Evening star., 1947-08-07
By George Kennedy

AS the doctor continued to talk to him
sweat began to roll from the boys brow. He
looked pitifully miserable.
We've told you before what We are doing
here" DR.. Williams went on in kindly way
You understand We are going to condition you
until the TASTE sight or smell Of liquor will
be sckening to you"
With that, he waved bit Of cotton saturated
from the whisky bottle under the boys nose
The boy reared back as If it were ammonia
He grabbed his tin basin and rushed from the
room.
You see" said DR.. williams. II have been
putting the emetine hydrochloride right in the
drink. / am going along with the example of
the man we had here who couldn't drink
orange juice because his mother used to put
castor oil in it. You see our method is different
from the Seattle method in that respect
among others
The second patient. DR.. Willisms explained
while awaiting his entrance was a man Of 81
OF much lower mental capacity The doctor
explained that the higher the 10 the easier
1t Is to condition a patient. Intelligence and
reasoning do nothing to overcome the fear
OF liquor conditioned in the stomach But the
low 10 man sometimes is relatively tnsensitive
to the horror Of nausea and it takes longer to
condition him.
The man was . barber, the doctor said.
The barber was under the impression that An
encounter with one Of his man friends who
was leaving the BARRIERS apartment at a time
when the barber ordinarily would have been
at work indicated infidelty on the part OF his
wife. The barber suffered the pangs Of Othello,
the doctor said, and his drinking increased.
The barber came in, little fellow. his long
YOlI olip clo
cedure was followed
When did you decide to quit drinking2"
DR.. Williams asked while the barber was
sweating 1t out after downing the three shots
Falling Memory Omen.
when I began forgetting things 10 bad"
he said in deep South Negro dialect He came
from South Carolina. IT forgot to lock my
room one day and somebody stole all my clothes
1t got 50 bad that when would reach for the
shears would pick up the clippers That made
me decide to stop drinking, 80 came here"
The third patient was q hotel clerk in 4
place catering to the Negro trade. He was
45 years old and had come here In recent
years from Chicago. DR.. Williams said, before
he entered the room, that the man had been
so slow in realizing his situation after he
came out OF the Dts, that they thought they
had case of Karsakows syndrome a true
alcoholic psychosis in which man tries to
make up for loss of memory by fabrication
and for not remembering people by pretend
ing to have known everybody for years. A
week after this man entered the hospital Dr.
Williams said, he still thought he was In the
hotel. He was always giving the nurses orders
to clean the place up, and when newcomers
entered he wanted them to register. But he
was getting better, Dr.. Williams said. This
was to be his second treatment.
The man came in. He was strong, clean
cut, Of splendid physique, and he seemed tc
know all the answers. His favorits whisky
was $9-a-fifth Scotch, he said. He drank
that whenever he "ketched . horse" which
wasn't every day. He dismissed the psycho-
therapy talk with, Doctor, know what this
is all about. wouldn't go through this for
a million dollars, i'm didn't have to-" The
reason he was determined to stop drinking,
he said, was money He used to spend $6
day for liquor he said How much was
that n month? His answer was. six times 80,
doctor"
Most OF this conversation went On while
the sweat was pouring OF him. The sickness
did not seem to bother him greatly. One
wondered whether he was going to succeed IN
being cured" despite his expressed deterrni-
nation.
Tomorrow: Post st-oonditioning helps 10 com
,pensAte for loss of alcohol)