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I I^J E B R I E T Y 
 
 V I N I M O R B U S, 
 
 A DISEASE AND TO BE TREATED AS SUCH, 
 
 MODES OF TREATMENT, &C. 
 
 CHARLES R. STEPHENS M. D 
 
 r 
 
 SALEM, M A S S . 
 
 T. J. HLTCHINSON .t SOX, . . . STEAM PPINTERS. 
 1877. 
 
Entered according to Act of Corgress^ in the year iS'J'J, by 
 
 CHARLES R. STEPHENS, of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the Librarian of Congress ^ at IVaskington. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
I]M EBRIETY 
 
 V I N I MORBUS, 
 
 A DISEASE AND TO BE TREATED AS SUCH 
 
 MODES OF TREATMENT, &C. 
 
 CHARLES R. STEPHENS M. D. 
 
 1 /O VJ. Ur 
 
 SALEM, MASS. 
 
 r. J. HUTCHINSON it SON. STEAM PRINTERS. 
 
 1877. 
 
Entered according to Act of Corgress, in the if ear 1877, dy 
 
 CHARLES R. STEPHENS, of Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, 
 
 in the Clerk's Ojffice of the Librarian of Congress^ at Washington. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The genius of the age seeks for truth as evidenced by facts and 
 experience; thorough and reliable knowledge of the matters, with and 
 upon which we work is the great desideratum of our progress. 
 
 Man in this r.ineteenth century earnestly seeks and eagerly adopts 
 that knowledge. Mistakes in principles of action, or in the method of 
 their application to the business of life, are readily corrected when 
 recognized. 
 
 I have stated my convictions upon a matter of great importance to 
 the well-being of the community, in the simplest language I could com- 
 mand and with a studied avoidance of technical terms, in order that every 
 reader may understand me ; I have explained all purely professional terms 
 which were unavoidably used; I have given my ideas as to the applica- 
 tion of my theory to the needs of the community, and I refer both my 
 theory and its application to the common sense of the people. 
 
 I desire to acknowledge my obligations to John F. Devereux, A.M., 
 for valuable assistance in the preparation of this little work. 
 
 C. R. Stephens, M.D. 
 
INEBRIETY. 
 
 Vini morbus, or Inebriety or addiction to drunkenness is 
 a disease /^^J^, (of itself) ; it has an actual existence aside 
 from any diseased co7tdition of the body ; this disease often 
 exists in persons who are otherwise healthy. The disease 
 pre-exists in the body, but the use of alcoholic stimulants . 
 will develope it. 
 
 The disease has always existed ; the present generation 
 is more seriously affected by it, than any that have pre- 
 ceded it ; this is due to the effects of inheritance ; the be- 
 lief that man wilfully creates the disease is erroneous ; that 
 men are responsible, in a measure, for its development, is 
 true. 
 
 The desire for alcoholic stimulants, which is a symptom 
 of vini morbus, is almost universal ; the few who do not 
 have this desire are exceptions to the general rule ; this 
 disease is man's worst enemy. 
 
 Vini morbus, in popular phraseology is " Inebriety," or 
 as it would more plainly be rendered " the desire for alco- 
 holic drinks." 
 
 Why do men drink } he who can answer the question is 
 ready to propose some rational method of doing away with 
 a terrible scourge of mankind — drunkenness. 
 
 As the world has advanced in civilization and enlighten- 
 ment, it has learned to appreciate and to deplore the ills 
 which attend its practical progress in every direction. — 
 With the growth of man's mastery over the material world 
 the development of new resources, which have contrib- 
 uted to his comfort and luxury — has gone on step by step, 
 an increase in the possibilities for physical and moral harm, 
 which man's perverse ingenuity has made the most of. 
 
until, today, he is cursed with ills of an extent and magni- 
 tude almost equal to his blessings ; chief among these ills 
 is the excessive use of alcoholic drinks. 
 
 He who would bring about any good result must know 
 well the nature and properties of the material upon which 
 he has to work, or he must fail in his attempt. 
 
 He who would combat successfully any ill must under- 
 stand its nature, or he takes up arms against it in vain, 
 and his utmost exertions can only bring him the uncom^ 
 fortable consciousness of defeat. 
 
 I am well assured that Inebriety, viiii morbus or addic- 
 tion to drunkenness, has never succumbed to the fierce 
 and protracted war made upon it, by some of the best in- 
 tellects, and the most hopeful philanthropists of the age, 
 only because its true nature has not perceived and,^ 
 consequently, the well-meant efforts for its suppression 
 have been misdirected. 
 
 Every page of man's recorded history confesses to the 
 presence of drunkenness, but not until our more modern 
 days has it been denounced as an unpardonable sin, and 
 excommunicated with the " anathema maranatha" of repu- 
 table society ; nor until our time has war been declared 
 against it, and combined and persistent efforts been put 
 forth for its suppression. 
 
 Temperance organizations have endeavored to frighten 
 man from the use of the various drinks, or have attempted 
 to coax from the perverse race of Adam an abandonment 
 of their use, as a prevention of their abuse; but threats 
 and denunciations have failed, and the gentle persuasions 
 of the reformer have fallen on deaf ears. Temperance 
 societies have proved themselves unable to grapple success- 
 fully with the great evil. 
 
 Woman, to whom the American people pay the largest 
 deference in virtue of her sex, — woman, whose influence 
 among us is as great as ever it was in the palmiest days of 
 chivalry, — woman, whose possibilities with man are, to-day, 
 
based upon a deeper, truer respect, and supported by a 
 sincerer allegiance than ever actuated the Knight Errant 
 of old, has brought all her feminine artillery to bear upon 
 the strongholds of the liquor traffic ; and although the 
 modern "crusaders'' found that every fortress would ca- 
 pitulate upon their summons, yet the moment their forces 
 left the field, the unabashed enemies drank to the good 
 health of their fair foes, in bumpers of special potency. 
 
 The use of liquors is as prevalent as ever, to say the 
 least, and all attempts to do away with it have, as yet, re- 
 sulted in no appreciable success ; drunkenness still curses 
 the land ; and always must until its real nature is under- 
 stood, and until the steps taken to suppress it are based 
 upon a wise and practical application of that knowledge. 
 
 The immediate provocatives, the causes which call into 
 activity the pre-existent disease, are multiform, and thus 
 furnish subjects for earnest thought and careful enquiry. 
 Medical science has long been aware of many of the pre- 
 disposing conditions; some of them are very readily recog- 
 nised ; among them we find 
 
 Appetite inherited from intemperate parents ; 
 Imperfect development of the vital organs, causing Ian 
 guid circulation and feebleness of action of the heart ; 
 Excessive sexual indulgence ; 
 
 Loss of nervous vitality, through over-work ; disappoint- 
 ments of various sorts, and the reaction from states of 
 unusual excitement ; in fact anything that causes perturba- 
 tions of the nervous system, whether it be unnatural ex- 
 citement, or depression, serves as an exciting cause ; the 
 germ of the disease exists i7i the system only waiting favor- 
 able co7iditions for its developmejit. 
 
 The unfortunates in whom these causes have roused the 
 sleeping malady, find themselves beset by a fierce craving 
 for alcoholic stimulants ; but they find, too, that this 
 craving grows with what it feeds on, and few have the 
 strength of will to deny gratification to this desire for drink, 
 
the symptom of vini morbus, for a sufficient length of time 
 to lull the disease to sleep again. Most of them indulge it> 
 and daily furnish fresh food, which means fresh strength, 
 to the disease with which they are afflicted. 
 
 The habit of using stimulants fin-ally grows to be a 
 necessity, and the chains of the disease are welded more 
 and more firmly around the will, which grows weaker and 
 weaker to resist the demands of the growing appetite, until 
 too often, self-control is entirely lost, and the individual 
 needs the restraint of an authority which can enforce the 
 abstinence from liquor which the state of health impera- 
 tively demands, as the sole means of cure. 
 
 I insist that my position that drunkenness is a disease, 
 per se (of itself) is proven by the results of all experience; 
 nothing is more assured in all the scope of medical 
 knowledge. 
 
 Men are powerfully controlled by many considerations ; 
 regard for reputation and social position, carefulness in the 
 matter of expenditure, and many other influences, act as 
 powerful restraints upon many ; but, the " moderate 
 drinker," who plumes himself upon never having been the 
 worse for liquor, is a victim, in a less degree, of the self-same 
 disease that keeps the more incautious, and less selfish, 
 ^* habitual drunkard " in the gutter ; both, I repeat, are 
 diseased, the sole difference lies in degree. 
 
 We deliberately develope this disease by the unnecessary 
 use of intoxicants. 
 
 Of all the physical scourges of mankind this is the most 
 insidious, the most fatal to health and happiness, and, at 
 the same time, the most difficult to check, or cure. It 
 evades the remedial approach of the physician like a thing 
 of mist and shadow, and its very victims hug the fatal mal- 
 ady to their hearts, and insist that it shall have unimpeded 
 sweep over their frames whose nerves it racks, and whose 
 powers of resistance it is steadily sapping, hour by hour. 
 
 Alcohol is a necessity in many of the arts as an agent 
 
in various processes ; it. has its place in man's manipulation 
 of the material world about him in furtherance of the ends 
 of civilization and practical progress, it must be manufac- 
 tured and made use of ; special complications of disease 
 demand its use by medical men ; medical emergencies im- 
 peratively call for it ; as they do often, for other remedial 
 agents of terrible strength whose daily use, 7i?icalled for, 
 would equally destroy the physical health and mental bal- 
 ance. Stimulants are a necessity in some diseases ; the 
 craving for them is a symptom of the presence of a dis- 
 ease — of vini morbus. 
 
 Men are born with this disease latent in their systems ; 
 many causes serve to excite, and urge it to complete devel- 
 opment. 
 
 Men are born with a disease or complication of diseases, 
 of which this is an inevitable shadow. 
 
 Since the world began inebriety has claimed a large per- 
 centage of the victims of life's ills ; as long as the world 
 lasts it always must, unless the nature and workings of 
 this curse of humanity are thoroughly sought for and 
 revealed, that its effects may be avoided. 
 
 If we would benefit the world by checking the inroads of 
 drunkeness upon the happiness, health and prosperity of 
 mankind we must seek and find the true answers to these 
 vital questions. 
 
 What is this disease .'* 
 
 What are its provocatives, and conditions t 
 
 Can those provocatives and conditions be prevented or 
 avoided, and how } 
 
 The application of the information thus gained is the 
 only possible, practical temperance reform. 
 
 Inebriety is as truly a disease as any other abnormal 
 condition of the body, or its organs ; it differs from other 
 diseases in its origin, symptoms and results. 
 
 All disturbances of the nervous forces act as exciting 
 causes and general provocatives of the malady, and induce 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 the use of the alcoholic stimulants which produce the 
 result commonly called drunkenness. 
 
 The innumerable accidents of life which call for the ex- 
 penditure of great mental or physical labor, exhaust the 
 vital force and disturb the equilibrium of the nervous system; 
 all emotional excess, all passional indulgence, carried beyond 
 the limits of moderation, produce the same effects, and call 
 forth the disease. 
 
 It is true, too, perhaps, that the attempts to repress the 
 gratification of man's natural passions, or to deny the ful- 
 filment of their proper functions to the various organs of 
 the body rouse the disease. 
 
 But mankind rarely sins in the direction of asceticism, 
 or extreme self-denial ; yet any departure from the condi- 
 tions of perfect health is productive of an abnormal state 
 against which nature protests, and to the cure of which she 
 bends all her sleepless activities ; she constantly prompts 
 the possessor of the organism which is out of gear to cease- 
 less effort to remedy the trouble, and man has discovered 
 that alcoholic stimulants will supply temporarily, his ner- 
 vous wants, and hush for a time, nature's complaint, and 
 demand for a remedy. 
 
 Some individuals have inherited an abnormal state of the 
 body, and those individuals must be treated as diseased 
 from their birth ; and the children of those who have de- 
 veloped this disease, must be carefully guarded from the 
 excitants calculated to call forth the malady which they 
 have probably inherited ; and, whenever it is possible, in all 
 cases other remedies should be applied in order to avoid 
 the peculiar symptoms that the use of alcohol gives rise to. . 
 
 Others, free from the active manifestations of the disease, 
 deliberately call them forth by the habitual use of alcoholic 
 drinks. 
 
 Man enjoys and seeks the mental excitation that is the 
 immediate effect of alcohol ; the sensations resultnig from 
 increased activity of the mind, and especially of theimagina- 
 
II 
 
 tion, are pleasurable to all, and have exceedingly great 
 attractions for many. At first stimulants are used to pro- 
 duce this mental exaltation and imaginative fervor ; the re- 
 action inevitably follows after the effects of the liquor have 
 passed away : the nervous force is insufficient for physical 
 needs ; the brain is dull and inactive, then comes the effort 
 to repair the loss of vigor and mental power b}-^ renewed 
 doses of stimulant; the economy of body and brain is dis- 
 turbed ; the disease is awakened ; the moderate use of 
 drink to supply the nervous want makes the " moderate 
 drinker " ; the reckless seeker for its excitement and he 
 becomics the " habitual drunkard." 
 
