Phoenix weekly herald., 1896-05-07


The attentio of the medical profess
sion was first called to the fact that
| habituaI alcoholic drunkenness was a
diseass by DR.. Meuqus 81 uss. of Stock
holm, Sweden, in 1849 Soon otter the
publication of the extensive and very
exhaustive researches OF DR.. Mangus
Huss, some of the most progressive,
advanced thinkers in the medical pro-
| fessIon in this country and in Europe
| became vigorous advocates Of the new
discovery.
From that time to the present almost
innumerable Investigators have been
engaged. constantly extending our
Knowledge in every direction in this
| vast field, and fully confirming the cor
| rectness of the opinions of DR.. Mangue
Huss. There is no fact in the medical
| science more clearly established than
this, that hsbitual drunkenness or in
ebriety is desease, the earliest and
| most characteristic symtoms OF which
is sn intense, morbid craving for the
| Intoxicating, soothing effects Of alcoho
| lie drinks or other narcotic agents.
For more than forty years this fact
has oeen gradually gaining recognition.
But even now it is dif ficult for a large
majority of people OF average inteli
gerce to divest themselves of the idea
that drunkenness is anything but an
act of folly, g sin, vice or crime. The
finger of scorn has been pointed at the
sot as an object OF ridicule ind con-
tempt. The drun ksrd has been etig
mstizsd as q gocd-for-nothing scepe-
grace, who loves excess for it's own sake
who lives but to crafty his vitiated
tastes, who from his Inherent depravity
knowingly and unblushinely prefers
vice to virtue, drunkenness to sobriety.
It has bsen the habit of the theologan
DO denounce the Incorporate as willing
y guilty of heinous sin; ard the judge
pom the bench to punish the rioting
drupkard as crimInsl offender. Few
seem to have given his condition of
body or mind a thought. Few seem to
have even suspected that he was
sufferer from both physical aud mental
disease, and so only oontumely ard sp-
pFosch, pains and penalties have been
employed in the treatment of these pitt
able sub acts of alcoholic mania. Has
this treatment of the inebrste been
humane and jaaioious? Is the in
sbriste but a fooi? I be but waoton
and wicked sinner? Are ell his out
breaks of drinking but the fruit of an
evil, perverse disposition?
To all these questions medical science
answers empb atically No, aud plainly
does common sense echo the denial.
Men and women of the highest culture,
the purest life, the most exhaited aims,
have become reckless drunkards. The
dearest minds, the kesnest intelecte,
the most accurate reeeoneEs, have fallen
victims to the fell destroyer. The
warmest hearts, the kindest eouls, the
most unsslfish spirits have been trans
formed by the ''trlcky spirit" into the
coolest, moss selfish vo5sries at 1.-THE
shrine of Bacchus.
We have these aud q great company
of ench fallen so low? Not from a de-
sire TO fall, not frog wicked and vain
imsginings, not from determination
to become drunk, not from any innate
love OF inebrissing drink, but from
want OF power to resist the overwheIm-
ing weight of we'll nigh irresistible
impulse wishio than, which when fully
awakened hurls them away iI spite of
their vain efforts TO escape, into whirl-
wind of excessive Indulgence and de-
oBuchery.
Is drunkenness the affect of diseasa?
How auy one who has witnessed the |
career of a confirmed drunksrd ever
had any doubt on that subjecs is beyond
ordinary human apprehension. Yet
there are some who deoy that in
ebriety is ever disease, or the effects of
disease, and insist that it is only d moral |
vice. But this entiqusted idea has
been slo WY giving away for many years !
past, forcsd back before the enl e nten-
msnt OF modern scientific inquiry
Moral obliquity and vicious tastes may |
sometimes bs the cause of inGempsr |
ance, and We freely conceds that there |
and that if there is in.
ebriesy the disease, there is drunken
ness, the vice and crime. But many |
sad experiences have shown US that
there are inebrietes more sinned against
than SHINING.
To impute immortality. vics and sin to
the inebriate for bis physical inability
to resist the intense. involuntary, NOR
old crave tnat comes over him at times
8 az unjust as it would bs to impute
immortality, vice add sin 20 the idiot for
lis idiocy, or the hereditary epileptic
'or his epilepsy.
Mr.. D P Davis, 3 prominent livery
nan and merchant Of Goshen, Va, has
his to say on she subj4ct ot rheum-
Itisn: Il take pleasure a recommend
og Cham berlain's Palm Balm for rheu-
q stism as l know from personal exper-
snce that it will do all that is claimed
or it. A year ago this spring roy I
rother v4ss laid up in bed with irfa- {
n atnrv rhanu1 attain and fired in