A HOME FOR INEBRIATES.

Evening Star, Issue 3806, 6 May 1875, Page 2

A HOME FOR INEBRIATES.

To the Editor. SlR,—I observe that his Honor tbo Superintendent in his opening address to the Provincial Council, alludes to the establishment of a home for inebriates. That some such place is urgeutly required|hero there can be no doubt. One of the most crying evils of this Colony, and, in fact, of every place where Anglo-Saxons congregate, is excessive drinking; but nowhere have I ever seen so much mental disease produced by drink as in Dunedin and its neighborhood. I .have signed for more certificates of lunacy during the two years I have practised here than I did in the nineteen years previous. Especially is the vice of excessive drinking prevalent hero among the so-called educated classes. _ They don’t actually get drunk, but they drink to such an excess as to bring on delirium tremens and insanity. Now, without wishing to apologise for the vice, I really believe that a great proportion of the mental and bodily disease that follows it is due to the abominable stuff that is sold nt most of the hotels. There was quite as much drinking in the West Indies, and just in the same way as h®re —namely, by “nips” all day long, beginning before breakfast in the morning —yet insanity aud_ delirium tremens were rare. But the liquors were good of their kind. There was hardly anything drunk to excess except brandy of the beet kind, and though this may very speedily send men to their graves it did not drive them mad. Something of course was due to the climate, which, by causing profuse perspiration, in part counteracted the effects of the drink. It is a good thing that the inland revenue '‘epartment ia taking up this matter of the adulteration of thinks. But putting aside the effect of adulteration there are large numbers of peisons who are the victims of dipsomania : men and, sad to say, women also, who will drink to excess in spite of their own knowledge and conviction that they are ruining themselves, body and imud, by their excesses. Now, for these poor wretches, who are really to be pitied, there is no other hope than the restraint of a wellordered establishment for inebriates. Such a case as that of Jeffrey shows forcibly the necessity of something of the kind. 1 saw that man drinking himself to death, and yet

neither I nor any one else had the power to restrain him. This is only a solitary case, but if we medical men were to tell all wo know of such cases we should horrify the public, I have attended a man of good education and social position for delirium tremens; his wife, a gentlewoman by birth, kept sober while he was was ill, and then relapsed into her usual drinking habits. Then the husband took to drinking again, and they were both drunk together. At last the servant got drink too, and the last time I visited the house I found husbaud, wife, and servant all drunk, and nobody but the poor neglected children sober. I have seen a mother compel her little girls by blows to go out and fetch her drink, and her husband ruined by her misconduct. 1. could fill columns with such stories. Surely it is better to sacrifice even some of our boasted freedom in order to put an end to evils like these—evils which do not end with the Ihes of the evildoers, but entail misery, disease, and often insanity on their innocent children. Something, too, might bo done by men of good social standing to put down the vulgar habit of “shouting.” Can anything be more ridiculous than this practice ? Offer a man sixpence and he would consider himself insulted ; offer to p «y sixpence for a drink and he accepts it at ence. Now, this is a purely Colonial practice. I don’t think that in the whole of my life any man ever offered to “ stand treat” forme in England; it is never done except by a superior to an inferior. I am not a total abstainer myself, and do not take any bigoted view of this subject; but I think something ought to be done to put down these dreadful drinking customs. —I am, &c., R. H. Bi kewell, M.D. Dunedin, May o.