 Nature if left to herself can accomplish the cure of many 
 of the diseases of men, especially in their first manifesta- 
 tions ; and this disease, in the* extent to which the moderate 
 drinker is afflicted by it, can be cured by nature in a short 
 time, and without much suffering on the part of the patient ; 
 but where the reckless one has induced an advanced stage 
 of the disease, the sufferer can not resist the demands of 
 his cravings, and is a hopeless slave to an unconquerable 
 appetite, the consequences and symptom o vi7ii morbiLs in 
 an aggravated form. 
 
 Such are the conditions in general, which excite this 
 disease. The truth of the matter can be briefly stated in 
 this way, all nervous waste must be supplied in some way ; 
 nature's demands in this respect are imperative ; alcohol 
 substitutes for the natural nervous energy, a feverish ex- 
 citement which further weakens the impaired organs, and 
 finally creates a necessity for its own continued use to 
 prevent total collapse of functional power — excites a disease 
 in the attempt to renew exhausted powers, for which rest 
 and generous food would in most cases, have proved an all 
 sufficient prescription. 
 
 To avoid the appearance of inconsistency, and in order 
 that a perfectly clear understanding of the innumerable 
 causes which produce or rather admit of the development 
 
12 
 
 of vini morbus or inebriety may be had by the reader, it 
 will be well to explain in some detail. 
 
 ' Every effect must have a cause, there is no such thing 
 as " spontaneous generation," 
 
 No educated medical man doubts the existence of an 
 entity which is the cause of yellow fever, small pox, cholera, 
 measles, whooping cough, etc.; yet, this entity, the 
 '* materia morbi " has not been discovered ; we know that 
 it exists from its effects, and this existence is unquestion- 
 able, and forms part of the firmest conviction of all earnest 
 enquirers and thorough investigation of medical facts. 
 
 All through nature there is a continuous, never ceasing, 
 struggle for existence wherever circumstance and condi- 
 tions make it possible; but sometimes a germ seizes a foot- 
 hold, and forces its way to a full developement. 
 
 The desire for alcohol is a disease ; that the desire is a 
 morbid one is self-evident, and is shown by its effects upon 
 the organism. 
 
 There is something in the constitution of man which 
 craves stimulants ; alcohol meets this craving and feeds the 
 morbid principle and thereby developes it. 
 
 There is a continual struggle by man's higher nature to 
 vanquish this terrible enemy. The morbid principle which 
 creates cholera is an animated something, vegetable or 
 animal, and in man's body it meets with the requisites for 
 its development : so it is with the germ from which vini 
 inorbics is developed. 
 
 The germ of this disease exists ; but, an exciting cause 
 and favorable conditions are needful that it may arrive at 
 maturity. 
 
 The causes are many; it is well nigh impossible to enu- 
 merate them all — the conditions are so various, and so dif- 
 ficult of description. 
 
 It cannot be denied that vini inorbvs is transmitted from 
 parent to child ; this could not be from the nature of 
 things, were it not an actual, existent disease, independent 
 
13 
 
 of any siiperinduction by the use of alcoholic stimulants, 
 on the part of the unfortunate progeny. 
 
 Many authors have advanced theories and published 
 opinions upon the subject of drunkenness and its causes, 
 which give rise to the belief that the desire for stimulating 
 drinks is simply a craving of the system for some needed 
 supply that the food cannot furnish. This is evidently 
 erroneous ; the children of intemperate parents often pos- 
 sess a complete and perfect, physical development ; yet 
 these seldom escape the disease to which the parents were 
 subject. This fact has been often noticed, and in times 
 long since past, Plutarch said *' one drunkard begets 
 another" and Aristotle has put on record the fact, that 
 " drunken women bring forth children like unto themselves." 
 
 Modern observers recognise fully the baneful effects of 
 the use of alcoholic stimulants, but fail to note the origin 
 of the appetite for them ; but when the vini morbus has 
 reached a high point of development they do not hesitate 
 to admit the truth, and then call it *' disease " ; in its incip- 
 ient stage they seem to consider the desire for stimulants 
 as simply an exhibition of an abnormal appetite. 
 
 When fiercely hungry, the hungry man may eat too 
 much at one time, but he will not repeat the mistake delib- 
 erately, and at least feels none of that irresistible compul- 
 sion to excess which is the distinguishing peculiarity of the 
 appetite for drink, which removes it from the control of 
 volition or will, and gives it the unmistakable characteristic 
 of disease. 
 
 A thorough and exhaustive explanation of the process of 
 . the development of vini morbiLS from the first exhibition of 
 it to its mature development, involves an almost incredible 
 amount of labor. 
 
 It is easy to observe and record effects, and make no 
 attempt to detect, trace out, and explain the cause of them ; 
 but to determine and to clearly state, and prove the 
 real origin of a disease so generally misunderstood, in re- 
 
14 
 
 gard to which theories are so loose, and in connexion with 
 which prejudices, of opposite natures, are so bitter and 
 wide spread, is a task of no small magnitude. 
 
 When this disease has reached a certain stage of devel- 
 opment in any individual, every man of common sense 
 recognizes the trouble as a disease, and so thinks, and 
 speaks of it ; every scientist and medical man pronounces 
 it such, and neither consideft it in any other light; nor 
 does either of these two classes hold the unfortunate indi- 
 vidual any more responsible than they would if he had in- 
 herited some syphilitic infection, or mental eccentricity, 
 which, under favorable circumstances, would be developed 
 into insanity. They do not hesitate to call it disease. 
 
 The moderate and occasional drinkers are bitterly preju- 
 diced against the habitual drunkard, and denounce his 
 ''weakness" and " want of self-control"; for they must 
 accuse him to defend their own habits ; and the reason for 
 their perhaps unconscious injustice is sufficiently evident. 
 But, although this is intended for a scientific exposition of 
 drunkenness, its nature an dcauses, and would carefully 
 avoid all that is foreign to the realm of scientific truth, I 
 must, as a duty, state in the most emphatic terms that the 
 difference between the moderate drinker and the confirmed 
 drunkard is one of degree, and not of kind. In the one the 
 germ of the disease has reached maturity, and the dis- 
 ease has full control of the body and mind ; in the other it 
 is in process of development. 
 
 A fellow feeling should teach the "moderates" charity ; 
 for they are themselves in danger of finding the disease 
 escaped beyond their control ; and. Heaven knows, that the 
 most pitiable of God's creatures is the man who' is a victim 
 to the tormenting craving for alcoholic stimulants, con-[ 
 scious of his inability to resist it, and who supposes himself I 
 to have called into being — created the demon that haunts 
 him. 
 
 It is the belief of the author, that a large majority of 
 
15 
 
 those born in this age of the world have inherited veni 
 morbus. 
 
 Some few individuals escape the disease entirely ; that 
 is, they not only do not have the taste or desire for alco- 
 holic stimulants, but they even have a disgust for them, 
 which seems to be a constitutional repugnance caused by 
 some peculiarity of the physical system, forming unfavora- 
 ble conditions for the existence and development of the 
 germ. 
 
 It is even true that, sometimes, the offspring of drunken 
 parents experience a distaste for stimulants ; these cases, 
 however, are very rare, and form exceptions to the rule, for 
 which it is not easy to account ; yet the same fact may be 
 seen in the children of syphilitic parents ; it being the rule 
 that the offspring will be infected, yet some will escape the 
 infection, and live undisturbed by the consequences of the 
 sins or misfortunes of their parents. 
 
 Passing by the exceptions, and treating of the general 
 rule, I proceed to give a brief description of the cause of 
 the disease. 
 
 This disease does not manifest itself, generally, until the 
 age of puberty, and often, not until later in life. Yet 
 where the germ has a foothold in the system, if the indi- 
 vidual be allowed to act without restraint, the nervous dis- 
 turbances co-existing with the change from bo3'hood to 
 manhood and the development of the organs of sex, make 
 a favorable condition for the progress of the disease and 
 the slightest encouragement on the part of the individual 
 is sure to bring it out. 
 
 Should restraint, or want of opportunity, prevent indul- 
 gence and the germ be allowed to remain quiescent in the 
 system — where the disease has been inherited from parents 
 afflicted with it in its most advanced stage — the individual 
 will experience a strange desire for something which the 
 food can not afford. The craving of the germ for the nu- 
 trition and supplies through which it may grow to the fully 
 
i6 
 
 developed disease produces restlessness, irritability of 
 temper, lassitude, depression of spirits, etc. etc. At this 
 point, no doubt can exist that, with a proper course of 
 treatment, which should be principally hygienic, the disease 
 might be throttled in its infancy. 
 
 Ignorance of the true nature of the difficulty, on the part 
 of most of mankind, renders this summary disposal of the 
 disease well nigh impossible. The victim of the malady 
 yields to the governing impulse of his nature, and soon 
 passes irretrievably under the complete control of the appe- 
 tite which is to desi"roy the body, and rob him of health, 
 wealth and respectability. His fellow-men look on with a 
 curiously mixed expression of pity and contempt. They 
 will ridicule his weakness, and deride the vice of which 
 they assert he is guilty ; yet they make no practical effort 
 for his redemption, or salvation. 
 
 The want of sympathy for the unfortunate sufferer — this 
 harsh, and bitterly false, criticism of the acts of one who 
 cannot be held responsible for them, on the part of pro- 
 fessed christians — this sharp example of " man's inhumanity 
 to man" shocks the thoughtful man who knows the misera- 
 ble falsehood of the charge, and feels the utter helplessness 
 of the struggling victim of an irresistable propensity. As 
 well may we hold the patient suffering from high fever re- 
 sponsible for the torments of thirst which well nigh drive 
 him mad — as well hold the lunatic responsible for the wild 
 incoherence of his insane imaginings — as well hold respon- 
 sible the sufferer from any other disease for the peculiar 
 symptoms which the disease manifests ! 
 
 These social and moral critics, in their ignorance and 
 uncharitableness, like the Pharisee of Holy writ " thank 
 God that they are not -as other men " forgetting that the 
 moral scales of the Almighty alone are impartially true, and 
 that the relative standing of individuals at the judgment 
 will be determined by a strict general average ; and it is 
 apt to be the case that the victims of intemperance, barring 
 
17 
 
 this one fact, are among the noblest of men, though impo- 
 tent againt this as against any other disease with wliich 
 humanity is afflicted. 
 
 The time is fast approaching when this false verdict will 
 be reversed, and such help as man can tender to his fellow 
 against disease will supplant this contemptuous bitterness 
 of derision and misconception. 
 
 Not very long ago, all " the ills that flesh is heir to " 
 were attributed to the direct, personal intervention of Prov- 
 idence and were looked upon as special visitations for par- 
 ticular sins of indiA'iduals. So extensive was the effect of 
 this superstitious absurdity that it actually retarded the 
 progress of medical science, and when Jenner discovered 
 and published to a wondering world his grand discovery of 
 vaccination as a defense against the attacks of small pox — 
 a discovery so pregnant with immeasurable good to all 
 mankind, he was looked upon as a wild empiric and a flou- 
 ter of Providence. 
 
 All men cannot be poets, philosophers or statesmen ; 
 yet all are supposed to possess a moral nature sufficiently 
 developed to instruct them in right and wrong, and are 
 popularly supposed to have the power to choose the right. 
 Hence it is argued that every man has the power to resist 
 the temptation to drink, " if he only chooses so to do." 
 
 That this belief is entirely erroneous is evident from the 
 facts set forth in the preceding pages, I certainly shall 
 not be at a loss to convince any unprejudiced mind of the 
 fact that the individual is incapable of resisting his craving 
 for alcoholic stimulants, when " through habit," to use a 
 very common expression, he has established the disease. 
 Many confirmed drunkards possess a moral nature of a 
 high tone, discover noble and geuCTous impulses, and en- 
 tertain a great horror and disgust for their unconquerable 
 craving for drink. Such an unfortunate is an example by 
 which I propose to illustrate the course of this all consu- 
 ming malady, viui morbus. 
 3 
 
1 8 
 
 A noble boy, generous, frank and fearless, looking for- 
 ward to life's triumphs, proud of his conscious power to 
 compass them, and earnest to put forth the efforts which he 
 knows are called for, if he would realize his bright antici- 
 pations and splendid possibilities, has reached the age of 
 puberty ; and, with the waking to life of his passional in- 
 stincts, has found all his preconceived ideas of possible 
 pleasures and happiness overthrown, and a new interpreta- 
 tion of this life's meaning and its enjoyments revealed to 
 him as by the magic of an enchanter's wand. As these new 
 instincts arise and compel recognition, a purely physical 
 change takes place within his frame, and, with other new 
 desires, the germ of vini morbus stirs itself and seeks sus- 
 tenance and growth. 
 
