The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1912-01-25

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quote noted temperance lecturer,
if such was the fact, the liquor men
would be parading the licensed states
with trumpets to their lips and
drums hanging around their necks,
shouting themselves red in the face
for Prohibition
Now York City, with its four and a
half millions Of people, has recently
undertaken the establishment of a
Farm Hospital for the national treat
ment of inebriates, appropriating
$675 900 for farm land, buildings,
etc., with 100000 wear for ex-
penses. Prominent men Of that state
have come forward to give their
time and services to one of the
noblest movements ever started for
the benefit Of the unfortunates, who
destroy intellect and health, and
cast sorrow and distress on their
loved ones by indulgence in the in
toxicants that are robbing them Of
their will power and degenerating
their manhood.
The city has appointed an in
ebriety board to look after these un-
fortunates, and to use their influence
and encouragement to inoculate into
their system, not patent medicines
and so called liquor cures, but the
germs called the bacteria of will
power, mental resolution, and moral
determination; to place them on the
farm amid the heathful surroundings
of the country, and when they will
have gained their former health and
strength, to teach them agriculture,
or some useful trade and put them
in position not only to acquire an
aroused interest in work, but self
respect and the respect of others.
They will be paid for their services
and the money sent to support their
families until they return to them.
Is not this a great humanitarian
step toward reforming the drunk
ard? Formerly he was sentenced to
the stuffy, unventilated work house,
given poor food, his wife and family
deprived of his support, and at the
expiration of his sentence. generally
returned to the gutter where they
found him.
Our strict universal laws, regard
ing inebriety, have for many years
needed alteration, and other cities
will undoubtedly follow the example
of New York when they begin to
realize its value. DR.. Thomas j.
Cotton of New York, an expert on
inebriety, president of the inebriety
board, states that, 'habitual drunk
enness is as surely disease as any
ill of humanity, and that the only
treatment that has any chance of sue
cess must be based on that hypothe-
SIS"
This is undoubtedly true and any
fair-minded person will agree that
the system practiced by our Munich
pal courts, is not only barbarious,
but unjust as well. Inebriety is sure
ly mental disease caused by ex-
cessive use of alcohol, just as the
manlas caused by the use Of NOR
phine, cocain and other narcotics
are classed as mental diseases and
treated as such.
Spitza, one of the greatest authori-
ties on insanity, defines insanity as a
more or less permanent mental de-
rangement of the brain, causing a
disordered action of the mind in such
way as to place the person in a
position varying from his normal
self and out of relation with his in
vironment." If the legal, as well as
the medical profession accept this
definition, why do the courts hold
an intoxicated person, who commits
misdemeanor or even a felony, ac-
countable for his act? While be
committed this act he had every
symptom of disorded action of the
mind in such way as to place him
in a position varying from his norm
al self, a condition which DR.. Spitz-
| ka very clearly classifes as mental
disease. Men have deliberately TAX
en- others lives, and have pleaded
before our courts that air currents
i penetrated the occipital bone at the
base Of the brain, which produced
brain storm, paranoia or diseased
imagination or its equivalent, and