The Opelousas courier., 1891-12-05
CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS
THE BI.cHLoRIDE OF GOLD TREAT
MENT OF DIPsoMANIA.

Remarkable Confessions From Peri
odical Drunkards who Have Beer
Cured-Method of Treatment.
The discussion of what is known as the
Kelley method of treating dipsomania,
or the insane craving for alcoholic stimu-
l%ation, has brought out a great number
of very remarkable confessions from the
victims of that disease. An association
of those who have been patients of DR..
Kelley at Dwight, in Illinois, has been
formed, and in their joy over their com
plete cure, as they regard it, they sacrl-
fee to duty and gratitude a natural de-
sire to avoid the public exposure of their
past habits. They make a clean breast
of their sufferings from the mania, tell
ing the story of their experiences with
extraordinary particularly and frank
ness.
The very general if not almost uni
form scientific doubt as to the complete
efficacy of the treatment by the bichloride
of gold has served to stimulate their zeal
in it's defence. They would oppose to
theory the actual results achieved in their
own cases, and there is no question as to
the honesty of their belief and the 1ln-
s%eltishness of their motives. Feeling
that their W cure Is permanent and
absolute, they wish to celebrate it for
the benefit of all mankind and for the
glory of the institution on which it was
secured.
One of the most interesting of these
many confessions is published in the
North american Re0ieW for October as a
| reply to scientific doubters who explained
their reasons for questioning the fact oil
the cure a few months ago. The author
is Mr.. John Flavel Mines, who was origi-
nalIy a clergyman, and who has done
writing under the pen name of "Fellx
! Oldboy." He says very frankly that for
twenty years he was a victim ct drink,
being one of the H'periodical drunkards,"
as they are called. That is, he would
go on for months entirely sober and
without any desire for alcohol, and
then suddenly and mysteriouly, to
use his words, ssthe fever for drink
would break loose and run riot in
my veins, aud I knew then that it must
have its course" 1t was not a matter of
weakness of will with him, but his yield
ing to the appetite was simply surrender
to q resistless power. To overcome the
mania he tried seclusion in al asylum or
his own home, but all to no avail. In
other words, he was a wretched victim of
dipsomania, and his career was we'll
| nigh ruined in consequence. Finally he
tried the Kelley treatment and was com
pletely and permanently cured, accord
ing to his own belief and his experience
up to this time.
In the institution at Dwight he found
a distinguished company. "My COM
rades," he says, "were lawyers, physi-
clans, editors, merchants, three Judges,
the Attorney-G General Of one of the new
States at the West, al ex-Congressman,
and an assorted lot of half a dozen State
Senator'S" Among the names he gives
by permission are Mr.. Opie Read, the
| editor of the Arkansaw Traosler;. George
Work, of New York; Judge Thayer, OF
Indiana, and State Senator Rust, of Wis
| cousin. They are all members of tho
Bichloride of Gold Club at Dwight, "a
voluntary association of the patients and
graduates of the Kelley Institute COM
posed last August of $50 members. Out
of this large total Hsonly six had come
under discipline and had their names
stricken from the rolls, that is, had
fallen back into drinking.
The method Of treatment has been de.
scribed too often to require that We
should say more than that it consists in
the hypodermic injection four times q
day of a bichloride of gold mixture
whose composition is the secret of DIR.
Kelley. Patients, or arriving, are al
lowed to drink as much whisky as they
want until the desire for it is changed
into loathing. They are required to
render absolute obedience to the doc
tors, and the drug produces a marked
physical transformation. CATER two.
weeks says Mr.. Mines, sssuddenly, as
il I had stepped out of the biaekness oil
an African jungle into the quiet sun
shine of Central Park, | broke out OF.
NV living tomb and knew that | was
cured. The knowledge came to me like
d b~enedictioa from heaven
Such expressions and confessions come
from the Dwight patients generally.
There is no question as to their assured
conviction that they are permanently
cured, and, as MIR. Mines says, they are
a very intelligent and brilliant body of
men, for among such this disease of Dip
somania seems to be especially rife.
They are men whose evidence deserves
much weight, and that they come out Of
the institution with their tendency to
alcoholic stimulation removed is lndis.
putable. II is a fact, too, that n Of
the great railroads of the West does not
hesitate to take back an employe dis
charged for drunkenness If he presents a
certificate oil. cure from the Dwight insti-
tuition. The only doubt is as to the
permanency of the cure, and that can
only be determined by the lapse oil time,
only after many years. The immediate
results, however, are so manifestly bene-
fetal that drunkards have good reason
for the h~opefnlness SO many OF them are
expressing that at last a remedy for their
distressing malady has been found.
But If DIR. Keeley's patients are thus
ready to help other sufferers from the
mania by exposing their own affection
because Of it, why does not he give the
composition of his mixture to the whole
medical world2 By SO doing he would
save himself from any suspicion Of
quackery, and bring his exact method OF
treatment under a scientific examination
which would be thorough and without