 An undefinable want of something forces itself upon his 
 attention ; be soon finds this want is met by the use of 
 alcoholic drinks. He is satisfied, for the time, and con- 
 gratulates himself that his knowledge of the means for 
 enjoyment and happiness is completed and thoroughly 
 rounded out by this acquisition of the experience of the 
 " toning" qualities of intoxicating drinks. The buoyancy 
 of his youth is made yet more buoyant by their effects ; 
 the brightness of his anticipations rendered yet more bright 
 by their influence, his strength made stronger, and his 
 ultimate success in the world painted in yet more glowing 
 colors upon his imagination through indulgence in them. 
 Under cover of the general disturbance of his whole sys- 
 tem which takes place at this time of life, the insidious 
 disease has put in its claim upon him, and deluding him by 
 the specious gilding which it adds to the confident 
 strength, and brilliant promise of his young days, steals 
 upon him all unconscious of its approach and utterly heed- 
 less of its nature, until the glamour of its delusion finds a 
 place in his belief as the discovery of a pleasant and valu- 
 able truth. He thoughtlessly yields to the growing impulse, 
 and, day by day, complies with the increasing demand for 
 
19 
 
 fresh aliment. Stronger and stronger grows the craving 
 for the excitation of the poison ; and more and more fre- 
 quent, as the disease is more and more developed — less and 
 less, hour by hour, grows the strength of will needed to 
 resist this enemy of comfort and happiness which his unsus- 
 pecting innocence has admitted to the possession of a 
 foot-hold in every part of his frame, body, brains and blood. 
 He doubts for a long time if the suspicion of its poisonous 
 nature which, at times, forces itself upon him is not a mis- 
 take ; he argues that it really strengthens him, in mind and 
 body, and tries desperately to see in it a friend and helper. 
 Soon the germ has developed to the matured disease, and 
 established a demand for fresh indulgence to correct the 
 physical suffering and to relieve the mental incapacity 
 which the use of stimulants has brought about. They 
 have unnaturally excited body and mind ; they must again 
 be resorted to in order to make the inevitable reaction from 
 that excitement endurable. At last the sufferer wakes to 
 a dreadful realization of his danger and helplessness ; his 
 intelligence, and daily experience reveal to him the fact 
 that his indulgence has almost made of him a drunkard ; 
 but he still believes that he can retrieve himself from the 
 control of this appetite, which threatens to become all ab- 
 sorbing, and he makes honest and noble resolves to aban- 
 don the use of alcoholic stimulants, " to-morrow!' But that 
 to-morrow never comes ; his weakened intellect pleases it- 
 self, for a while, with a fine picture of the determined re- 
 bellion against his insatiable tyrant which is to be 
 inaugurated at some indefinite point of the immediate 
 future, and meanwhile in the flush of his anticipated vic- 
 tory he welds yet more firmly the chains which bind his 
 will, and feeds to a greater strength the enemy upon which 
 he intends to declare war, — intends, but never does. That 
 curious physiological effect which is characteristic of the 
 use of alcohol, dethronement of the intellect — impairment 
 of the reasoning powers — now supervenes, and this once 
 
20 
 
 proud specimen of mental strength and physical health, 
 has become the sport of a fearful disease — an automaton, 
 thinking, moving, acting, as the spring of all his activities 
 shall dictate — the slave of vini morbus. The desire for 
 the indulgence in drink, has reached such a height that he 
 has lost all power to control it, and his sole refuge from its 
 demands is in a lunatic asylum, or through delirium tre- 
 mens, that darkest of all the shadows that loom over the 
 valley of death, he finds respite in the grave. 
 
 During the whole course of the disease, the man's moral 
 and physical nature, struggles more or less determinedly 
 against it ; he promises himself that each indulgence shall 
 be the last, and then — treats the resolution. 
 
 How many men make an honest resolve every twenty- 
 four hours — three hundred and sixty -five times a year — that 
 they will drink no more, yet how few ever carry this resolu- 
 tion into effect ! and why do they not take this step, on 
 the taking of which they feel that their safety depends } 
 They do not, simply because they cannot. 
 The individual is the slave of a terrible disease which 
 his intelligence tells him is destroying him : conscience 
 protests against the commission of suicide , experience 
 daily repeated in the lives of others, warns him that he is 
 rushing on to a most fearful death prefaced by a miserable 
 existence of horrible suffering, embittered by the reproaches 
 and contempt of all the world, yet, he cannot arrest his un- 
 willing progress to such an end ; still some of his fellows, 
 who are witnesses of his vain struggles to regain a lost 
 manhood, and auditors of his expressions of awful despair 
 at his powerlesness, dare to deny that he is suffering from 
 disease, and refuse to pity where they will not help. 
 
 As the disease gains ground from day to day, disorder 
 of the vital organs follows, often resulting in organic 
 disease. 
 
 The craving for the stimulant increases ; the disordered 
 organs emphasize the demand with one of their own, to 
 
21 
 
 supply a want of power to discharge their functions, which 
 has been generated by the use of the alcohol. 
 
 These organic disorders, and consequent weaknesses, 
 are generally the cause of death to the moderate, constant 
 drinker, 
 
 Vml morbus oftens results in death through delirmm 
 tremens, one of the manifestations of its effects. 
 
 Delirium tremens is not a disease, /^r 5^, but is a result 
 ot the antagonism and conflict which continually goes on 
 between vini morbus and the organism in which it is de- 
 veloped ; more will be said on this subject under the head 
 of delirium tremens. 
 
 The reader now understands that the germ, existing at 
 birth, asserts its place in the body, and demands nourish- 
 ment and support, and that alcoholic drinks furnish that 
 needed sustenance, and that alcoholic drinks taken into the 
 system call into activity, and feed to maturity the germ of 
 vini mof bus. The disease progresses steadily and surely, 
 until it has gained the strength which gives it the mastery 
 over body and mind, and the sufferers are helpless to re- 
 sist it. At the begining of the disease it might have been 
 successfully combated, and the individuals not only been 
 saved from its fatal results, but, also, from the diseases 
 which are concomitant with or induced by vini morbus. 
 
 Can nothing be done } 
 
 Will not science assert here her holy mission to diminish 
 the suffering and mortality induced by it among the sons 
 of men, as science has already done in small pox and yel- 
 low fever — or is vini morbus to continue its work of de- 
 struction until man becomes more and more degenerate 
 through its agency and is in danger of forfeiting his proud 
 pre-eminence as the head of all created things .'* 
 
 Vini morbus, like the diseases originating from malarial 
 poisons, manifests itself in many ways. 
 
 No two physical constitutions are alike in all respects, 
 and this infinite variety gives rise to a corresponding dif- 
 
22 
 
 ference in the symptoms and consequences of the disease 
 in different individuals. 
 
 A sufficiently accurate classification of those who use, 
 and suffer from the use of intoxicating drinks may be 
 reached by dividing them into four classes as follows : 
 
 1st, the constant drinker; 2d, the moderate drinker; 
 3d, the occasional drinker ; 4th, the periodical drunkard. 
 
 The constant drinker is the man who consumes a certain 
 quantity of alcohol every day ; he is never content or sat- 
 isfied until he has taken his " ration " ; he is never drunk, 
 but he is never free from the influence of liquor; he walks 
 his daily round of duty, attending to his business with no 
 apparent disturbance of mind or body ; he retains the re- 
 spect and esteem of his friends and associates ; no one 
 suspects that he is a victim to vini morbus, until the disease 
 has reached such a high point of development as to effect 
 his brains, or to disturb the functions of the other organs 
 of his body. He does not often die of vini morbus itself, 
 but falls a victim to some one of the diseases which are 
 attendant upon vini morbus, generated by the use of alco- 
 holic stmiulants. He oftens dies what is called " a natural 
 death," and perhaps, no one but his physician knows the 
 cause, - 
 
 The moderate drinker only differs from the constant 
 drinker, in the fact that he does not drink as often, or as 
 much ; the progress of the disease in him is proportionally 
 slow, and may never reach as serious a point of develop- 
 ment ; yet, usually the moderate drinker leaves the world 
 soonerlthan he otherwise would, hurried off the stage by 
 some one of the many physical ailments to which his vini 
 morbus has given aid and countenance. 
 
 The occasional drinker pursues no definite course ; each 
 case varies with the individual; such an one may be said 
 to drink only when the "paroxysm" comes on; for a 
 great part of the time he feels no craving for the stimulant, 
 or uneasiness in consequence of abstaining from its use ; 
 
23 
 
 but, at times, the disease from which he is never exempt, 
 is stirred to unusual activity by some exciting cause, and 
 its demands are satisfied, and for a longer or shorter period, 
 cease; pleasant companionships and the excitement of so- 
 cial pleasures, seem to be conditions favorable to calling 
 forth his desire for alcoholic drinks; the smell of liquors and 
 wines is, apparently, sufficient to cause this excitation of 
 his usually dormant infirmity ; there would appear to be'\ 
 an analogy between 7'/;2/?/2^r^?^i", in the case of the occa-j 
 sional drinker, and man's sexual appetite. Many men wilff 
 pursue their regular course of life, and be occupied with| 
 their business, to the utter exclusion of any thoughts of! 
 sexual indulgence ; but should they see any individual of 
 the opposite sex, whose beauty of form is remarkable, their 
 passion is at once excited to a degree which makes its 
 gratification seem to them an imperative necessity. In 
 both cases the desire exists in the system ; in both circum- 
 stances and favorable conditions rouse it to activity 
 
 The most un fortunate of all the victims of vini morSusjs 
 he who is knownto medical men as the " periodical drunk- 
 ard." "In him the disease finds full development, and in 
 him the exhibition of its terrible consequences, and power 
 for harm, shocks the civilized world, and appeals to man's 
 profoundest pity, while it excites feelings of disgust and 
 dismay. 
 
 He, from the very nature of things, attracts the attention 
 and is the object of the closest study of the physician ; he 
 is the subject of prayer in the churches, and at the home 
 altar; he is the object for whose " reformation " ali the 
 influence of temperance organizations is exerted ; he it is 
 in whose degradation, infatuation, and hclplcsncbs against 
 the tyranical appetite of which he is the bond slave, the 
 world recognizes the true nature of the disease sharply 
 defined in all its fearful characteristics. 
 
 For him, and his release from the affliction which de- 
 stroys him, prayers to the Almighty rise, day and night, in 
 
24 
 
 a ceaseless stream of supplicating agony from the tremb- 
 ling lips of gray-haired parents, whose fondest hopes have 
 been changed to bitter sorrow, whose prideful anticipations 
 have culminated in disgrace and misery: from heart-broken 
 wives and trembling children, crowding and shivering 
 around the cold hearth-stone of the once happy home. 
 
 With the periodical drunkard there are constantly, and 
 generally regularly recurring paroxysms of the disease, 
 which can only be stilled by the unlimited use of stimulants. 
 We find this characteristic of periodicity in many of the 
 diseases resulting from malarial poisons. In " fever and 
 ague " the disease will recur at regular intervals, more or 
 less frequent, in accordance with the constitutional pecu- 
 liarities of the patient. In some the attacks occur as often 
 as once every twenty-four hours ; in others at intervals of 
 seven days — and this periodical recurrence marks the 
 mature stage of the disease vini morbus. 
 
 This periodical attack of drunkenness compels recog- 
 nition from every intelligent and thoughtful man as a dis- 
 ease. Its every characteristic is such as stamps its true 
 nature beyond the shadow of a doubt — witness the impera- 
 tive nature of its demands, the utter inability of the sufferer 
 to bear his pains, and his inevitable and unavoidable appli- 
 cation to what he knows will temporarily relieve them ; 
 witness the horror and disgust of him who is so irresistibly 
 impelled to resort to the remedies ; witness the impotent 
 struggles of the victim to escape from the dire necessit}^ 
 Consider the character of the interests and obligations, 
 which are powerless to withold him — the highest and most 
 sacred known to humanity. Try and conceive of the force 
 of an impulse which the prayers and tears of parents, wife 
 and children can not restrain, and then, laugh, if you can, 
 at the comic portrayal of such unspeakable affliction and 
 misery, by a Gough, or Billy Ross, who enrapture a gaping 
 crowd by their imitations of the phrenzied incoherence, 
 the stammering imbecility, and the bodily paralysis of the 
 
25 
 
 victim of the most deadly and incurable ill known to the 
 experience of mortal man ! 
 
 It is well for the pockets "bf these reformatory frauds to 
 be able to draw laughing crowds to their nightly perform- 
 ances and equally creditable to their shrewdness and tact. 
 It is creditable too, to their powers of giving dramatic in- 
 terest to their harangues. But, what can the intelligent 
 observer of the evils which they pretend to aim to correct, 
 what can the thoughtful, christian spectator of the torments 
 and misery they hold up to ridicule think of their moral 
 sense, or practical philanthopy ^ What a shock would be 
 felt by any decent audience to whom a lecturer should tra- 
 vestie the death throes of the small pox patient, the spasms 
 of the sufferer from tetanus, cholera, or y ellow fever .'' 
 Would not the hiss of outraged humanity, and the frown of 
 christian charity greet the attempt, and compel to silence 
 him who should dare so to affront m.an's appreciation of the 
 misery of his fellow man, and his boundless pity for una- 
 voidable suffering and woe ? 
 
