AMERICAN INEBRIATE ASYLUMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 7, 8 January 1873, Page 3

AMERICAN INEBRIATE ASYLUMS.

(From the : Times)

Id the report of the committee on habitual" drunkards we have an interesting account of American reformatories. Dr. Parrish, Superintendent of the sanitarium at Media, near Philadelphia, and Dr. Dodge, physician iv charge of the New York State. Inebriate Asylum at Binghampton, were invited to England (o give evidence. In clearness of idea and precision of language, the information these gentlemen communicated and the views they expressed are in refreshing contrast to the haziness of thought and vagueness of purpose observable among the legislators ■who examined them.- Tbey not only explained lucidly their respective methods of treatment, the, difficulties which erabarassed them, the legal assistance they desired, and the success that had attended their effort?, but they broached a distinct theory on the subject, which may be right or wrong, but which has at least the merit of being intelligible. Nor is this theory merely the individual opinion of Messrs. Parrish and Dodge, founded on their personal experiences. They iuform us that Americans who have made confirmed inebriety their study bave come almost unanimously to the conclusion that it is really a disease which should be cured and not punished. As it happened, Dr. Parrish could furnish the committee with the formal profession of faith of " The American Association for the Cure of Inebriates," and we quote it as embodying the latest phase of enlightened American opinion. The association, we may observe, is composed chiefly of managers, directors, and trustees of asylums and reformatories, and these are the propositions it lays down : —

"1. Intemperance is a disease. 2. It is curable in the same sense that other diseases are. 3. Its primary cause is a constitutional susceptability to the alcoholic impression. 4. This constitutional tendency may be inherited or acquired. 5. Alcohol bas its true place in the arts and sciences. It is valuable as a remedy, and, like other remedies, may be abused. Iv

For continuation of news see fourth po ye.

t&i

excessive quantities it is a poison, and always acts as such when it produces inebriety." . There can be no question tbat the views of the American Association^ the information communicated by the American physicians, with the experiences of the chairman's American travels, have gpne far to guide the committee in framing its recommendations. But, here as elsewhere, as we shall see by glancing at the American system, the committee seems to have acted upon analogies ol circumstances and social conditions, while wholly overlooking irreconcilable divergencies. For example, looking first at the financial consideration, ■which must take precedence of all others, we find that the American establishments are supported almost entirely by a class of inebriates which, we are thankful to say, has scarcely a counterpart in England. With us, men of means and position may tipple or exceed, but it is rarely they compromise themselves or scandalise society as confirmed drunkards. In America the inducements to intemperance are much stronger, opportunities for indulgence easier and more frequent, and wealthy business men are more exposed than others j to perpetual temptation. They rarely drink at meals, when it would do them good or little harm, but they find " bars" everywhere^ for " liquoring up," as they hurry about their business in their semitropical climate. The practice is carried farther than "shouting" in our Australian colonies, and Dr. Dodge mskes a significant statement which we should have hesitated to accept on authority less unimpeachable. He tells us many inebriates " take ten or fifteen cocktails before they can eat any breakfast,'* when " having eaten a hearty breakfast, they go to drinking all day." If such practices are common, we cease to wonder that the American establishments should find abundance of paying clients in the classes which in England would contribute few or none. The difficulty is, of course, to persuade men to enter. For the most part they enter voluntarily, or "voluntarily under compulsion." An exceedingly small proportion are committed under legal process, which vary. in different States, but are always charily exercised. In the asylum of .Media, out of 235 patients only five had been committed. In the larger establishments of Bingbampton, the committals amounted to 12 per cent. Generally the process is by petition to a judge, who charges a commissioner with the inquiry. The commissioner summons a jury of six, who hear the case quietly and report, when, if the report be unfavorable, the judge, appoints a com mittee, who has power to confine the drunkard. "We gather from what Dr Dodge says elsewhere, that were this extreme course resorted to more frequently, the Americans would be likely to resent it as contrary to the spirit of their free institu- j tions. It is so far useful, that it is employed as a bugbear, to scare men into restraint for their own good, and tbe threat of recourse to formal petition explains the numerousadmissions we ventured to classify as voluntary under eomplusion. But there is an essential difference between committal by judge's order and committal under threat of it. In the latter case the drunkard goes in of his own free will, and the manager cannot stop him should he desire to go out. This absence of any authority to detain is precisely what mnkes these establishments in a sense popular among shrewd business men who are conscious of the ruinous consequence of their failing. There are instances of their coming back again and again when the fit is threatening, waiting till it is past and over, and then, returning to their avocations. Tbey find in the establishments comforts and even luxuries. There are reading rooms; billiard rooms, recreation grounds, and the board is sometimes as much as 25 dollars a-week, and never less than Bor 10 dollars. It is not surprising the establishments pay, and that the average payment enables the direction to admit a certain number of charitable cases at reduced rates. *In England, with the manager master of tbe inmates' liberties, there would be no voluntary patients at all, while the inebriates the law forced into dbnfiseraent would be men whose means depended upon their being left at large. Nothing can apparently be more rational than the American method of treatment. ' While keeping the patient out of harm's way so long as bis pdwers of self-control are enfeebled, the physicians endeavor to brace th 9 moral safeguards that will enable him to resist future temptation. They attribute to him the self-respect he has forfeited. At the same time they lay. great stress on the material comforts and refinements with which they surround him, and which every wealthy man has been in a - certain measure accustomed to. : It is obvious that'; in English reformatories of. this class, largely supported as , they must be by r State, benevolence, bare wards and cheerless barrack ' accommodation^.must'', be subItitu'ted for tlie spacious .apartments/ the escellent cuisinei the baths, the billiards,

