HABITUAL DRUNKARDS BILL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1086, 4 August 1871, Page 2

HABITUAL DRUNKARDS BILL.

Dr. Dalrymple, the member for Bath, England, has been, so greatly impressed with the mischief arising from drink that he has brought in the " Habitual Drunkards Bill" with a view of obtaining a hold upon that troublesome class of persons who are, medically speaking, victims of dipsomania, but who are what the world calls sots. He regards them as people who have so far lost the power of control over themselves that they have become dangerous to society, and he proposes that, on proper medical testimony, power be given to their friends to have them taken care of in licensed refuges for a certain period of time, not exceeding ninety-six days, during which time they will be carefully watched, physically and morally, and every effort made to reclaim them by restoring the mind to its proper balance. In America, 7 inebriate asylums have been started—the first, in New York, dating from 1857. Here are some of the statistics : —" During the last two years, 476 patients have been treated, of which number 163 have been cured, 94 have relapsed, and 219 have not been heard of; 63| per cent, of those heard from have remained cured. In Pennsylvania 40 per cent, are cured ; in Boston, 33J- per cent.; in Illinois, 50." One thing is very certain, that the English race, or rather the Anglo-Saxon race, is terribly pre-eminent in the matter of drinking, and sanitary defects are iati-

mately connected with the question of drink. Only the other day, iu a report by the medical officer of health in Liverpool, it was mentioned that the mother of a child which was lying dead of smallpox actually took off the sheets in which it was lying, leaving the body on the table, and pawned them for gin ; being of course found drunk on the floor when the funeral took place!