The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-02-01
A PROPOSED WISE MODIFICATION.

A PROPOSED WISE MODIFICATION.
The last Legislature most recklessly
and unwisely provided for the location Of
a very expensive insane asylum at Ukiah,
in Mendocino county. We undertake to
say that such an institution was not then
and is not now needed; that true econ
omy would have dictated accommoda-
ton for increasing numbers of patients
in some one of the asylums already estab-
lished. The State has been extremely
liberal in providing these institutions, and
has at no time shown disposition to
neglect the unfortunates within her
bounds who are deprived of their reason.
Ukiah, and another in the southern por-
ton of the State. The step has been
taken and we must now make the best Of
it.
Now, let the Legislature examine and
ascertain if out of the wreckage of the
treasury something cannot be saved. We
treatment of alcoholism. Other States
and countries have such institutions, and
they have proved great blessings. Some
twenty years ago, under the management
of the famous DIR. Valentine Mott, New
York established the arst Inebriate's
Asylum in this country of a public char
Col nj
has proved so wise an investment that no
New Yorker has ever entertained the
thought of abandoning it. Several pri-
vate asylums of like character are MAIN
tanned at different points for those able to
pay roundly for treatment, and for thirty
years San Francisco has had an Inebri-
and shortly after receiving city aid, and
now supported mainly at city expense,
we believe. In Europe there are many
such asylums and they have all proved
benefcent institutions.
OF course it is unpleasant to confess
that in California there is need for such
IL
are confronted by the grim truth that al
coholism in California has become such an
evil that something in the name of COM
mon humanity is demanded as a corec-
tive-at least to mitigate the horrors of
the i'll. Under our present system there
is no remedy for drunkenness, and no
oil OF for hot -
finement in Jail, and to merit even that
removal from temptation the miserable
victim of drink must commit some
breach of the peace, some petty crime, or
in some way justify the courts in re-
straining him of his liberty, and when in
Jail he can have no treatment such as
medical science demonstrates is wise. In
ebriacy, in other words, is not treated in
California until it eliminates in ac-
tual insanity of type that appears to
be confirmed. But the medical faculty
has long since settled that confirmed
drunkenness, incapacity to resist tempta-
ton, slavishness to the appetite for strong
drink, is a disease, should be treated as
such, and is to great extent durable. No
man will be so bold as to deny that it is
better for the peace and order of society,
for the family of the victim, and for the
oncoming generation, that the drunkard
should be restrained of his liberty in
proper institution, and the disease that
affiicts him be treated as medical progress
suggests.
These grounds being undeniable, and
it being conceded that inebriacy is
prolific cause of insanity, let the Legis-
lature, as is proposed to it by citizens of
public spirit, by proper amendment of
the Act of two years ago, convert por-
ton of the Ukiah Branch Insane Asylum
into department for the reception, re-
straint and treatment of the class of peo-
pie, who if untreated and unrestrained
turn out to be recruits for the insane
asylums, inmates of prisons or occu-
pants of dishonorable graves. 1t fact, an
inebriate asylum is an insane asylum of
the order preventive of permanent in
sanity. Now while there can Bono possible
reasonable objection to the conversion of
portion of the Ukiah institution, as sug-
gested, there may arise local protest,
based upon the false assumption that
Ukiah will lose something if the modifi-
cation is made. Local considerations of
that order should have no place in State
consideration; but since human nature is