The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-03-31
According to the Doctors no Habitual
Drinker Is Entirely Sane.

Drfnker Is Entirely Sane.
The inebriate, like the insane, always de.
MES that the habit is the result of disease,
and insists that he can stop at any time. and
when he fails to do so ascribes the failure
to some trifing condition of the surround.
ings. To many superficial observers the
statements of such persons are accepted as
facts no matter how much they are con-
tradicted by clinical history. In noted
contested will case the testator was an ex-
treme prOhibitiOnist and a radical temper
ance man. He denounced every scientific
effort to study these cases as fallacous and
mercenary. and yet he was an inebriate and
drank in secret. When the drink craze
came on he had urgent business in New
York City, and would be away week or
more concealed. After one of these unex.
planned absences he wrote his will, which
was contested, and the fact of his secret
tory revealed very clear indications of dis
ease in his Incorporate life and conduct.
He had been implicated in several very un-
usual transactions and at times was ex-
tremely miserly or lavishly generous. He
often displayed great extremes of conduct
and character. and had been under treat.
ment for years for nervous dyspepsia. At
one time he was under arrest for setting
fire to a saloon.
AS he was very bitter and vindictive
against one who drank or sustained the sa-
loon influence no doubt he was guilty. His
mental soundness was certainly question
able : for many years. and the will was
written after an attack of secret drinking,
xUhoy, hio mind fhon 1ic
turbed; yet the will was sustained.
In recent case. the disease of inebriety
appeared, although it was not recognized.
and it has been the subject of much COM
ment. A quiet, studious physician. who
was very generous and popular with all his
patrons and associates, served one term as
legislator. From this time total change
of character and disposition began. Before
this he was an occasional moderate user of
spirits. now he drank to excess at intervals,
was slanderOus, untruthful, intriguing and
irritable. For period of ten years up to
his death he was centre of contention,
and often committed the most disreputable
acts. He was low politician. and drank
to excess at times. At his death the exec
utOrs refused to pay certain unusual con-
tracts, on the ground that at the time the
contracts were made he was unsOund and
incapable. The evidence of disease, from
the sudden change of his conduct, char
acter and disposition, associated with the
excessive use of spirits, was not recognized
by the Court and jury. and the expert wit
nesses for the defense were treated as dis.
honest and culpable for assuming that such
man was not sound and responsible.
It is difficult to understand on what basis
the disease of inebriety is doubted, in the
face of the increasing army of cases in
which spirits are used constantly. or to
great excess at intervals. associated with
marked changes of character and conduct.
Any other Interpretation of these groups of
symptoms than that of brain failure and de-
generation seems nonsense. The best au-
thOrities all agree that the vigOr and func-
lions of the highest cerebral centres are al
ways disordered by interruption in their
natural nutrition. If the blood is impOver-
ished or poisoned by any deleteriOus sub
stance the effects are visible in all the brain
functions No one can use spirits cOntin-
uOusly or in excess without breaking up the
normal qualities of the blood and impOver
lshing the brain. No man can use spirits
to excess and have healthy, sound brain,
and changed conduct and character are un-
mistakable symptoms of this. The facts in
this field are within the observation of every
physician. and are not theories. but can be
demonstrated beyond all doubt or question.
What is most needed in.clinical study and
medical observation of these cases above all
moral theories. or present conceptions of
what inebrietY is or is not. -American Lam
Get.