 So terrible are the effects of this disease that they throw 
 around it all the awful dignity of the greatest and most 
 irretrievable misfortune that can overtake any individual 
 of our race. Its terrible import to mankind compels from 
 every earnest well-wisher to humanity a most scrutinizing 
 examination of its real nature and a most thorough com- 
 parison of the facts of its progress and culmination in dif- 
 ferent individuals, as well as a most careful consideration 
 of the possible practical defense against its attacks. 
 
 To treat it with levity, or to ridicule its nature, its phases, 
 or its results, is as though one should illustrate to an audi- 
 ence, with a Jumping Jack, .the conJ:ortions and agonies of 
 the wretch who dies by the halter. 
 
 Such an illustration would meet universal execration ; 
 yet such in reality, less only in degree, are the elocutionary 
 buffooneries of a Gough, or a Billy Ross in their temper- 
 ance entertainments. 
 4 
 
26 
 
 The sole remedy lies in a trustworthy knowledge of the 
 actual nature of the disease and in practical measures based 
 upon that knowledge; all else will be vain. 
 
 Specious theories may be invented, eloquent sophistries 
 may be delivered to applauding audiences, but the reform- 
 atory attempts, built upon such unstable foundations must, 
 and will, and do, fail in an almost incredibly short time — 
 were we to judge of their probable permanence from the 
 intensity of the interest which such theories awaken and 
 the amouQt of enthusiasm which such sophistical eloquence 
 calls forth. 
 
 Where are the thousands who, from time to time, enroll 
 themselves under the banners of the temperance societies, 
 as the result of such appeals — back in their chains — fallen 
 to a yet lower depth of degradation — sunk in a yet more 
 hopeless slough of despond, because of the failure of the 
 means which were to save them from inebriety, and to 
 reinstate them in their self-respect and the regard and 
 esteem of their relatives and friends. This result was in- 
 evitable, for they were misled by false theories to depend 
 upon worthless means of redemption; and fell again before 
 the power of the destroyer, robbed, by their experience, of 
 that last thing to desert humanity in its misfortunes — hope. 
 They did not know the nature of their malady, consequently 
 they failed to apply the needed remedy. 
 
 Periodical vini morbus may be said to result invariably/ 
 in some form of lunacy, unless the subject of it be carrie4 
 off by some affection induced by the use of alcoholic stinv 
 ulants. The disease gains fresh strength and power witn 
 each indulgence of the inebriate, and he becomes less abl^ 
 to withstand the attacks which are more frequent in their/ 
 recurrence, because of the injury done to the vital organs^ 
 Finally the sufferer decides that resistance is useless, and 
 gives himself up for lost, foregoing further effort for relief. 
 He sometimes finds a refuge in a "drunkard's home" 
 through the charity of those who have watched his strug- 
 gles, seen his defeat, and pitied his wretched fate. 
 
27 
 
 Among the noblest institutions that the philanthropy of 
 the age has founded are these retreats, where the miserable 
 outcast can hide from the reproaches of relatives and the 
 scorn of the world — and where he finds the warm reception 
 accorded by nobte hearts — the careful oversight which he 
 needs so sadly, and the only course of treatment which can 
 work his cure. If the disease has not advanced too far, 
 he may here be taught how to get the better of it ; and, if 
 it has not wholly ruined his mind and body, he may some- 
 time return to the world to fill the position of a useful 
 member of society. Is disease a sin? if not what shall 
 excuse the coldness, and bitterly expressed contempt of 
 those good people who can see in the drunkard nothing to 
 help or pity, but everything to censure and condemn. 
 
 " Weakness " is a component of the character of every 
 man born of woman ; and if " weakness " is to deny to him 
 who suffers from it earthly help and eternal salvation. Heaven 
 will not be over populated from this world, and the domin- 
 ions of his Satanic Majesty will be crowded; but the 
 "weakness " of drunkenness will not send the largest quota 
 to that populous realm. 
 
 When will the world learn that it is useless to preach 
 morality as a cure for a physical disease .'* 
 
 Vint morbus often results in a species of mania, in this 
 last described instance of the periodical drunkard. Dr. 
 Hutcheson in the report of the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum 
 (pp. 39-44), gives the f-ollowing confirmation of my position. 
 I quote him at length : — 
 
 " Gino-mania!' — " This form of mania," he observes, 
 " is quite different from drunkenness, which, however may 
 lead to it." 
 
 "The diagnostic mark of the disease being the irresisti- 
 ble propensity to swallow stimulants in enormous doses, 
 whenever, wherever and however they can be procured. 
 There are individuals who at the festive board invariably 
 become excited, if not intoxicated, but who are otherwise 
 
28 
 
 habitually sober, and in the course of the year drink much 
 less than others who never appear to be under the influence 
 of stimulants. Others indulge in their potations in a reg- 
 ular manner, and dail}) consume a larger quantity of liquor 
 than is consistent v/ith good health or sobriety. All these, 
 however, possess self-control, and can at any time refrain 
 from stimulants; but those affected with the disease can 
 not do so, however convinced they may be of the impropri- 
 ety of yielding to their propensity, or however desirous 
 they may be to subdue it. I repeat, that the disease does 
 not consist in the mere habit cf becoming intoxicated, but 
 in the irresistable impulse which drives the unhappy slave 
 of appetite to do that which he knows to be pernicious and 
 wrong, and which in the interval of his paroxysms, he views 
 with loathing and disgust. He derives no pleasure from 
 taste, for he gulps down the liquor, of whatever kind it may 
 be ; or from society, for he generally avoids society ; but 
 he only derives a temporary satisfaction from the gratifica- 
 tion of his insane impulse, or rather from freeing himself 
 from the overwhelming misery which the non-gratification 
 of his impulse inflicts upon him. The disease appears in 
 three forms — the acute, the periodic, and the chronic." 
 
 " The acicte is the rarest of the three. I have seen it 
 occur from haemorrhage in the puerperal state, in recovery 
 from fevers, from excessive venereal indulgence, and in 
 some forms of dyspepsia. When it proceeds from any of 
 the first three causes, it is easily cured by restoring the 
 health of the patient. When it arises from the fourth cause 
 mentioned, it is not so easily removed, and is very apt to 
 assume the chronic form. 
 
 '*ThQ periodic or paroxysmal form is much more frequent 
 than the acute. This is often observed in individuals who 
 have suffered from injuries of the head, females during 
 pregnancy, at the catamenial periods, on the approach of 
 the critical period and afterwards, and in men whose brains 
 are overworked. When it occurs from injuries of the head. 
 
29 
 
 the case is hopeless. In the other instances it may be 
 cured. In some cases, it occurs whenever the individual 
 partakes of stimulants. In these, total abstinence is the 
 only remedy. Like the form about to be mentioned, it is 
 frequently hereditary — being derived from a parent pre- 
 disposed to insanity, or addicted to intemperance. In such 
 cases the probability of cure is very small. The individ- 
 ual thus affected abstains for weeks or months from all 
 stimulants, and frequently loathes them for the same period. 
 But by degrees he becomes uneasy, listless, and depressed, 
 feels incapable of application, and restless, and at last 
 begins to drink until he is intoxicated. He awakes from a 
 restless sleep, seeks again a repetition of the intoxicating 
 dose, and continues the same course for a week or longer. 
 Then a stage of apathy and depression follows, during 
 which he feels a loathing for stimulants, is the prey of re- 
 morse, and regrets bitterly his yielding to his malady. 
 This is followed by fresh vigor, diligent application to busi- 
 ness, and a determined resolution never again to give way. 
 But, alas ! sooner or later the paroxysm recurs, and the 
 same scene is re-enacted, till ultimately, unless the disease 
 be checked, he falls a victim to the physical effects of in- 
 temperance — becomes maniacal, or imbecile, or affected 
 with the form of the disease next to be mentioned." 
 
 "Of all the forms of oino-maniay the most common is the 
 chronic. The causes of this are injuries of the head, dis- 
 eases of the heart, hereditary predisposition, and intemper- 
 ance. This is by far the most incurable form of the malady. 
 The patient is incessantly under the most overwhelmning 
 desire for stimulants. He will disregard every impediment, 
 sacrifice comfort and reputation, withstand the claims of 
 affection, consign his family to misery and disgrace, and 
 deny himself the common necessaries of life, to gratify his 
 insane propensity. In the morning morose and fretful, 
 disgusted with himself, and dissatisfied with all around him, 
 weak and tremulous, incapable of any exertion either of 
 
30 
 
 mind or body, his first feeling is a desire for stimulants, 
 with every fresh dose of which he recovers a certain degree 
 of vigor, both of body and mind, till he feels comparatively 
 comfortable. A few hours pass without the craving being; 
 so strong ; but it soon returns, and the patient drinks till 
 intoxication is produced. Then succeed the restless sleep, 
 the suffering, the comparative tranquility, the excitement, 
 and the state of insensibility ; and unless absolutely se- 
 cluded from all means of gratifying the propensity, the 
 patient continues the same course till he dies, or becomes 
 imbecile. This is that fearful state protrayed by Charles 
 Lamb, in which reason revisits the mind only during the 
 transient period of incipient intoxication." 
 
 " It must be remarked, that in all these forms of the dis- 
 ease the patient is perfectly incapable of self-control ; that 
 he is impelled by an irresistible impulse to gratify his pro- 
 pensity and that while the paroxysm is on him he is regard- 
 less of his health, his life, and all that can make life dear 
 to him; that he is prone to dissipate his property, and 
 easily becomes the prey of the designing ; and that in many 
 cases he exhibits a propensity to commit homicide or sui- 
 cide. He is thus dangerous to himself and others ; and 
 however responsible he may have been for bringing the 
 disease on himself, his responsibility ceases as soon as he 
 comes under the influence of the malady. The disease, 
 however, may not be brought on by the act of the individ- 
 ual, and then it is clear at once, that neither directly nor 
 indirectly can he be deemed responsible. But suppose that 
 it were the result of his previous conduct, I repeat that 
 however culpable he may have been for that, he is not a 
 responsible being while afflicted with the malady ; for I 
 can see no distinction between this form of the disease, and 
 any other which has been induced by the habits or acts of 
 the individual." 
 
 *' The only chance of cure or alleviation is from attention 
 tb the health, and abstinence from intoxicating liquors. 
 
I Neither can be secured so long as the patient is at large ;, 
 land no amendment can be depended on, unless he has 
 jundergone a long course of discipline and probation. Con- 
 sidering, then, that the individual is irresponsible and dan- 
 gerous to himself and others — that, if left uncontrolled, he 
 will ruin his family — and that his disease can be treated 
 only in an asylurrj, it is not only merciful to him and his 
 relatives, but necessary for the security of the public, that 
 he be deprived of the liberty which he abuses and perverts, 
 and that he should be prevented from committing crimes 
 instead of being punished, or, I should rather say, being 
 the object of vindictive infliction after he has perpetrated 
 them. So convinced are some affected with the periodical 
 form of the disease, of the necessity of being controlled, 
 that when the first symptoms of their paroxysm are felt, 
 they voluntarily enter an asylum, and remain until the 
 attack has passed off. These, however, are men of stronger 
 minds, though, with all their strength, incapable of resist- 
 ing the disease ; and, surely, what they feel to be their only 
 refuge to avoid this impending evil, it can not be unjust or 
 harsh to force on others whose minds are more impaired. 
 Such cases soon become rational in an asylum ; and when 
 the individual can so far control himself as voluntarily to 
 surrender his liberty on the first premonitory symptoms of 
 the malady presenting themselves, he may be dismissed 
 after a shorter probation. It is otherwise with those who 
 have not that self-control, or who fancy that they are un- 
 justly interfered with when checked in their career. They 
 require a much longer probation, which should be increased 
 at each return of their malady." 
 
 " Of the chronic form, I have only seen one case com- 
 pletely cured, and that after a seclusion of two years' dura- 
 tion. In general, it is not cured ; and no sooner is the 
 patient liberated, than he manifests all the symptoms of his 
 disease. Paradoxical though the statement may appear to 
 be, such individuals are sane only when confined in an 
 Asylum." 
 
32 
 
 The above evidence that vini morbus is produced by other 
 causes than the habit of using alcohoHc stimulants is indis- 
 putable, and shows conclusively the existence of a morbid 
 principle — a disease — of which the drunkard's craving is 
 but a symptom. 
 
 Delirmm tremens is an exhibition of the effects of this 
 disease: the pathology of delirium tremens is generally 
 wholly misunderstood, and even to medical men it is un- 
 known, or so doubtfully apparent that no authoritative 
 explanation of it can be given ; it is certain, only, that it is 
 one of the results of excess in the use of alcoholic stimu- 
 lants ; but, it is also true that it is the result of certain 
 physical ills wdth which alcohol has nothing to do, and 
 therefore demands for its explanation the existence of some 
 morbid cause other than alcoholic excess. May it not be 
 true that my proposition of the germ of disease as exist- 
 ent, and finding its exhibition in delirium tremens under 
 the excitation of alcoholic stimulants, and called to the same 
 exhibition by other causes, is the real explanation of this 
 phase of physical ill so well known to physicians } 
 
 That it is most frequently called forth by excess in the 
 use of liquor is undeniable, but it is not always ; and may 
 we not logically look behind the effect for the cause, and 
 refuse to accept the mere exhibition of symptoms as the 
 real entity, germ, origin, morbific cause ? 
 