the books and journals, -of Media and Binghampton. How to make the patientß pass their time pleasantly, how to occupy and entertain them, is at once one of the firßtconsiderations and greatest difficulties. A business man of active habits is locked away from his usual pursuits under very painful circumstances. Then comes depression, accompanied by a restless longing for relief and keen craving fer drink. Picture the effect of enforced idleness ofi a few score of ruined clerks aod tradesmen, who have been little in tbe way of cultivating their minds and cannot be indulged with costly means of entertainment. In America, when the invalid inebriate has given satisfactory proof of convalescence, he is allowed a certain amount of liberty. He is permitted to go beyond the grounds on parole, and is trusted with small sums of money. He is suffered, perhaps, to risk himself in tbe neighboring city to make an expedition to Philadelphia, which is eleven miles frbrn Media. Finally, the cure is pronounced so far complete as to justify his dismissal. The Americans have reduced their methodical treatment of drunkenness pretty nearly to a science; but from the nature of the complaint, it is impossible to decide that any cure is absolutely complete, and it is difficult to explain wbat guided the physicians to their conclusions in any particular case. Dr. Parrish says he never marks a man "cured" when he leaves. He has been watched afterwards, and judges by his subsequent conduct. As a rule he entertains good hope of the, patient who is what we should call a gentleman by habit and feeling, although he has this unfortunate failing. On the other hand, he finds thata "low-lived" man, of generally depraved tastes is .almost sure to relapse. Dr. Dodge roughly estimates the number of cures in his large establishment at 40 per cent, cures.

