The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-31

ter. The cells of the gray matter be-
come more or less fatty and shrunken.
The objective evidence of these changes
are seen in the impaired mental power
the muscular trembling-the stumbling
gait, of the drunkard- We laynien view
drunkenness as a vicious habit, but sci
ence has conclusively proven it is re-
duction of mental capacity due to de-
terioration of brain tissue.
DR.. Clouston Classics the various
forms of dipsomania as:
/. Related to the developmental and
retrogressive crises such as adolescence,
the stage between the ages of 10 and %,
and the climacteric or change of life"
9 In persons who inherit brain tend
ing to functional disease such as insan-
ity.
8. Following gross injuries, such as
blow on the head or sunstroke.
4. Developing from excess in drinking.
And he says the necessary termination
of all these various conditions-unless
cure be effected, or death supervenes-is
alcoholic dementia.
rosis, and takes its place in the family
tree of disease along side of insanity,
epilepsy and the like. 1t may crop up
here and there in family In whose
members there are many homeopathic
disorders, or it may be the first evidence
of tainted stock, and initiate series
of gross pathological conditions in the In
dividual and in the family, or 1t may be
what many people CCnSlOeT ali
ness to be-a culpable failure on the part
| of an ordinary individual to conduct
himself and control his desires in accord
ance with the ethical standard of his
| times. But whatever its origin, and
whatever its relationships, drunkenness
! is on the way to mental death, and I'M
less stronger factor intervenes to check
the process, the drunkard and his seed
after him are moribund.
DIR. Ganghofner of Prague says that
| I'm the aSvlIIU1S America England
and Holland. the total number of insane
from drink is from Is to 20 per cent, and
in France from 20 to 25 per cent.
DR.. Lee of Philadelphia says three
fourths of the criminals one-half of the
diseases, one-third of the insanity, three
fourths of the depravity of children and
young people are caused by drink.
DIR. E. L. Williams. commissioner of
| lunacy for Colorado, says in his report,
page 211, that 1T is his opinion that in
| toxication is far mightier cause of men
| tai disease than all other causes put to-
gether, and then adds: THE last census
| of the United States shows that there
has been a most alarming increase in the
number of lunatics and idiots during the
last decade. While the population has
| increased by 20 per cent, the increase of
| the insane is given as little over 155
/ per cent"
DR.. Andrew Macfarlane, in his mono
graph, THE Duty of the State to the
Insane:" "The average life of an insane
person is II years, and costs the State
$4,000 for care and maintenance
In 1900 the facts showing the import
ance Of drunkenness as a cause of insan-
ity were so conclusive that DR.. Clouston
in the Royal Edinburgh Asylum Report
says: Taking the admissions to the
West House alone-that Is working peo-
pie generally-and combining the enquiry
TO men between the ages of % and so
(the chief earning period of life), I find
that SO of the total of 124, or 427 per cent,
were of those in which alcoholic excess
was assigned as the predisposing or ex-
citing cause of their insanity
DR.. Howe found, on careful investiga-
Massachusetts, examined by him were
the children of Incorporate parents.
L think / have quoted sufficiently to
prove the fact that drunkenness is a dis
ease, and right here I quote a character
istic observation made by the late DR..
Oliver Wendell Holmes that 1.-The patient
may always be saved if the doctor is
called in time; but he should be called
two or three hundred years before the
patient is born"
The cause of drunkenness may be con-
sidered as organic and environmental-
or in other words, thirst and opportuni-
ty-and to these two factors must be de-
voted the energies of remedial reform.
Prohibition does not prohibit. / speak
from observation in the New England
States. But 1 do believe 1T diminishes
the occasions OIL drunkenness.
He will not stop drinking because he
must travel far in order to drink but he
will be more seldom (and perhaps more
thoroughly drunk. Yet the Importance
to the persons who are about to become
drunkards is very different and it is in
the preventive value of those measures
which. prohibit the liquor traffic or re-
strict its license and hours that relief
must be looked to.
In conclusion your attention is called
n al C TO tIne
ity of drunkenness. According to Weis-
mann the elementary mechanism of re-
production is all but independent of en-
Vironment and unnfluenced by changes
initiated during the life of the indi-
vidual Acquired conditions, therefore,
morbid or otherwise, can.lot be trans
mitted to posterity. The peculiar ner-
Vous organization. favorable to the ac-
QUESTION of a particular character, is
all that can be transmitted; the force
of circumstances does the rest.
When the confusion of criticism has
cleared away and we are in posses
sion of what is true in Weismann's
theory of heredity; it will, 1 believe, be
admitted that we have hitherto failed
TO estimate the real Importance of the
environmental factor in the develop
ment of the abuse of alcohol.
AS to local environments, 1 have
nothing to say, they having been thor
oughl ygone into during today's meet
ings. l am not VerSed as to the how
and why, but the man or woman who
sinks the God given life in the abusive
use of alcohol is a coward and unwor-
thy to be classed as human. DR.. John
Duncan Qusckenbox, in his "Hypno-
tism in Mental and Moral Culture
says. Sometimes the patient when no
other form of appeal is effective, may
be frightened into a realization of the
fact that constant use of alcoholic slim
ulants will result in organic changes
in the liver, kidney and brain, or by
lowering the general power of resist
ance, and at the same time irritating
the bronchial tubes and the lungs.
through which the alcohol is in part
eliminated. markedly predisposes to
pneumonia and tubercular consump-
ton" and as a pleasing foot-note to
the above, says: Seventy per cent of
pneumonia patients use alcohol" I'm