The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-31

Feaqin Draws Moral.

1.-THE number of drunkardS that are
daily Jailed in the city of Birmingham,
white and colored, is alarming" said
Judge N. B. Feagin of the police court
yesterday, when we consider the dis
tress and poverty and misery that Is
visited upon the innocent wives and
children and the homes OF this commun-
ity.
1.-THE number of arrests for public
drunkenness in the city runs from ten to
thirty a day, besides arrests for crimes
growing out of the use of intoxicating
liquors.
FORTUNATELY, Col Sam VIII John, trus-
tee of the asylum for the insane at Tus-
caloosa, with the assistance of the super
intendent DR.. James T. Searcy, has pre-
pared a bin to be submitted to the pres
emit legislature, establishing an institution
for the cure of inebriates, in connection
with the present asylum for the insane at
Tuscaloosa.
1.-The latest and best thought of the
medical profession regards inebriaty as
disease that should be treated by tho
medical profession, hence this institution
that the legislature will be asked to es-
tablish. From the beginning of Ala
bama's estate the theory has ex-
listed that the excessive use of alcoholic
spirits is a moral condition and a vice,
and a large number of physicians follow
this public sentiment and accept 1t as
true, while some of the leaders In the
medical profession tell US that citizens
who are addicted to drunkenness should
no longer be treated as moral reprobates
and be subject to imprisonment in the
jails to suppress the evil.
Not Subject to VIII Of Victim.
This vice and depravity of the citizen
cannot be thrown off or reverted by the
free will of the victim. Dr. Crothers of
the Walnut Lodge hospital OF Connecti-
cut has said, Recent laboratory research
with instruments of precision, assisted
by exact chemical studies prove that tho
moderate drinker is In pronounced state
of psycosis, and fully as insane as a
periodic inebriate. The common theory
that alcohol in small doses may be taken
regularly without harm Is not true. 1t
is now possible to measure the anestheuc
effect of alcohol, and its depressing in
fiuence on the senses, the functional ac-
tivity of the brain and the nutrition of
the nerve cells.
Exactly how small a dose can be
traced by instruments of precision is not
settled, but 1t is certain that the regular
use Of small doses can be positively meas
ured In their accumulative effects. In
struments show that alcohol In small
doses suppresses the sight, hearing, taste,
smell. and the touch, and lowers the
functional activities of the organs, as
well as disturbs the rhythmic circulation
Of the blood, especially in the brain.
Comparative studies of abstainers
and moderate drinkers show, in the lat
ter, arrangement of nutrition, defective
elimination, feebleness of control and
weakness of heart action, also depressed
mental activity, false memory, lack Of
precision and muscular control. Hospital
records point to higher mortality from
pneumonia, typhoid and acute infiam-
nations occurring in moderate drinkers,
and that the prognosis of all disease in
this class Is graver. These facts are
within the observation of every thinking
physician.
Possibilities Of Prevention.
The practical question which con-
Germs us all is the recognition Of this
disease, and the possibilities of its pre-
vention and cure. The wave OF empiric-
ism, now passing over this country has
done much to destroy the old theories
of inebriety. and to teach the world that
the new army Of diseased inebriates are
durable by the use of exact means and
measures along the lines of rational med
icine. Hospitals, asylums, prisons, aims
houses and charitable institutions of all
kinds are filled with victims made SO
directly or indirectly by alcohol. The
disease is becoming rapidly recognized
in the world of finance, banking institu-
tions, railways and manufacturing enter
prises and the moderate and excessive
user of spirits is being put aside as in
capable to do exact work requiring full
of reason and senses
"Dr. George s. Brown has said. In Or