The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1912-10-16
Fighting The Deadly Habits.

JlylItiDy tIl0 u0uu'Y hupil1'
In the October American Maya
zine appears the story of Charles B.
Towns, physician who has done
wonderful work in China and now
in America showing people how they
may fight the drug and alcohol hab-
its. Following is an extract:
Towns looked about him and
saw a world sodden with alcohol,
dazed with drugs and befuddled
with tobacco. He saw the terrific
pressure of commercial need and
greed driving these habits in upon
us from every quarter. He saw
that many druggists were feeding
the resulting abnormal desires al
most with impunity. He saw physi-
clans casually employing alcohol
where it was neither indicated nor
needed, and leaving in their wake
gloomy trail of morphinists-many
of these latter actually victims OF
the hypodermic syringes left in
their hands by physicians. He gath
cred information regarding condi-
tions in the so-ealled prohibition
States, and was himself astonished
by what he found: In Vermont, for
example, the inquiries Of DR.. Ash
bel P Grinnell. Dean of the Yer
mont Medical College. had Led to
the conclusion that following the
prohibition of liquor the drug habit
had grown until reports from drug
gists indicated a consumption of
opium and it's derivatives amounting
to one and one-half grains per day
for every man, woman and child In
the State. And this apart from the
alcoholic patent medicines that
crowded in to take the place of the
franker stimulants.
HE saw, all about him, men and
women going down under this
scourge. He saw nervous women,
an astonishing number of them, ha-
bitually taking trional, sulfonal, vero-
nal, and the other coal tar deriva-
tives-and commonly under the i'm
preston that no bad habit would
result Many were even so inform
ed by physicians. And he coined
the phase-driving a hard fist into
the palm of the lother muscular
hand by way of emphasis tell
you, anything that acts like an Opt
ate is an opiate!'
HE saw that nearly every one of
the more than six thousand cases
that had passed under his own OBJ
servation had history of excessive
tobacco smoking. He saw man after
man, discharged from his hospital
and free from desire for his fatal
stimulant, resume tobacco smoking
and thus lay the foundations for a
relapse. And he launched the
phrase Smoking is always bad
thing, and inhaling tobacco is just
as injurious as moderate opium
smoking!'
HE saw thousands of misguided
men and women, particularly among
the lower classes, take to cocaine
to soothe their nerves and stimulate
their jaded faculties. He studied
these cases for years. He arrived
at a conclusion, summed up in the
phrase-.Cocain provides the short
est cut to the insane asylum. 1t
takes them there across lots!'
He saw sentimentalists and ex-
IRENE religionists trying to reform
the fallen by appeals to a confused
and warped moral sense. He studied
these cases. He arrived at the con-
clusion that it is unfair and useless
to appeal to a diseased mind. He
gave up wasting words on them.
The time to talk he said, is aft
er the medical treatment is finished.
What's the use? They aren't them
selves. Their minds are muddled
and twisted. Got to get that twist
out first
"A great many of his cases came
to him after a history of years in
sanatoriums and institutions Many
had spent long terms of years and
tens of thousands of dollars in the
pitiful struggle. In practically ev-
cry case it was a story of attempted
substitution of stimulants or gradu-
al reduction of the dose. And in
practically every case it had been
SO much a week, with extras
Towns saw into all this Saw all
around it and behind it, and ar
rived at several conclusions. One
was that withdrawal and 'reduc-
ton are never cures Such treat
ment may even be dangerous, par
ticularly in the case of confirmed
alcoholic or morphinist. The first
step must be a medical obliteration
of the craving"