Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-01-21
The Heeley Cure.


well as the scientific world, and
looking the matter squarely in the
face it certainly does challenge the
close attention of every friend of
fallen humanity. Our readers are
acquainted with the enthusiastic
claims Of the defenders of the BIZ
chloride of gold treatment, so that
no full definition is necessary re-
garding the theory and its applica-
ton. Garrett decisions are
consequent upon the production of
proper testimony, and in this age
we cannot be deaf to the testimon-
les of those who have been benefit
ed by this treatment, inasmuch as
they claim full liberty from the
terrible scourge of drunkenness. If
we accept the testimonies Of enthu
siasts, most certainly a very bright
star of hope has arisen upon the
drunkards night, or if we receive
the verdict of conservative judges
who wait for a fuller trial of the
theory at least there is some escape
opened up for the victims of intox-
icants, and who knows but what
the little town Of Dwight, ILL.,, may
become famous in history, and the
name of Kelley go laundering
down the ages as that of man
whose benefactions to humanity in
his special line, Guido those who
have given to us; the uses of elect
ricity; and discovered how the
warm blood circulates the veins.
Time will test it, this is what tries
all things, good or bad in its alem-
bic. Whether it is to be numbered
with such semi-successes as the
Pasteur system of incubation, or
whether it will take its place among
irrational and exploded theories
like the recently advertised elixir
of Brown-Sequard, time will deter
mine. Though the discovery
should prove of the largest posi-
BILE value, it has not supplanted
any law of personal obligation, and
its relations to the moral phases of
the drink habit claim particular
notice.
We do not understand, though
the treatment should prove all that
its confident discoverer expects,
that the ethics of drunkenness
would be thereby changed. No
anathema upon drunkenness which
is written in the Holy Bible would
be striker from the sacred words
and the men who stagger on our
streets both Sunday and week day
alike would have far less excuses
for their indulgence in such bestial
habits.
Let it not be thought that Mr..
Kelley has come with a new evan
gel Of liberty for men, abrogating
the moral law, reducing drunken
ness to peccadillo, and promising
full restitution from Incorporate
causes for every drunkard. What
ever relief the new discovery may
bring to the besotted, it can never
rob his voice Of its moral quality
as long as the world endures.
The bi-chloride treatment be-
comes at the best an adjunct of
Divine grace to redeem the drunk
ard. What Christianity has done
for the world, history will prove,
though some have fallen who claim
ed supernatural support, they have
disproved no christian theory of
the Almighty help, nor invalidated
mems confidence in the supreme
remedy for alcoholism. However
good chemistry may be, it can
never supply the place of Divine
grace in mems struggles over the
arch enemy. Still further if the BIZ
chloride cure should prove all that
men dream, it would not relieve
philanthropists from that loving
and untiring system of rescue work
which marks the close of this nine
teenth century. There would still
be the field of missions among the
fallen, the ministry Of charity to
the helpless inmates of the drunk
ards home, the insistence upon
more rigid temperance legislation,
and, in fine, the manifold lines of
work which consecrated hearts
have taken. This cure would only
be numbered among the things for
good, rather than be expected to
supplant them all. I hold that one
man, however good a scientist he
may be, had discovered a cure-all
for all the diseases of mankind
would be to foist an absurdity upon
the race, or even to suppose that he
had discovered a cure-all for the
"gravest disease" drunkenness, and
that he alone is the Savior of the
world Of drunkards, would be no
less an absurdity.
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