 Granted the existence of the morbific influence — the 
 disease which I have call vini morbus — and a rational ex- 
 planation is arrived at, and an easy understanding is attain- 
 able of the facts shown by the sufferers from various diseases; 
 this germ can be called into activity from its latent state by 
 other provocatives than ardent spirits, but once aroused, it 
 demands the use of them until this consequence delirium 
 tremens ensues. But other causes will excite it and the 
 same result supervene without the aid of alcoholic 
 stimulants. 
 
 Moreover, alcohol cannot be the cause, for delirium tre- 
 
33 
 
 mens never occurs until the system refuses the alcoholic 
 stimulant, or it is withdrawn suddenly from some unavoid- 
 able necessity. In other words, delirium tremens is due to 
 the development of a germ of disease that is usually latent 
 in the system, which the use of alcohol will develop, as will 
 other agencies. I am of the opinion that this morbific 
 germ exists in every one born in the present age, and re- 
 quires in different individuals different degrees of provo- 
 cation to call it into full activity ; that the desire for 
 alcoholic stimulants is one of its symptoms, and the most 
 usual one ; that the use of liquors is the means of its de- 
 velopment in each case. All have it, but, it will die, if 
 nutrition be carefully and persistently denied it — or, to use 
 a common expression men can " outgrow it." The last, 
 most terrible scene in the drama of misfortune and misery 
 enacted by the victims of vini morbus, is that of delirium 
 tremens ; no known human suffering surpasses in intensity 
 that of the patient ; for the instrument of the acutest 
 agony, the nervous system and the seat of recognition of 
 all sensations, pleasurable or otherwise — the brain — are 
 directly, and to a great extent solely involved in the mis- 
 chief, and concerned in the production of the horrors and 
 pains which are characteristic of this exhibition of the 
 disease. The height of nervous irritability, combined with 
 a disordered, chaotic wreck of brain and will power, make 
 the sufferer impressible to the gentlest breeze of heaven, 
 to a degree which amounts to torture ; and the shattered, 
 trembling, ruined intellect, recognizes each sensation that 
 reaches it, through the tense, but uncontrollable nerves, 
 as a premonition of evil or the herald of an actual attack 
 of the direst troubles, to which it gives the shape of all 
 that is repulsive and injurious to mortals. The wretched 
 inebriate has drank until his outraged stomach refuses to 
 retain any further dose of the poison ; or, perhaps, the 
 compulsion of interfering friends has rendered it impossi- 
 5 
 
34 
 
 ble to have recourse to the stimulant which alone can stop 
 the threatening physical and mental anarchy. Sleep is 
 denied the patient or short and broken slumbers filled with; 
 the phantasmagoria of insanity and every image of the 
 most trying horror, implying bodily harm of the worst 
 kind, add only to the strain on body and mind. Dreams, 
 if such fearful imaginings can be called dreams, make the 
 sleep he gets, through the effect of utter physical exhaust- 
 ion, a lurid picture of a realized hell ; his waking hours are 
 filled with appearances boding earthly destruction, all as 
 real to his consciousness as if they had an actual, tangible 
 existence ; whether dozing or awake, he lies in a tonure 
 as real as has ever been any part of his life's experience. 
 Mental power is gone from him so completely that he can- 
 not persuade himself of the unrealities of the phantoms 
 and shapes of horror that mock and gibe at him ; the 
 assurances of others are powerless to bring him conviction 
 of the actual realities about him, or to prove to him that 
 his imps and devils, snakes, wild beasts and creeping in- 
 sects, are the products of his disordered imagination. All 
 self-control is lost ; no help can be given him by his shud- 
 dering friends, and he must endure all the torments of the 
 damned, until death, in one of his oft recurring paroxysms, 
 or complete insanity, ends the scene. 
 
 Recovery from the attacks of delirium tremens is very 
 frequent where they have not recurred often ; but death, 
 or insanity will be the result to any one who hazards many 
 repetitions of them. Yet, such is the strength of this dis- 
 ease — imii morbus — that all the complicated horrors of delir- 
 ium tremens are insufficient to deter the victim of it from 
 an indulgence which invites a return of all its unspeakable 
 misery and woe. 
 
 The spectacle of these sufferings has warned many a one 
 who has yet retained sufficient strength of will, to abandon 
 the use of alcoholic stimulants ; upon many another the 
 warning has been wasted ; for they flattered themselves 
 
35 
 
 that they never could be weak enough to sink to such A 
 depth of misery and self-abandonment — and too many have 
 waked at length, to the consciousness that they have fed 
 in their fancied security, the monster — vini-morbiis — until 
 its strength laughs at their powers of resistance, and mocks 
 their vain, vacillating attempt to avoid the awful chain 
 which it has thrown around them. 
 
 Descriptions of mortal agony are not pleasant to read. 
 One such of the effects of this disease, as evidenced in 
 delirium tremens, will be sufficient for my purpose, for I 
 do not propose that my readers shall " sup on horrors." 
 
 " Utter loss of appetite was followed by the impossibility 
 of retaining upon the stomach even the whiskey which I 
 needed so much to strengthen my trembling nerves, and 
 to remove the film from my eyes, and to relieve the depress- 
 ion of spirits and the feeling of impending misfortune with 
 which I was nearly distracted. The attempt to sleep at 
 night was useless ; I could not ; wild fancies were flitting 
 through my brain , I saw, as distinctly as I ever saw any- 
 thing in my life, gibbering, scowling, mocking imps -all 
 about me. Such intervals of semi-unconsciousness — 
 it could not be called sleep — as I sank into, for a few 
 moments at a time, were crowded with intensest agony. 
 I felt as though swarms of insects were passing over my 
 body in every direction, \ felt, I saw, I killed some of them ; 
 but, fresh hordes supplied the place of those I destroyed 
 and I was swimming in a sea of insect blood and crushed 
 bodies. I smelt the foul odor of their carcasses; no suffer- 
 ing or danger experienced in my sober moments was ever 
 more real ; moments seemed ages of time, and I knew the 
 meaning of " Eternal torment." Snakes wriggled and 
 writhed over the. floor, bed and walls ; they hung from the 
 ceiling, and hissed in my face with sibilant tongues and 
 threatening fangs. At one time I knew and felt that an 
 endless column of such insects as I never saw the like of 
 
36 
 
 in the real world, began at the pit of my stomach and eat 
 their way upward towards my heart, slowly, oh ! so slowly! 
 and, with all the pain of this experience, I prayed that they 
 might hasten to put an end to their infernal march, and my 
 sufferings, by reaching some vital part. But, after what 
 seemed ages of horror, a short cessation of pain would 
 ensue, and then some new phase of danger and misery 
 would take the place of the last ; and thus it went on 
 through an endless shifting, changing, experience of never 
 ceasing horrors." 
 
 PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 
 
 Not many years ago it was a popular belief — and the 
 medical profession shared the delusion — that alcoholic 
 liquors were heat producing ; and men about to be subject 
 to uncommon exposure to cold swallowed the stimulant in 
 order to keep up the bodily temperature. So firm was the 
 belief, at one time, that the man who should have had the 
 courage to assert that whiskey, or brandy, would in reality 
 lower \}i\Q bodily temperature, would have been considered 
 insane. 
 
 The most intelligent of our medical men began to sus- 
 pect that the warmth produced by the stimulant was only 
 temporary, and that alcohol did not raise the temperature 
 of the body for any length of time ; but the wonderful dis- 
 covery that alcohol redttced the animal temperature was 
 left for the Arctic Explorers, who learned this important 
 fact from experience. Scientists have demonstrated by 
 physiological observation and chemical experiment, con- 
 clusively, as I think, that the Arctic observers were correct. 
 However, there still exists a difference of opinion upon the 
 point ; but few medical men hold to the old belief, and, I 
 may say, that the opinions of the leading men of the coun- 
 try are almost unanimous to the effect that the use of alco- 
 holic drinks reduces the temperature of the body. 
 
37 
 
 I assert, then, that in regard to its effects in furnishing 
 fuel to the body, the first effects of alcohol are heating, as 
 it acts as an irritant, is rapidly absorbed and increases the 
 rapidity of the action of the heart ; but, it is oxidized to 
 only a very small amount, and by its presence in the sys- 
 tem prevents the combustion of those materials which 
 otherwise would have furnished fuel for the production of 
 animal heat. The general physiological effects of alcohol 
 may be stated as follows : — 
 
 Alcohol is not burned in the system, except to a very 
 limited extent, therefore is not heat producing. 
 
 It is rapidly absorbed, and as an irritant^ causes accelera- 
 tion of the action of the heart, and the increased rapidity 
 of the blood causes a temporary elevation of temperature 
 of the body. 
 
 Alcohol reduces the power of resisting severe cold. 
 
 It reduces the power of resisting intense heat, and pre- 
 disposes to sunstroke. 
 
 It reduces the power of endurance where excessive mus^ 
 cular action is required, especially if this be prolonged, and 
 combined with exposure. 
 
 It alcohol be taken in moderate doses, the brain is roused 
 to greater activity ; but, a very important faculty — the 
 reasoning power — is disturbed and weakened. The will 
 remains intact, so that the drinker can do what he chooses, 
 but, owing to the interruption of the faculty which should 
 guide his actions, he often choses t6 do wrong. 
 
 Alcohol in excessive doses, has the effect of suspending 
 the reasoning faculty altogether ; and, in proportion to this 
 suspension of the reasoning faculty, the individual is irre- 
 sponsible for his acts. 
 
 New ideas are never generated while the brain is under 
 the influence of the stimulant ; but ideas are often brought 
 to the surface which had previously lain dormant or latent 
 in the mind, and the stimulated cerebrum is induced to 
 
as 
 
 s/i^i^ihem. Brains soaked in alcohol are geilty of giving" 
 to the world rhapsodies which, but for the interference of 
 the stimulant, would have remained in the retirement of 
 the cerebral chambers, to the everlasting benefit of the 
 world and the greater credit of their authors. 
 
 This increased automatic action of tbe brain exists no 
 longer after a certain degree of intoxication is reached. 
 When the effects of the stimulant have passed this point 
 the nervous centres are rendered inactive, and the individ- 
 ual becomes stupid through partial paralysis of the organs. 
 I do not agree with most authors, that the depression 
 following upon the use of s-timulants is in proportion to 
 the excitement produced; the acceleration of the beats of 
 the heart is only temporary, and when the poisonous effects 
 of the alcohol taken into the system have been developed 
 sufficiently, the pulsations are reduced, owing to nervous 
 paralysis. 
 
 The reason that alcohol does not raise the animal tem- 
 perature, is, that it is almost non-combustible, and its pres- 
 ence excludes and prevents the combustion of other sub- 
 stances which, without it, would have furnished animal 
 heat. 
 
 Alcohol produces chemical changes in the blood which, 
 cause the deposition of fat. 
 
 It increases the secretion of the digestive fluid, (gastric 
 juice) and when used to produce this result, (as an appe- 
 tiser) it should be taken about fifteen minutes before eating, 
 as it is quickly absorbed and its local effect is then lost 
 The constant use of the stimulant before meals produces 
 atrophy of the secreting glands, by forcing them to over- 
 action. 
 
 Alcohol gives tone to the nerves under certain conditions, 
 as in insomnia (inability to sleep) especially is this true of 
 habitual drinkers. 
 
 There seems to be an antagonism between alcohol and 
 
39 
 
 miasmatic diseases. This may be due to the development 
 of vini morbus, and the conflict between the two diseases 
 may perhaps cause the destruction of that arising from the 
 malarial poison ; but the result is that the patient has 
 chosen the worst affliction of the two. 
 
 Alcoholic drinks retard the progress of consumption^, 
 and doubtlessoprevent it ; but the constant and excessive 
 use of alcoholic stimulants causes death in those who 
 would have died, perhaps earlier, perhaps later, of consump- 
 tion. 
 
 The ill effects of the adulteration of alcoholic drinks, so 
 much talked of, are, in the opinion of the author, often 
 imaginary ; there are few things more injurious than pure 
 alcohol. . ' 
 
 Doses of alcohol which are not sufficiently large to pro- 
 duce intoxication do not, as a rule, affect much the 
 muscular system ; but there are exceptions to this rule. 
 The power of muscular adjustment is sometimes lost when 
 the intellectual faculties are apparently still clear. A few 
 men get drunk in the legs first. The stomach suffers most 
 from alcoholic drinks when there is no food present ; this 
 is also true of the other organs, especially of the liver. 
 
