Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-03-18
|N[BR|E1Y STATISTICS
Dr.. Applegate of Mt. Pleasant
Hospital Pleads For Justice
of New Law
NEED OF STATE TREATMENT
NEED OF STATE TREATMENT
Inebriecy Threatens to Be a Serious
Menace to the Civilization of This
Century, and Its Cure Should Re-
ceive as Much Attention as Insanity
Now Demands-some Statistics.
Special to Times-Rcpublican.

| Special to Times Republican.
| Des Moines, March 1S.-The Iowa law
providing for the sentence by court
detention and treatment, of persons
1 addicted to the excessive use of mar
| wards of the state hospitals has now
been in force nine months and there
have been committed to the hospital ur
wards of 800 such irresponsible persons
In the Mt. Pleasant state hospital there
has been admitted $50 such cases. DIR
| c. f. Applegate, the superintendent
| has kept careful record of the cases
and has made a thorough study of the
subject. The result Of his observa tions
on these $50 cases formed the basis
of a very able paper read by Superirl-
| tendent Applegate before the quarterly
conference of superintendent of state
| institutions. In this paper her pre-
sented a strong and earnest plea fol
| the justice of the new law and the
necessity for state treatment of in
briates and morphine victime. He
stated that he had been able to find
few statistics in inebriety, as the dis
ease seems to have been as badly me-
elected as was insanity a century ago
What I have found DR.. Applegate
stated, would lead me to believe tina,
| inebriety threatens to be one of the
most serious menaces accompanying
the twentieth century civilization. Nc
disease seems to be more common, and
| 1t would require only little investi-
cation to prove to you that there are
now but few families in which some
member is not a victim
or the $50 cases admitted at Mt
Pleasant, six were women: one was col
ored, average age 40, maximum 81, min
imum Is. The critical period is shown
ti.S;.c between MI %, When aIeesses
began. AS to nationally 1877 were AM
orleans, but the nationality of parents
was 104 Americans and twenty-one
Irish. AS to occupation, forty-four
were skilled laborers,, twenty-siX un-
skilled laborers, ten farmers, twenty
eight mechanics, twenty-one clerks,
eleven painters, two druggists two dem
lists. two lawyers and one clergyman.
All We're educated, eighty-eigh having
common school education, thirty-seven
high school. twenty-one college, and
only four able to read and write only.
In regard to religion forty-four We're
set down as "back-sliders." eighteen
as agnostics and eleven as unbelievers.
There were twenty-four Methodists,
fifteen Lutherans, fifteen Christians,
ten Catholics, seven Baptists. two Pres
byterians, two Quakers, one Adventist,
and one United Presbyterian.
Careful inquiry was made as to the
homes and habits of the inebriates.
Forty-f four had good homes, fifty-five
fair homes, twenty-four unsatisfactory,
eleven poor and sixteen bad homes.
Those who chewed or smoked number
ed 139 and ninety-two did both. while
eleven were abstainers. There We're,
however only four who confessed to
being cigarette fiends. Twenty lone
made use of alkoloids of some descrip-
ton in connection with liquors, eleven
used morphine with other drugs, and
eight morphine alone. There was no
one who used cocoiaine and no one
who used chloiroform. AS to the kind
of drinks used eighty-fiv used whisky
mostly, thirty-one alcohol mostly,
twenty beer mostly, three whisky
alone and two beer alone.
AS to the habits which make possible
de generacy some statistics were obtain
ed. Eighty-two stated that
source of supply for liquors was saloons
and drug stores. fcrty-two drug stores
only, nineteen saloons only. and seven
from liquors shipped in. The fact,
said Mr.. Applegate, that over 90 per
cent of the patients used whisky. and
about so per cent OF the liquors We're.
obtained thru drug stores, lead me to
believe that the legislative measures
in this state in regard to the distri-
button of alcohol and whisky are very
weak indeed, and that the drinkers of
Iowa are heading habits of de-
generacy"
In regard to heredity, 125 showed that
there had been inebriacy on the part of
cne or both parents, but in only twen-
ty-one was the inebriety, on the ma
tenal side. There was marked insanity
in ten of the cases and epilepsy in
eight There was not one of the loO
not suffering from some ailment, ply
steal or mental. Only thirtyseven had
ever ldkc1 IIcSlouS A'A -
eLriacy, and twenty-five had taken the
Kelley cure. Some had had auack
nostrums administered to them in their
coffee by their wives expecting sure
cure. Some had tried the rock pile
and Jail cure, hut only seven had had
hospital treatment
DR.. Applegate was pretty severe on
the so-called liquor cure people, ne
said:
The much lauded Keeley cure has
done some good in a fewcases; In
others much harm, and has failed ut
terly to cure the disease. The various
cures for inebriacy, viz: the willow
bark cure, the Tracy cure. the sugges-
tive treatment, hypnotism, osteopathy
etc, have had much more of a ten-
dency to cause other diseases to pro-
gress than to cure true inebriacy.'
In regard to the actual treatment at
the Mount Pleasant hospital for the In
ebriates DR.. Applegate stated that they
first tried to find out what Is wrong
with the patient and then treat him ac-
cordingly. I'VE find what we can and
treat what we find" he said. we would
cajole the public into no scheme Of !