The record-union., 1891-08-28
en- Of this country, and / ha { a right to get

zen of this country. and i ha right to get
drunk If | wish TO do So"
OF course with that class of people there
is little to be done. The will to be cured
must, as rule, cooperate with the treat
ment. The same physician says that
with those who are open to suasion the
physician has greatest success; lit is
with these that the advice Of physician
in whom they have confidence, the en-
couragement he is able to give them, and
his charity toward their faiIings which
his knowledge of human nature gives
him, prove most successful. These are
the patients to whose honor we can trust
with the most confidence, and these are
theones who are most generally cured"
But DR.. Elon N. Carpenter, writing in
this same review. doubts if drunkenness
is to be cured by medicines and treat
ment. He holds it to be an open ques-
ton, and adds:
Perverted nutrition due to alcohol itself is
not easily remedied, the yearning demands of
the poison being difficult to destroy by medi-
clnes. Various antidotes have, however, been
suggested, and some are thought highly of
Nearly hVe centuries ago the old alchemist
Roger Bacon asserted that he had discovered
in Ou71Inl potable, or tincture of gold, the
Veritable elixir of life to drink of which
would restore age and decrepitude to youth.
and beauty, The properties of this wonder
ful tincture, however, have dissolved away
and disappeared, till now the only medical
value claimed for any combination of gold is
that of the chloride which is regarded as q
specific for the effects of drunkenness, one
physician claiming to have made permanent
cures of 95 per cent. of his cases. 1t is diff
cult to see how he can claim permanency of
cure for so large percentage unless the pa
tientS are all dead. The writer's experience
in many cases where he has administered the
chloride of gold has not convinced him of its
efficacy. Other drugs, extract of gentan, the
sulphate and also nitrate of strychnia, bromo-
potash, bromidia, ETC., have been urged SINH
larry as specifics for drunkenness. 1t is doubt
ful whether the physical action of any drug
taken for 81 brief period viii influence the in
diVidual to sober, temperate course of life
for series of years thereafter unless the state
of his mind and other conditions are all IA
vorable.
But this yielding of the will is what is
striven for in asylums where drunkards
are treated, 1t is not difficult to secure,
for as the inebriate's reason gains control
he usually welcomes gladly aids to his
reformation. The class to which DIR.
Hammond refers is not large. Take a
hundred confirmed drinkers, and in
sober moments put the question, and
ninety-eight of them will confess abhor-
renee of the condition to which drunken
ness brings them, and will embrace any
hope held out to them of emancipation
from the slavery of drink.
DIR. Cyrus Edison gives his views in the
same magazine, and believes with Dr.
Crothers that inebriacy is curable when
change of environment can be had. The
patient must be cut off from temptation.
and it is the impossibility of permanently
removing it that makes the cure of
drunkenness so very difficult He holds,
therefore, that while the asylums do a
world of good, the real cures OF drunken
ness are few. But despite so high an au-
thority, the burden of opinion, and the
experience Of asylums, sustain the theory
of durability. While some eminent doc
tors doubt, and others deny emphatically
that there is genuine, radical cure, yet it
is fact that of all those who are properly
treated scarcely ten per cent. go back to
their cups, and of the remainder not more
than twelve per cent. fail of return to
sound health, other physical and inde-
pendent disturbances being thrown out of
the account.