 The near contact and communication of the liver with 
 the stomach renders it liable to disease from over-stimula* 
 tion and congestion. The liver is a very delicate and very 
 vascular organ, and, owing to the corrugating effects of 
 alcohol upon all animal tissue, it is susceptible of degener- 
 ation of its proper substance which is. changed to coitnective 
 tissue, known to medical men as "cirrhosis," commonly 
 called "whiskey liver", "gin liver", etc. The local effect of 
 alcohol on the liver is irritative and corrugating, {hardening 
 and drawing up) The effect of alcoholic stimulants upon 
 the sexual organs are peculiar, Through the nervous sys- 
 tem, the sexual desires are aroused, but from some action 
 on the principal organs, the ability is rendered less- This 
 may perhaps account for the fact that many persons be- 
 
40 
 
 come infected with venereal disease while under the influ- 
 ence of liquor, the attempt to satisfy the passions being 
 prolonged and violent. 
 
 As a necessary continuation of my remarks upon the 
 general effects of the use of alcoholic drinks upon the 
 human system, I think it best to make the following state- 
 ment in reference to the remote effects ofetheir use; to 
 speak of some of the principal diseases resulting from the 
 habitual use of them. 
 
 I wish to emphasize the statement that the habitual use 
 of stimulants is invariably injurious, however small the quan- 
 tity takejt may be. 
 
 I believe that the constant drinker inflicts greater injury 
 upon his organism than he who drinks to excess, occasion- 
 ally, even to the extent of intoxication, for although the 
 last may be "drunk," yet he will give his system time to 
 rally from the effects of the liquor, as the poison is soon 
 eliminated. But the constant drinker charges his system 
 with a substance which serves no good purpose, not even 
 that of keeping up the animal temperature, but rather the 
 reverse. 
 
 Alcohol predisposes to the development of many dis- 
 eases, and renders the system peculiarly susceptible to 
 their attacks ; moreover, the recovery from severe wounds 
 is rendered much more slow and doubtful because of its 
 previous use by the patient. No man can be said to be 
 healthy who indulges in the constant use of alcoholic stim- 
 ulants ; that is to say, aside from the disease — vini morbus 
 — which led to their use, he is probably diseased in some 
 of his important organs in consequence of this use of liquor. 
 
 Alcohol, when taken into the stomach acts as an irritant, 
 this irritating effect extends through the entire system, 
 operating as a very active local irritant. It irritates the 
 gastric glands and rouses them to an unusual activity 
 which causes them to pour out an unnaturally large quanti- 
 ty of the digestive fluid, and before long atrophy or wasting 
 
41 
 
 away, ensues in them, from overwork. The use of these 
 stimulants, for a long time, provokes gastritis, or acute in- 
 flammation of the stomach, which is a very serious malady, 
 and often causes death. The poison, however, is soon ab- 
 sorbed and finds its way into the circulation, and there im- 
 micdiately begins its destructive work, on internal organs 
 other than the stomiach. The liver from its close contact 
 and intimate association with the stomach, through the cir- 
 culating medium, and from its. delicacy and vascularity 
 receives the greatest injury from the poison, and as would 
 naturally be supposed, the liver becomes congested, not only 
 from the presence of the fluid which the blood vessels have 
 taken up, but from the stimulating effects which the irri- 
 tant has upon the heart, thereby increasing the rapidity of 
 the heart's action and the amount of blood which must pass 
 through the liver. 
 
 The deleterious effects of this alcoholic agency exhibit 
 themselves in, and impress themselves upon, all the won- 
 derful variety of the different organs, but no one receives a 
 greater permane7it injury than the liver, it becomes con- 
 gested ; the fulness of the blood vessels causes compression, 
 and this compression obliterates the smaller blood vessels 
 of this organ, whose perfect fulfilment of its functions is 
 absolutely necessary to any degree of health. The normal 
 tissue of the liver is changed into a different substance ; 
 this organ can not discharge its functions properly, in con- 
 sequence of this change. 
 
 The use of alcohol predisposes to many liver affections, 
 but the condition known as " whiskey liver," " gin liver etc." 
 is the most common one. The constant moderate drinker 
 usually falls a victim to this disease which is very insidious 
 in its attacks — steals upon the patient unawares, and 
 slowly but surely saps his vitality. This congestion of the 
 liver extends its influence everywhere, but those organs 
 suffer most whose blood must pass through the liver, on 
 its return to the heart. 
 6 
 
42 
 
 There is one infirmity to which I desire to call special 
 attention, which I beheve to be often the result of the use 
 of alcoholic stimulants ; the more so do I wish to speak of 
 it as this too prevalent cause is not mentioned by medical 
 writers. This disease is hemorrhoids, or piles ; the term 
 " whiskey piles " would be as appropriate a term in this in- 
 stance as is " whiskey liver " in the disease of that organ 
 arising from the same cause. That a majority of the cases 
 of piles, so prevalent among officers of the army, result 
 from the use of whiskey, I have no doubt, and any one who 
 takes the trouble to observe the facts must agree with this 
 opinion. This is especially true of the cavalry arm of the 
 service; the reason is sufficiently obvious. 
 
 Space will not allow of farther detail, and I therefore 
 mention but a few more of the principal diseases arising 
 from the use of alcoholic drinks. 
 
 Bright's disease of the kidneys is often brought on by a 
 debauch. 
 
 Affections of the brain, as inflammations, etc., are caused 
 by it ; so is insolation, or sunstroke. 
 
 An abnormal deposition of fat, and the fatty degenera- 
 tion of important organs is brought about by it. 
 
 Gout and rheumatism are caused by it, as well as disease 
 of the heart and arteries. 
 
 Its effects upon the moral tone of mankind are well known 
 and this is probably due to its irritating effects upon the 
 nervous system and to the continual disturbance of the 
 reasoning powers caused by it. 
 
 Before leaving this subject I wish to do away with the 
 popular delusion that alcohol is heat producing. 
 
 Heat is produced by the oxidation, or combustion of the 
 material supplied by the food, both liquids and solids. 
 Alcohol when introduced into the system is combustible 
 only to a very limited extent, if it underwent oxidation so 
 readily, or to * as great an extent, as some distinguished 
 authors have stated, the delicate tissue of lungs, and other 
 
43 
 
 organs in which this oxidation takes place, would inevita- 
 bly be in danger of sudden destruction in the act of respir- 
 ation ; and we would have cases of real *' spontaneous 
 combustion " of daily occurrence. 
 
 The conclusions which I am compelled to arrive at by a 
 most careful scrutiny of the nature, causes and effects of 
 vini morbus are antagonistic in a great measure to those 
 which have been announced and argued from by others ; 
 and they are entirely subversive of former theories and - 
 would lead to the adoption of practical measures entirely 
 different from those which have been tried, from time to 
 time, for the suppression of inebriety. 
 
 The much vaunted prohibitory laws it is useless to think 
 of attempting to enforce. They are, in their very nature, 
 inconsistent with the American idea of full, social and 
 moral freedom, to say nothing of their irrecohcilibility with 
 the popular idea of the limit set to legislative power by the 
 spirit of our institutions. The attempt to enforce them 
 gives rise to an obstinate rebellion upon the part of a large 
 portion of our body politic ; and where they have actually 
 been tried they have proved, more or less, practical failures, 
 and provoked every form of evasion, culminating in unhes- 
 itating perjury in order to avoid the consequences of their 
 violation. Such attempts have had a tendency to lower 
 the regard for law so conspicuously prominent in the Amer- 
 ican people, and shaken their faith in all law, as well as in- 
 augurated the deplorable habit of evading by any possible 
 means the operation of any law that may interfere with the 
 utmost freedom of classes, or individuals. 
 
 Massachusetts, after a trial of the prohibitory law — ■ 
 styled " the Maine law " from the state in which it first 
 went into effect — has deliberately gone back to the license 
 system ; preferring the ills of the license law to those worse 
 ones which sprang up immediately upon the attempt to put 
 in force the prohibitory statute of her sister state. Massa- 
 chusetts is not apt to be slow in adopting any real engine of 
 
44 
 
 progress, or inducement for a higher morality ; but she has • 
 expunged the prohibitory clause from her code, and has 
 done it after a patient trial of its merits ; her verdict is of 
 great weight, in this country at least. 
 
 The high tax upon liquors should be abated, for it is 
 really paid by the wretched victims of the disease — vini 
 morbus. These infatuated who have no restraining power 
 of will left to them, pay, in the increased price of each 
 drink, the enormous tax which the General Government 
 exacts from the manufacturer ; the diseased, the miserable, 
 the poverty stricken, are compelled to contribute from their 
 already insufficient means an immense revenue to the gov- 
 ernment. This revenue, in a great measure, is extorted 
 from those who are breadless ; it is paid at the cost of in- 
 creased want, destitution and misery. Suppose that gov- 
 ernment were -to cheapen the price of liquors, and to see to 
 it that the liquors were pure, and not half, or more than half 
 alcohol. Then part of the ill-effect of drinking them would 
 be. cured, and the oversight of the Government much more 
 paternal in its results. 
 
 The high price demanded for licenses is also a mistaken 
 economy on the part cf our legislative rulers ; the victims 
 of the disease must also pay that. The money to pay for 
 the license of the saloon keeper comes mainly out of the 
 pockets of the wretchedly poor. It^ is appropriated to the 
 support of the common schools ; is used to educate the 
 children of the neighbors of the man who pays it ; yet his 
 own children can not have the advantage of it, for they 
 have not the clothes for the requirements of decency, or 
 the money to pay for text books, and, above all, are scorned, 
 despised and hooted at as the " brats of a drunkard." They 
 can not attend the schools which their parents' drunkenness 
 helps to support. Is this the height of legislative wisdom, 
 or social economy t is it not a practical fulfilment of the 
 biblical utterance — " and from him who hath not shall be 
 taken away even that which he hathi*" 
 
45 
 
 The saloon keeper who is compelled to pay the high ex- 
 cise tax, and also a large license tax, must have capital ; 
 the manufacturer, for the same reason must have capital, 
 and each must have a very large interest upon that capital, 
 because of the expense to which they are put to resist the 
 vain attempts of " reformers " to abolish the traffic. And 
 in their case is the precedent clause of the same Bible ut- 
 terance fulfilled '' to him who hath more shall be given ;" 
 and it is given to the tune of many hundred per cent., at 
 the cost of those who suffer untold misery and endure in- 
 describable want as the results of disease, which the phil- 
 anthropist will insist on looking upon as deliberate siii. No 
 community can afford to illustrate the truths of the Bible 
 in this way. Poor economists, and mistaken makers of law 
 are they whose labors result in such illustrations of the 
 Good Book ! 
 
 The high price of liquor does not prevent or lessen its 
 use ; for, cost what it may, the sufferers from vi7ti morbus 
 will have the stimulants their disease craves ; and this is 
 true not only of the " common drunkard " but of the "mod- 
 erate drinker." Cut the last class off from their regular 
 drams and you have stirred up a commotion of which the 
 first class are incapable, and which will only abate with the 
 ceasing of the denial of the " eleven o'clocks" and " four 
 o'clocks." 
 
 And what, then, is the remedy for all this waste of wis- 
 dom on the part of the framers of the law — of this waste 
 of costly exertion on the part of those who have man's 
 best interests at heart — of all this waste of possible health,, 
 happiness, prosperity and money? 
 
 I answer thus ; — 
 
 Impress upon all people the fundamental trouble ; let 
 them understand that inebriety is a disease ; and let them 
 treat it as such, in themselves and in others. 
 
 Let those who are seriously affected be treated for their 
 malady as they would be if they were afflicted with other 
 
46 
 
 disease ; do away with the gilded delusions of the saloon bar 
 — delusions supported by capital — by taking such measures 
 as will discourage investment in such a way. Build asy- 
 lums for the hopelessly affected in lieu of houses of reform- 
 ation, jails and prisons — asylums where those who can be 
 cured may find the proper treatment, and be restored to 
 usefulness when cured — then more will have been done for 
 the eradication of vi7ii morbus, than ever before. 
 
 Temperance organizations have accomplished as yet, but 
 little permanent good in this direction ; these organizations 
 in their respective localities are apt to be short lived, and 
 very few complete reformations are ever affected by them. 
 
 Let the drunkard be withdrawn from the possibility of 
 obtaining the poison, by being sentenced to an asylum not 
 to a jail ; fine every saloon keeper who sells liquor to any 
 one in quantities sufficient to intoxicate ; let the fact of 
 drunkenness in any saloon be sufficient for conviction ; let 
 the fines for this offence go to the support of the family of 
 the drunkard and let him be taught to employ himself in 
 remunerative work during his seclusion in the asylum. 
 
 If he is never to be trusted again with the fate of him- 
 self and family, let half of his earnings be devoted to the 
 support of the asylum which shelters him, and the other 
 half to the use of his family. Make the business of sell- 
 ing liquor profitable only to the extent of any other : let 
 politicians cease to pander to the interests of saloon keep- 
 ers and the liquor traffic in general for the sake of votes. 
 
 Above all let temperance lodges warn individuals against 
 drunkenness as a disease to which all humanity is subject, 
 and not fulminate against it as a sin of which none need 
 be guilty. Let temperance lecturers cease to try to cure a 
 physical infirmity by prescribing cures suited only to the 
 repression of moral delinquences. 
 
