The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-06-17
ANDERSON g%uteItigeueer.
Inebriety and Drunkenness.


The cure Of the drink habit by what
is generally known as the "Keeley'
process has been too frequently a com
plete success to be scofed at aB it was
in the earlier days Of its popularity,
but there is still a good deal Of doubt
in the popular mind as to the rationale
of such cures. A good many, Of
course, trust blindly in the efficacy of
the medicaments employed, while
others insist hat the treatment mere
ly strengthens the will power and en-
ables the sufferer to do what if his
will were not too weak he could do
without any treatment whatever-that
is, abstain from the use Of iDtoxi-
cants. To many others there is a sin
gularfascination in the theory that the
cure is hypnotic, though comparative
ly few of those who accept this Z
PLANTATION feel quite competent to tell
Just what they mean by it. To the
majority, hypuotism is like electrici-
ty, q mysterious something which pro-
duces wonderful effects in an incom-
~prehensible way, and all the more re-
markable because it is mysterious. It
is like the pressure which all Of Mr..
Merdle' acquaintance in "Our Mu-
tual Friend agreed was the cause Of
his death, but without having the
ghost of an idea what the word meant.
It will interest those who hold,
whether intelligently or otherwise, to
the hypnotic theory to know that a
Holland doctor is thoroughly commit
ted to the theory of curing inebriety
by hypuotism and suggestion, and has
secured results which seem to justify
him very fully in his theory. In q
recent issue Of the Medical Record, a
paper by Ane De Jong, NJ. D., Of The
Hague, Holland, on "Inebriety and
Its Treatment by H%ypnotism,' sets
forth very clearly and s%uccintly the
doctor S theory on the subject. Al
mitting what is claimed by SO many
that inebriety in a great number of
cases is caused by bad habits, he de-
MES that it is only a bad habit. His
opinion is that it is o very serious
mental disease and that its treatment
belongs in the first place to the medi-
cal profession. Discussing the argu-
ments for and against this hypothesis,
he sums them up substantially az fol-
lows: "Can we imagine that if inebrie-
ty were only a bad habit, the person
addicted to it, seeing all the misery,
the dishonor, the unhappiness Of his
family, the material and moral ruin
which threatens him, would not and
could not resist it? But he cannot re-
sist; he possesses nc longer the facul-
ty Of willing; his free will is lost; he
is a psychical invalid"
To the query whether inebriety is a
durable disease the doctor answers
that there are incontestably drunkards
who resist all modes of treatment, but
happily, he says, there also others.
His own experience, and that of many
observers, has taught him that in a
great number of cases Of chronic al
coholic abuse very good results are OBJ
tanned by hypnotism and suggestion.
This treatment, he urges, should
be employed in all cases before send
ing the patient to an asylum. Scien-
tiically employed. he insists, it can
lido no harm, while it offers the very
great advantage that in most cases it
provokes in an exceedingly short time
an aversion to alcoholic drinks. In
many cases, he says, he vas able at
the first treatment to create such an
aversion that the patient could not
even smell alcoholics drinks without
uncomfortable nausea.
Referring to a considerable list of
physicians who have published very
good results from the hypnotic treat
ment DR.. De Jong gives the following
statement of his own success in thir-
ty-four cases: Eight went away not
cured. The other twenty-six were
under his care until he believed they
were cured and discontinued the
treatment. CT these he vouches for
the permanence of the cure in fifteen
cases. Seven Of the others he believes
to have been cured, but never saw
them after their departure from under
his care. Four he knows to have re-
lapsed into their drinking habits again
because they were exposed to tempta-
! tion and were unable to resist it.. In
one Of the eight cases not cured the
patient abstained for -four months, and
it was his wife's fault that he began to
drink again. She found him changed.
for the worse after he left off drinking.
As she wrote the doctor; before he
left off he was a pleasant, jovial fell
low, but abstinence made him a dream
er. She preferred to have him take
his dram as before, and he did.
These results are no more remarka-
bic than some of those obtained at the
establishments where inebriety is
treated by the Kelley or similar meth
DDS. Some of these, indeed, claim a
larger percentage Of cures than the
Holland doctor does. 1t is interest
ing, however, to know that so good re-
suits have been obtained under the
hypnotic treatment. Philadelphia
Telegraph.