The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-02-07
CITY'S DRUG CURE
TO Be EXTENDED
Former Patients in the Work.
house Raise Fund to Employ
q Resident Physician.
ALL CLASSES CONTRIBUTE

Word has reached Burdette G. Lewis.
Commissions OF Correction. that men
and women who were cured OF the drug
habit at the city w%orkhouse on Black
wGl's Island. or one OF its branches.
are raising a fund to pay the salary of
. resident physician for the institution.
Men and women of all walks Of life
Uhysicians themselves. lawyers. artists,
actors. clerks. mon II women-de-
scribed as OF the underworld. are
contributing their pennies or dimes or
dollars. Just how much they are 20
raise will not be known for two weeks.
which they have placed as the time
limit for the work. nor are the names
Of those most active in the matter
o%btainatle. They want TO testify their
gratitude. they have said, by placing in
the proper hands the money which will
bring into the service n "A who will
specialize on the treatment OF others
afnicted as they were once.
Figures are not yet obtainable to tell
che number of men and women treated
ri the workhouse during 1915 for the
drug habit. The report for 1914 says
that 252 persons underwent the treat
msnt. of whom 235 were considered
~cured" when they left the institution.
The designation. however, does not
mean that given the environment and
other conditions the patient will not
return to his or her drug. 1t does
mean they went away with the physical
functions normal and the craving elImi-
mated.
Workhouse Treatment sought.
The number treated In 1915 increased
many times because of the Boylan law
in New York and the Harrison law
which make the prescribing of drugs and
the sale or the distribution of them
extremely hazardous. II will be remem-
bered that so-called drug fiends'' in
ereat numbers then appeared at the
various city hospitals for treatment, and
some were sent to the workhouse. These
reports will be available In "A few weeks.
Investigation into the treatment OF
addicts. as they are technically called. at
the workhouse revealed that in increas-
ing numbers daily men and women not
alone of New York city but from other
parts of the country are voluntarily ac-
ccpting the humiliation of a prison sem
;cllce in order to obtain the benefit Of the
workhouse treatment. An illustration Of
this occurred Friday. when a physician
went to see Commissioner Lewis and
begged TO be permitted to go to the
workhousc.
New York has no way by which a
man or woman can obtain the work
house treatment except by subjectiug
himself or herself to a criminal record,
and the commissioner regrctfully in
formed his visitor of that fact. The
doctor said that he would do anything
IL II would cure a morphine habit of
years. Mr.. Lewis then gave the visitor
n note to chief Magistrate Mc.tdoo. II
was not "A new story to the chief Magis-
tratc. who made out a commitment for
an Indefinite term. The happy physician
then scurried to the Ella kwclIs Island
Terry and to-day is one of the patients
or Or. Ernest :. Bishop, visiting physi-
clan of the workhouse.
Inc Visitor 10 Commissioner Lewis
was one of the growing army. The day
before a man who is the head of a labor
organization In this city. for twelve
years addicted to morphine. went
,nroush the same process. Once there
were two women. refined and gentle.
who had come tn New York from the
south because they had heard Of the
cure. Thankfully they accepted the
prison commitment. went TO the women's
branch of the workhouse and returned
60 their homes cured.
The WorkhouSe at Rlackwcll's Island
n a building siXty-iivr years old and
regarded as totally untitled for modern
conditions. II has no paid resident
physician. hut is supervised by an indie
pendent medical board. which has a .hief
visiting ply stefan and three internes,
one a woman.