 Make the liquor business less profitaj^le by reducing the 
 tax upon liquors, and consequently lowering the price ; let 
 there be established a system of inspection which shall 
 
47 
 
 guarantee something like a pure article to the consumer; 
 let those who mast drink, drink the pure juice of the grape 
 and cereals, potatoes, etc Why shoould not the people be 
 protected against fraud and knavery in this matter of daily 
 consumption, as well as in any other ? 
 
 Let the fines for violation of the liquor laws return to 
 those from whom they were stolen by the diseased, and 
 irresponsible parent ; 
 
 Let the law protect and care for the unfortunate sufferer 
 from vini morbus, not punish him for a disease, at the cost 
 of those upon whom the consequences fall most heavily — 
 his family. 
 
 Let the saloon keeper's license tax go to support the 
 family of him who supports the saloon and enriches its 
 owner. 
 
 Let the public schools be supported by money to which 
 no taint of such crying injustice clings, as that which exists 
 under present provisions. 
 
 Let the law honestly confess the truth, and put the bur- 
 den of the trouble where it righteously belongs. It may 
 be objected that I am crying down a perfectly legitimate 
 and justifiable business ; that I am placing the responsi- 
 bility for drunkenness upon the wrong party — the seller — 
 and not upon him on whom it ought to rest — the drinker. 
 Admit the truth that drunkenness or vini morbus is a dis- 
 ease, and the only person who canbe responsible is he who 
 furnishes food for it, not he who is its victim and deprived 
 of judgment and self-control by its influence. 
 
 And, if any one is led to deny the force of my answer 
 in this regard, let him read the confession of a liquor seller, 
 which follows, and then ask that any defence of such an 
 occupation be listened to, on any ground whatever, if he 
 can ; let the liquor seller close his bar and earn his living, 
 as the rest of the world are compelled to do, honestly, and 
 by giving a fair return of faithfully performed labor, and 
 not claim the right to loaf away his existence in the too 
 
48 
 
 easy occupation of helping his neighbor to the glass of 
 spirits for which that neighbor barters his manhood and 
 the health and comfort of himself and family. Let the 
 reader remember that the liquor seller passes a bottle and 
 glass across the bar, and, in a few moments, pockets the 
 proceeds of half a day's work of some laboring man who 
 lives in a hovel next door to the seller's comfortable man- 
 sion, built from the rapidly accumulated profits of the liq- 
 uor seller's wofk\ and such work! but listen to the con- 
 fession of one of this fraternity which protests so energet- 
 ically against being called upon to bear their part of the 
 curse that followed the sin of Adam "by the sweat of thy 
 brow shalt thou earn thy bread." 
 
 A LIQUOR seller's CONFESSION. 
 
 *' For obvious reasons, sir, I shall withhold all real names ; 
 for if I see fit to acknowledge my own part in " ways that 
 are dark and tricks that are vain/' I have no right to in- 
 volve others in my disclosures. 
 
 I entered the house of in a confidential capacity 
 
 to one of the partners who was a relative ; before long I 
 was entrusted with all the secrets of their business, and 
 expected to superintend personally those matters which 
 were carefully kept from the knowledge of their customers. 
 I received an analysis of the various brands which had 
 acquired reputation and commanded a quick and large sale. 
 I saw to it that the half of the real liquor, as sent to us, 
 was drawn from one cask and put into another which was 
 ready to receive it, and both filled with diluted alcohol, 
 fixed up by our " Doctor," who was paid a handsome sal- 
 ary by the firm for his services. Various drugs and oils 
 were used by him for this purpose ; a minute detail of the 
 names and properties of these drugs is not essential to 
 your enquiry. By this operation the firm doubled the 
 quantity of these high priced liquors, and, of course, swin- 
 
49 
 
 died their customers to this extent. I do not think that 
 any deleterious or poisonous mixtures were used by the 
 " Doctor "for his ends. Some o)ie cask of the Simon pure 
 article was always kept to satisfy those whose judgment of 
 liquors was not to be deceived ; but this number was very 
 small. A very large part of the liquor sold by them as 
 " imported " and of high cost, was manufactured in their 
 own cellars. It may not be known to you that it is possi- 
 ble to obtain the bottles, packages and labels of any foreign 
 wine, known to the trade in this country, in New York ; 
 and you can obtain them in any quantity ; they are fac- 
 similes, exact imitations of those in use by the foreign 
 manufacturer. The necessity for this will be evident when 
 you reflect that more champagne is drunk in London, or 
 New York, in any one year, than is made in the cham- 
 pagne regions of France ; as to the propriety of the de- 
 ception, or its morality, people may differ. This is true of 
 all famous foreign wines, and the ease with which people 
 at large are duped by the spurious article, leads liquor deal- 
 ers to rely on their '' doctors " for any brand foreign or 
 "domestic," that their customers may call for. The ''doc- 
 tor"is never at fault; he will produce for them, Burgundies, 
 Hocks, Champagne, French brandies, and any other descrip- 
 tion of liquor, at short notice, and small cost. This method 
 of supplying the need of their trade yields them an immense 
 profit of course ; given alcohol, cider, rum, and a host of 
 drugs and oils, and the establishment that has in pay an 
 accomplished " doctor" will never be out of any article of 
 the sort that may be called for. 
 
 The world at large must not obtain money on false 
 pretences, at the risk of the penitentiary ; but, somehow 
 the liquor trade is exempt from the operation of that stat- 
 ute ; the dealer asks, and is paid, a high price for such 
 liquors, and he, tacitly, at least, says that they are genuine, 
 and carries out his assertions by the use of imitations of the 
 genuine labels, vessels, etc. Yet he knows that they were 
 7 
 
so 
 
 manufactured on his ov\'n premises, or those of some one 
 else ; but I never heard any one of the "trade" admit the 
 truth concerning them to any customer. 
 
 I lied hourly, directly or indirectly, while in their employ 
 but the countenance and example of others led me to think 
 little of the true character of the transactions in which I 
 was engaged ; I had to earn my means of support, and 
 wanted to accumulate capital for my own use ; and I could 
 do so here. 
 
 The expenditure of money indirectly by the firm was 
 very great ; newspapers had to be kept in good humor, 
 and prevented from attacking the business in their capacity 
 of ouardians of the morals and best interests of the com- 
 munities ; all subscription lists had to be signed, as a sort 
 of expiatory sacrifice of part of the prohts to secure the 
 countenance of the charitable ; all social amusements it 
 was needful to help along with money, for the purpose of 
 building up a favorable opinion of the generosity and public 
 spirit of the firm, as an offset to the harm which it was 
 too well known the trade did in the community. The 
 legitimate profits of a good busmess were expended in 
 various ways of this sort, as a sop to the cerberus of public 
 opinion, and yet a very large profit was left for the private 
 purses of the members of the firm. 
 
 After some years I was able to command the capital 
 needed to open a bar of my own. Gilding, paint and var- 
 nish, and pictures of large size and doubtful character, 
 made an attractive place of resort for the " Jeunesse doree," 
 — the wealthy youth — of the place ; the doors were always 
 open, of course, to ail comers, and all sorts of people spent 
 their money at the bar ; but, the establishment was spec- 
 ially designed for the patronage of the better class of 
 drinkers. 
 
 I now saw more of the evils of the traffic than when I 
 was in the wholesale trade. There was not a pure speci- 
 men of liquor in my whole stock ; there was not a single 
 
51 
 
 bottle or package, whose contents were what the label pre- 
 tended them to be ; all was fraud to begin with. Many and 
 great are the temptations of the retailer to cheat. Imagine 
 a group of wealthy careless youngsters, more or less under 
 the influence of liquor, laughing and smoking, each order- 
 ing drinks of various kinds, and paying no particular atten- 
 tion to their number, and sometimes for hours together ; 
 generally the bill was paid by simply asking the amount of 
 the bar-keeper, and the number of drinks as announced by 
 him was rarely disputed. Too often some of the young 
 men were so intoxicated that the}^ were unable to tell, and 
 utterly indifferent, for the time, to the matter of expense. 
 
 I, like every other retailer, kept various qualities of 
 liquors, — that is, some were coarse and strong and cheap, 
 because they were little else than alcohol thinly disguised, 
 others were whiskey and so-forth, more or less diluted with 
 alcohol. But, to the poorer class of customers, the fiery 
 liquor was sold at the same price as the better to the 
 wealthier ; the deluded drinkers thought that they paid for 
 the pleasure of drinking in a first-class saloon, first-class 
 liquors, but, our fraud cheated them of even this miserable 
 ambition. 
 
 Young clerks were drinking daily at my bar who I knew 
 could not afford it ; others who could afford it, in one sense 
 of the word, were destroying their physical health and 
 contracting evil habits w^hich would prove their ruin, and I 
 knew it ; but, I must make money, and I did, and a great 
 deal too, in a very short time, without labor of any sort 
 Many are the glimpses of the misery my business was 
 working which I caught sight of, through what transpired 
 in the saloon. More than once, women have followed their 
 husbands to my place, with the evident hope of prevent- 
 ing the expenditure of money for rum, which was needed 
 for their families. Manyot them were as coarse and fierce 
 spoken as the men of whom they were in pursuit. The place 
 has often echoed again to mutual recriminations, oaths, and 
 
52 
 
 curses ; women who might once have been fair to look 
 upon, gentle and lovable, but made gaunt, dishevelled and 
 repulsive in appearance, and reckless in manner and lan- 
 guage, by the trials, sorrows and want which the habits of 
 the men brought upon them, would endeavor to induce 
 their husbands to cease drinking and return home with 
 them ; and, finding entreaty fail, would rise to reproach 
 and threats until the conversation would culminate in- 
 curses and evil language. The bar-keeper would then in- 
 terfere, eject the unfortunate wife, and furnish fresh drinks 
 to the sullen husband. 
 
 I recall a scene, the very remembrance of which even 
 now troubles me ; which affected me much when it occurred 
 and perhaps was the cause of the serious reflection which 
 finally led me to give up the business. 
 
 A young Irish carpenter often drank at the bar, but did 
 not often, with us, at least, get any the worse for the liquor 
 he bought, although he sometimes would be excited, and 
 after the fashion of his countrymen, grow witty, boisterous 
 and obtrusive. At such times, the bar keeper would check 
 his familiarity towards the more aristocratic tipplers, who 
 did not relish his freedom and fun, and he would be smug- 
 gled out by some of the many loafers who had almost at- 
 tained the position of attache's of the establishment, 
 through their regular frequenting of the saloon ; where 
 they were always ready to drink " for the good of the house' 
 in response to the not infrequent invitation to everybody 
 to "step up and take something" given by half-intoxicated 
 customers who had forgotten their caution in the more 
 generous moments of their conviviality. These "bum- 
 mers" we tolerated, and sometimes actually fed with occa- 
 sional free drinks, in consideration of the additional profit 
 which their presence brought to the money drawer ; 
 although Ve were rather ashamed of them and certainly 
 were unwilling to confess that they were, after a fashion, 
 our jackals. 
 
 This carpenter had, for a day or two, been in the saloon 
 
• 53 
 
 much more often than usual, and had drunk more than he 
 was wont to do. This evening, toward dusk of a stormy- 
 winter's day, most of which he had spent with us, the 
 swinging ioors were pushed timidly open and a slight, 
 small framed, young woman, stood there as they closed be- 
 hind her, and glanced nervously and hurriedly around the 
 room. Her eyes fell upon the Irishman who was sitting 
 near the stove,., entertaining a knot of loafers with some 
 characteristic stories. She was neatly dressed, and very 
 childlike in appearance. 
 
 She had an innocent kind of beauty which made her face 
 very attractive, with its blue eyes and the golden hair 
 falling about it, and she rapidly crossed the floor and put her 
 hand upon the arm of the young man 
 
 " Phil, dear Phil, come home — the babies are waiting to 
 say good night, and I cannot eat without ye " she said. 
 '' Oh, begorra, kiss the brats for me, Katy, an' I'll be home 
 afther a while ; I cant disappoint these gintlemen in the 
 nate little story I was telling 'em ; but, this is no place for 
 the likes o'yes — the swatest, purtiest little wife in Ameriky 
 —go home, darlint, an' I'll come soon." The little wife 
 persisted in her requesr, and, evidently startled by the fixed 
 stare of the bystanders and annoyed by the scarcely re- 
 pressed amusement of some of them, she changed entreaty 
 to a sort of hurried, gasping prayer, broken by what was 
 almost a sob: — " by your love for me, by your love for the 
 children, Phil, listen to me." " Bedad, but ye must listen 
 to me'' — replied the husband, who could not help noticing 
 the expression upon the countenances of those around him, 
 — "tuck the young ones into their bed, an' ate yer supper; 
 — Phil will be with ye all, before long ; but ye must not 
 stay here." 
 
