
itself was intoxicated, and this statement
would be physiologically correct. That 1T
should be possible by any means to overcome
this dominant passion may seem doubtful.
Most people know drinkers who, after sue
ceeding in abstaining for time relapse and
become more abandoned to the craving than
before. This being the case the question is,
can q period of deprivation so renew the
tissues that the inherited faint will be felt
no more? If it can, what about the infancy
and youth Of the dipsomaniac, when often for
fifteen or more years the drink passion is
latent and unsupported? Can a victim Of
heredity expect that his tissues will at any
subsequent period of life be better able to
resist the craving than they were before he
had ever tasted intOXicants?
"The Review writer believes that he is
cured after several months in a retreat. He
may be, and we sincerely hope he is, but how
is il possible for him to speak confidently on
that point after his own experience? III his
will was too weak to withstand temptation at
its first appearance, can it be believed that 1t
is strong enough to bear him scatheless through
possible future temptations reinforced, If not
Inv the physical habitude, at least by the
memories. of repeated failures to resist ?
These are weighty considerations, but yet 1t
may be admitted that difficult and even dis
couraging as the work of redemption appears
systematic deprivation of liquor seems prac-
ticaly indispensable to any scheme OF reform
To treat dipsomana as disease, in short, is
to open the door to effective remedies Tor IL
by bringing it into the domain OF medical
science. The latter may and probably has,
long and severe task before it in searching out
the means Of curing what is at once mental
and bodily disease. But reconstructing
tbe tissues so that the mind may operate
through healthy organs certainly appears
thoroughly practical way Of treating dpso- |
mania. There never can be an infallible |
remedy for habitual drunkenness There |
will probably always be irremediable cases.
But when volition is not extinct or the repara-s
tive power Of nature exhausted as regards the |
renewal Of the diseased tissues, seclusion and |
abstinence assuredy offer the strongest hopes |
Of final rescue for the sufferers from this fear
fuI comDlaint.