Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-01-10
= VICTIMS OF ALCOHOL.
The Identity Existing Between Insanity
aud Chronic Inebriety. $685..

The Identity Existing Between INSANITY
aud Chronic Inebriety. $685..
What Is called the Jurisprudence OF me
briefly is a new department OF medico-legal
science that offers material for entertain
ing speculation, and develops a new and
interesting phase OF the much-discussed
liouor question. DR.. T. d. Crothers, editor
Of the Journal Of Inebriety, has attempted
10 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,
70 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 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
DTBVhlllUR III Nnc bitablAAChb VI sAASSNS-AS
criminals are these: The ethical and moral
view. which holds that drunkenness is an
indication Of personal depravity, that it de-
yelops along the line Of animal qualification,
and that IL should receive the most positive
censure and punishment Of ecclesiastical
and lay power, The legal view Was next
cited as that which assumes that iuebriety
ia the manifestation Of a lawless instinct
that is essentially hostile TO the spirit Of law
and order, and that as such it ought TO be
severely punished. The next theory, which
in the one that elicits DIR. Crother's appro-
baton and support, is the scientific and
medical view which considers the appetite
for intoxlcauts a 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. 1t
| NAV be a symptom or coincident Of insanity,
| or insanity in turn may be symptom OF In
ebriety. Medico-egally this theory would
| regard the drunkard as incapactated for
| action involving consecutive conscious
| effort OF reasoning and reasonable nature.
| The acceptance Of this view would estab-
| lish a new method Of judicial treatme Mt
| for drunken criminals or criminals with de-
! fined alcoholic taste and tendency. II
would practically abolish the penal judg-
meut, 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 malady 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
D rima facie Nevertheless, the sentiment
Of the judicial powers is frequently mani
tested In contradiction Of this idea, and one
notable instance where an alleged inebriate
was hanged was cited by DIR. Crothers TO IL
lustrate the impression, erroneous he
claimed that a criminal under alcoholic in
iuence is cognizant Of and responsible for
his misdeeds.
John H. Swift shot his wife July 1887,
at Hartford, Conn. In December of the
same year he was tried ana sentenced 10 be
hanged a year later, April 3, 1889. The
Legislature was appealed to TO commute his
sentence to life Imprisonment. The Judi
ciary Committee made an exhaustive ex-
animation Of all evidence and new testimo-
ny offered, and reported in favor Of commu-
taton. Both houses of the Legislature
voted TO sustain the report, and commute
the sentence to life Imprisonment. An ad.
verse wave Of public sentiment caused the
Governor TO veto the action Of the Legisla-
ture, and 80 influenced the members of one
body that they failed TO sustain their former
vote. Hence Smith was hanged April Is,
1889. He was chronic inebriate and had
been drinking TO great excess for weeks be-
fore the murder. The defense claimed that
Swift was incapable Of deliberaton and pre-
meditation at the time of the crime, from
the effect OF continuous intoxication No
medical testimony was called. The prose-
cution claimed premeditation, malice and
10 full comprehension Of what he was doing.
DIR. Crothers cited this case as an in
stance Of hereditary alcoholism. Swift's
| father, who was an erratic man, had an
apoplectic seizure at twenty-four years OF
age. Swifts grandfather on his mothers
side was drinking man. His only son was
a chronic inehriate; the other four children,
of which Swift's mother was one, were all
exceedingly nervous and some Of them
hysterical. Swift himself was always a
weak child; had brain fever in infancy,
scarlatina and violent nasal hemorrhages
in youth. He had been in the reform school
a. Meridep, Conn, and in manhood was au
excessive drinker.