Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-08-28
VICTIMS OF ALCOHOL.
The Identity Existing Between Insauit
and Chronic Inobriety,

The Identity Existing Between insanity
and Chronic Inobriety.
What Is called the jurisprudence Of inc.
briefly is new department of medico-legal
science that offers material for entertain
ing speculation, and develops a new and
interesting phase Of the much-discussed
liquor question. DR.. T. D. Crothers, editor
OF the Journal of lnebriety, has attempted
to establish an identity between insanity
and alcoholism Of sufficiently close char
acter to warrant radical departure from
existing judicial methods In the treatment
Of criminals whose lawlessnesS is mani
Tested under the influence of liquor. Enough
disputation over such criminals has oc-
Cured recently, says the Boston Herald,
to give DR.. Crother's views the merit at
least Of timeliness, and throughout the
country there are enough cases of the char
acter that he treats of pending judicial de-
cision to make peculiarly interesting any
suggestions in the line of q change of judi
cial method.
The three theories which the medical
gentleman pointed out in his address on
"Medico Legal Problems of Inebriety" be-
fore the Massachusetts Medical Society as
prevailing in the treatment of alcoholic
criminals are these: The ethical and moral
view, which holds that drunkenness is an
indication Of personal depravity, that it de-
velops along the line of animal qualification,
and that 1t should receive the most positive
censure and punishment of ecclesiastical
and lay power. The legal view was next
cited, as that which assumes that inebrietv
Is the manifestation of a lawless instinct
that Is essentially hostile to the spirit of law
and order, and that as such 1t ought to be
severely punished. The next theory, which
IS the one that elicits DR.. Crother's appro-
baton and support, is the scientific and
medical view which considers the appetite
for intoxicsnts manifestation of consti-
tutional disorder, which may be due to a
multitude Of causes for which the victim
may not in any sense be responsible II
may symptom or coincident of insanity,
or insanity in turn may be a symptom of in
ebriety. Medico-legally this theory would
regard the drunkRrd as incapacitated for
action involving consecutive conscious
effort OF reasoning and reasonable nature.
The acceptance of this view would estab-
lish new method of judicial treatment
for drunken criminals or criminals with de-
fined alcoholic taste and tendency. Il
would practically abolish the penal judg-
ment, which is often so hard on the victim
of alcohol, and the alcoholic maniac, as he
would be called, would be treated on thera-
peutic grounds by sympathetic scientists.
The fundamental spirit of this theory is that
physical causes are accountable for the al
coholic habit, and that only by treat
ment based on physical principles
can the dread m2lady be eradicat-
ed. The insanity of the victim
Of drink must be assumed, and the burden of
proof is on the prosecution to prove that the
prisoner is sane, the natural and proper as
sumption being in the opposite direction.
Given facts reasonably accurate, the plain
statement that drunkard is lunatic is it
Sc II evidence of the kind that lawyers call
prima facie. Nevertheless, the sentiment
Of the judicial powers is frequently mani
tested in contradiction of this idea and one