Cape Diamond Fields. — A late resident at Ross, West Coast, wbo left there some time since to try his luck on the diamond fields writes as follows to the local journal : — Tbe diamond fields com prise a very small area of land, they are dug for at many different places, such as Dutoitspan, Bulfoutein, De Beers, and Colesberg Capje, further up the Vaal River and down the stream. Tbe principal places there are Pniel, Hepron, and Klipsdrift. From the first four mentioned places to the river is twenty -five miles. The depth is from twenty- five to ninety feet, taken out bodily; at the river it is mostly shallow. Colesberg Capje is the principal and richest of all. Tbe dirt is got up with windlass, ropes, and blocks. When you look over the field you see nothing but heads, mostly blacks, which latter comprise two-third 3 of the population. The white population is mostly Dutch, with (heir wives and families. The num ber of blacks and whites may be put down at from 60,000 to 70,000. There are none but blacks employed, who are getting from six to ten shillings per week, with rations, on whiqh a white man could scarcely subsist. That a white man might get a job for wages is indeed out of the question, Lynch, or rather mob, law was at its height when I arrived here, arising through Kaffirs selling diamonds which they had stolen from their masters, or rather taking them out of the dirt while at work, and appropriating them to their own use; in such instances the premises of the buyer, with all its contents, were burnt to the ground; besides he had to pay a heavy penalty. The Kaffir received a number of lashes, and was hunted away from the place. One night, when in the township, I heard the cry, "Roll up! roll up ! " I looked and saw a large number of people, headed by a band playing some lively air, marching through the street. I, being, rather inquisitive of course followed them, until at last they made a halt at a very respectable calico building — public-house. Without much ado some of the ringleaders went inside and set it on fire. In a few moments the flames were shooting into the air, and then the band struck up the " Dead March in Saul." I assure you, my dear friends, I was greatly impressed by the sight — all around, on rising ground, stood the multitude* witnessing the' destruction. Hats flew into the air, shouts and hurrahs were deafening, men running to and fro frantic with rage, as the evil-doer could nowhere be found. How different to the quiet and peaceable Ross,

American _Gra*vtss.— -A iiew and rather ingenious mode of adorning graves is now in^common use America. . The tombstones have attached to them photographs of those iri_ whose memory they are erected. The photographs v^ry in size from the carte-:de-visite upwards ; when' the portraits are taken it is mostly oor porcelain or marble, and these are then let into the tombstone, covered with glass, or otherwise s&iired.-v'* -'O^ejaph^ the name o'f -the deceased,- birtKday^ diate of death, end sometimes epitaphs in prose or verse,; y -this! custom, A not^ to >caUt it

fashion, has so rapidly gained: favour with the people, that some of the family graves ' present quite a picture gallery. There you see the lovely child gleefully playing in the nursery room, the middle-aged merchant' with steel-colored bair sitting at his office-desk, the maiden in her bridal array, the aged woman in her sedate drab, the warrior on horseback or on foot, or the priest and preacher in canonicals. For the visiting stranger, each of the graves thus adorned cannot fail to awaken the liveliest interest — in fact -becomes a most impressive and eloquent sermon on tbe uncertainty of everything tbat is human. It is stated that porcelain is best capable to withstand the influences of time and weather.

As the London Season is now at its height, says the Pall Mall it may have a salutary, if not exhilarating, effect to call attention to the following passage from a little book called :" The Abominations of Modern Society," lately published in America, the writer being a clergyman. He thus describes a ball : — "Across the floor tbey trip merrily. The lights sparkle along the wall or drop from the ceiling — a very cohort of fire ! The music charms — the diamonds glitter — the feet bound. Gemmed bands, stretched out, clasp gemmed hands. ' Dancing feet respond to dancing feet. Gleaming brow bends low to gleaming brow. On with the dance ! Flash, rustle, and laughter, and immeasureable merrymaking ! But the languor of death comes over the limbs and blurs the sight. Lights lower ! Floor hollow with sepulchral echp. Music saddens into a wail.* Light lower ! The dancers can hardly now be seen. Flowers exchange their fragrance for a sickening odor, such as come from garlands that have lain in the vau'ts of cemeteries. Lights lower. Mists fill the room. Glasses rattle as though shaken by sullen thunder. Sighs seem caught along the curtain. Scarf falls from tbe. shoulder of beauty — a shroud \ Lights lower ! Over the slippery boards, in dance of death, glide jealousies, disappointment, -despair. Torn leaves and withered garments only half hide the ulcered feet. The stench of smoking lampwicks almost quenched. Choking damps. Chilliness. Feet still. Hands folded. Eyes shut. Voices hushed. Lights out ! " Paiuful as this picture is, it cannot be denied that — although perhaps slightly exaggerated — it not inaccurately represents in many respects the nightmare of the wearied chaperon as she dozes on an uncomfortable chair in the early hours of the morning.