 '' Oh, Phil, but remember — 
 
 *'By the holy poker! I'll come whin I git ready — now 
 go, and sthop yer interfering wid me!" rie shook her 
 hand from his arm, and motioned her toward the door — "Go 
 
54 
 
 home." The wife, with eyes full of tears and a wail of 
 half-terror, half-reproach, turned to go. The bar-keeper 
 stood outside the bar, at one end, brightening some silver 
 faucets of the beer fountain, and as she passed towards the 
 door, the frightened, troubled, young woman stopped near 
 him and began to beg him, as it afterwards turned out, to 
 give her husband no more to drink, that he might be in- 
 duced to go home the sooner. Her hand.%were nervously 
 workinp-, one over the other, and in her eagerness, she 
 bent forward, and her face was brought near that of the 
 bar-keeper, who replied to her in a low tone. A coarse 
 laugh broke from one of those around the stove and the 
 Irishman turned, and glancing toward the bar saw what 
 was going on ; prompted by a sudden fit of jealousy and 
 drunken fury he seized the short iron wrench from the 
 stove and flung it in the direction of the bar-keeper. The 
 missile hurtled through the air and struck the poor wife 
 upon the temple — " Oh, Phil !" she cried, as she flung her 
 round arms upward and sank to the floor. 
 
 In a moment, the carpenter was at the bar, raving at and 
 denouncing the bar-keeper in the fiercest language and 
 threatening him with the most violent gestures ; until, 
 looking down at his wife, he sank to his knees beside her 
 and poured out a torrent of affectionate entreaty and wild 
 self-reproach. An instant after, he was again on his feet, 
 cursing himself, rum, and those who sold it, showering the 
 wildest imprecations upon the establishment and all con- 
 nected with it. He then sprang suddenly over the prostrate 
 form of his wife, and, seizing the bar-keeper by the throat, 
 shook him as an enraged mastiff would some cur, and 
 finally flung him to the floor, ten feet away All was con- 
 fusion and noise; the bar-keeper picked himself up and, 
 blind with pain and rage, attacked the Irishman who cursed 
 and fought until the police interfered and carried him away 
 to the lockup, and took charge of , the insensible form of 
 the nearly murdered woman. I sought out the home of 
 
55 
 
 these two unfortunates and did what I could to remedy 
 the mischief ; but I could only palliate what I could not 
 cure. 
 
 Such was one of the many instances of which I could 
 not resist the practical logic, and I gave up the business 
 after a while. But this was not the only consideration 
 which induced me to do so ; there were others and some of 
 them were these — I would not sell liquor behind my own 
 bar, but paid a high salary to some one else to do it, I was 
 ashamed to do it ; I felt that my business was in a measure, 
 at least, disgraceful and degrading and I concluded to give 
 up such an occupation of whose details I was ashamed. 
 
 I knew all the time that I was deceiving my patrons and 
 that I gave no fair consideration for the money I received, 
 and that the article was not what I represented it to be ; 
 in fact I labored hard to see the distinction between it and 
 swindling, but failed, and gave it up. 
 
 I knew that my money was taken in a great part from 
 the miserably poor ; that women and children suffered for 
 the want of it. 
 
 Liquor will always be drank ; there is a great deal of 
 money to be made in selling it, and that money is gained 
 without much personal labor and very rapidly ; but I do 
 not care to resumic the business. 
 
 Such a confession, and those who know the business 
 best, best know how substantially accurate it is, ought to 
 compel earnest thought, and to ensure the honest recogni- 
 tion of the wrong. 
 
 It would hardly be modest to assume that the problem 
 which the facts of vhii morbus and its consequences and 
 incidents present, can be thoroughly solved, in the wisest 
 way, by me or any other one ; but, as the experiments of 
 the past have substantially failed, there would seem to be 
 some hitherto unrecognized cause for these failures ; a dis- 
 tinct recognition and avoidance of which, might make suc- 
 cess possible with measures adopted under the admission 
 
56 
 
 of what I feel to be the real truth. That inebriety is a 
 disease, and to be combated as such, if combated at alb 
 
 Prohibition of the traffic in liquors, through the enact- 
 ment of laws shaped to that end, has been the favorite pan- 
 acea of the philanthropist for the cure of the disease ; but 
 from the nature of our institutions, and from the constitu- 
 tion of man, such a remedy has been and must be a failure. 
 Even more, it has been, and must be, a provocation to de- 
 liberate sin of a character as prejudicia] to the common 
 weal as drunkenness itself, to which the palliation of not 
 being deliberate in most cases, can be urged, 
 
 The universal sense of personal responsibility and perfect 
 freedom of individual belief and action in this country, 
 make the passage of such laws an offence to " the inalien- 
 able right of self government" in the people. Such laws 
 instantly call into being a blind, and somewhat unreasoning- 
 spirit of resistance ; and where direct and positive resist- 
 ance is impossible, resort is had to every means of evasion. 
 Every expedient to defeat them is thought to be allowable 
 and the sacredness of any and every law is brought into 
 instant and imminent peril. 
 
 The people wdll not brook interference with what they 
 consider the right of private judgment, and the right to de- 
 cide personal action, in such matters; they resist the attempt 
 to manufacture a public conscience, save in matters of 
 purely public policy ; they will not submit to the indignity 
 of an universal rule of restraint — a law-appointed virtue — 
 in matters which admit of individual difference of convic- 
 tion and concern private personal self-control. They will 
 not be compelled to a morality, which to some of them, is a 
 myth, and which all of them claim the right to define and 
 enforce for themselves. Because some are weak, they will 
 not submit to a legal judgment of univ^ersal imbecility, and 
 to the operation of qnasi sumptuary laws based upon that 
 judgment. In this nineteenth century, and in this country, 
 men will not consent to be robbed of their right to cultivate 
 
57 
 
 private , virtues through personal effort and self-control. 
 
 Legal interference with the use of liquors would seem 
 impossible and impolitic ; legal notice of the abuse of it, 
 and of the consequences of that abuse, is necessary ; but 
 that notice should be as wise as human wisdom and human 
 knowledge of the causes and nature of drunkenness can 
 make it. 
 
 .: To treat drunkenness as an avoidable crime in all cases, 
 is a great mistake ; all laws, now existing on the subject do 
 so treat it ; vindictive punishment in the shape of fines and 
 imprisonment is the legal mode of meeting it. Those fines 
 are devoted to the purposes of education, in most States ; as 
 a rule, this appropriation of the revenue arising from this 
 source expends it in a direction as far removed as possible 
 from meeting the claims of the misery and want which 
 always accompany drunkenness, and which ought, as far as 
 possible to be relieved from the public income extorted 
 from drunkards, by public justice. For the children of 
 drunkards are those who reap the least advantage from the 
 provisions for free education, as poverty, and the need of 
 finding the means of support, excludes them from the pos- 
 sibility of attending school. 
 
 Are temperance reformers and temperance leagues then 
 all wrong ? Yes ! 
 
 Are the laws in reference to drunkenness ill-advised and 
 mistaken ? Yes ! 
 
 These questions which must have arisen in the minds of 
 my readers, I answer thus frankly and give these as my 
 reasons — 
 , All law requires as the excuse for its existence, that there 
 should be a state of facts calling for the control it assumes, 
 and that control should be calculated to effect a public 
 good and be based upon a thorough knowledge of the na- 
 ture of the matters to be controlled ; any of these pre- 
 requisites being wanting, law must either be wholly inopera- 
 8 
 
58 
 
 tive for want of material for its operation, or be a public 
 nuisance and a grievous wrong. 
 
 The fatal mistake of all liquor laws of the present or past, 
 is, that they do not recognize the true nature of the matters 
 they are framed to control and correct, and therefore they 
 are a public nuisance and a grievous wrong. 
 
 They do not treat drunkenness as a disease, but as a 
 crime, and therein fail of one of the pre-requisites, — which 
 makes them a nuisance. They work bitter wrong to a class 
 whom the judgment of Heaven has referred to man's pity 
 not to man's vengeance, and they are therein a grievance. 
 
 It is self-evident that attempts to prevent or to cure 
 drunkenness, up to this time, have been failures ; the most 
 earnest and persistent efforts have been made by those who 
 have had man's best interests at heart to do both ; eloquence 
 has been exhausted in vain ; statistics of terrible import 
 have been collected and published in vain ; man's regard 
 for a solemn promise has been appealed to with only tem- 
 porary success ; the terrors of the law have been brought 
 into requisition — ^yet all has been useless to effect any radi- 
 cal change in men's habits, or 'to ameliorate, to. any great 
 extent, the consequences of intoxication and the failure of 
 the means employed has begotten a very general impression 
 that the task is hopeless, for reformer, legislator, or social 
 philanthropist. And certain great positive ills have fol- 
 lowed from the employment of these agencies based upon 
 the criminal aspect of the trouble. 
 
 It will be, I think, theoretically, at least — ^for as yet the 
 proposed method of treatment has not been subjected to 
 the practical test of experience — equally self-evident, to 
 every thinking mind, that, if drunkenness be accepted as a 
 disease and treated as such, success to man's highest hopes 
 for man is possible in this regard. 
 
 Statistics show, as is so frequently urged upon our notice 
 in all temperance arguments, that our jails, penitentiaries 
 and houses of correction are filled by those who were 
 
59 
 
 brought there by drunkenness ; that a great part of the 
 expense of the administration of justice is rendered neces- 
 sary by the same cause. This is probably true, to a great 
 extent, and the fines paid by those already made miserably 
 poor by drunkenness do not, under present arrangements, 
 benefit the impoverished families of the victims to this 
 disease. 
 
 Suppose that the state build asylums for the drunkard ; 
 that the victim of drunkenness be sentenced, not to jail, but 
 to this asylum — that, the patient be treated as in our insane 
 asylums, as a diseased person — the treatment of course,being 
 different in kind as the cases differ — that the inmates of 
 the asylum be employed at such work as they can best per- 
 form — that the patient who is cured be returned to society, 
 and allowed once more the liberty of caring for himself and 
 family, with the understanding that the law will resume 
 control of him, if he loses control of himself again. 
 
 Suppose that the half of the earnings of the inebriate go 
 to the support of the asylum, if so large a percentage be 
 needful, and that the other moiety be devoted to the needs 
 of his family from whom it has been necessary to separate 
 their natural head and bread-winner. Suppose that the 
 income from licenses for the sale of liquors be devoted to 
 the purpose of a fund to support those bereaved families. 
 
 Suppose that the fines be wholly done away with, and as 
 a consequence of this method of treatment, the jails, peni- 
 tentiaries and houses of correction be nearly emptied of 
 inmates, as must be the case, if the temperance statistics 
 referred to before are true, and here is, at once, a direct 
 and enormous saving of expense. The school fund will 
 suffer perhaps, but the community will be saved from an 
 expenditure that is only a measure of public disgrace and 
 individual degradation; and then the community can well 
 afford to apply the sum so saved to the educational inter- 
 ests of the state. Moreover, this school money will not 
 have been snatched from the famishing wives and children ; 
 
6o 
 
 and the practical injustice which, up to this time,* has worn 
 the thin disguise of a tax on incurable immorality for the 
 furtherance of enlightenment and virtue, will be avoided. 
 The wages of sin will no longer be the support of our sys- 
 tem of free schools, and education will owe no further debt 
 to vice, as it is now unjustly termed, disease, as it really is. 
 All parties concerned in this miserable business will be 
 immediately and immensely benefited by this change in 
 the treatment of drunkenness. The cause of public virtue 
 and private happiness will be greatly subserved, and " man's 
 inhumanity to man" will, to some extent, at least, be a 
 thing of the pas t. Noble ends will no longer be gained 
 through ignoble means; the conclusions of truth, right- 
 eously acted upon, will restore to the law her proud boast 
 of being charitable and wise, and thousands of wives and 
 children, rescued from want and misery, will bless the 
 source of their renewed happiness, and respectability. The 
 only course of treatment which ever has resulted in a cure 
 of the disease will be applied in the asylum by removal of 
 the possibility of indulging its cravings and the patient will 
 be restored to his lost manhood, and his powers of resist- 
 ance to the attacks of the disease. If it should return upon 
 him, if self-control is impossible to him, a refuge is always 
 open to him in the asylum, and his retreat thither saves 
 his family a sure resource for support, which was in great 
 hazard while he was in the world and tempted every hour. 
 Men will deliberately incur the censure of the world for 
 such a sin as that of drunkennesss, but they will not 
 patiently endure the supposition that they are diseased; 
 such is human nature; and this fact will give to the law a 
 larger restraining influence than its present terrors can. 
 At present, the drunkard's deprivation of liberty is but 
 temporary. Under the asylum system it must be long con- 
 tinued, and it may be for life ; its duration is dependent 
 entirely upon his exertion of self-control, and, consequently, 
 gives him the highest incentive to its exercise, and lends 
 
6i 
 
 to the community the best guarantee possible for his con- 
 tinued and habitual sobriety. It gains the ends of the 
 temperance leagues, and answers the prayers of the phil- 
 anthropist. 
 
 Let the present liquor laws be so changed as to meet this 
 requirement — of drunkenness to be treated as a disease, 
 and one of the problems of modern social life will be solved, 
 at least, partially. 
 

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