DRUNKENNESS A DISEASE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4965, 20 February 1877, Page 3

DRUNKENNESS A DISEASE.

It may be tolerably well known that in Victoria some few years ago a retreat for the cure of inebriates was established. The institution has just. complete the third year of its existence, and the management’s report for the year shows that the result of ’ the experiment so far, has been successful from a scientific point of view, and that the finances are in a pretty healthy condition, notwithstanding the failure of the Government to continue a promised vote in aid. The • superintendent in his report says : —“ This institution is the first of its kind in the: British Empire, got up under great difficulties, and now, at the end of the third year, only about £760 in debt, exclusive of a mortgage of £I7OO, but having property of the value of over £4800...-I have read of almost every Inebriate Asylum in existence, and I have read of none that can show the same success with so little means, and in so short a time. On the Ist September, 1871, we had not one penny; oh the 25th April, 1872, the date of ouf first audit, we had only £146 ; now we have property worth above £4800.” Commenting on an alleged breach of faith by the Government in not ( having submitted a grant in aid to Parliament the committee say:—“Under these circumstances the committee have decided to go on slowly but surely as they are doing, until more favorable circumstances occur, knowing that Parliament has always been ready to vote any amount submitted to them for the institution. The nature of the institution, and the Government regulations, require a certain staff of servants. This staff would be required for' five patients,, and would suffice for fifty; hence the public must see the difficulty under which the committee labor ; they have a certain amount of necessary expenditure, and on the face of that they cannot fill the rooms with the poor, though they feel that the cure and.salvation of one poor patient would outweigh his expense. But it is a question of keeping the institution open ; and that the committee'are determined to do under all circumstances, and- hence their obligation to reserve some of the rooms for those who can afford to pay and, support the retreat ; but even here they are handicapped by Government regulations limiting them to £3 per week for the most wealthy patient. In thus expressing our disappointment with Government, wo cannot refrain from recording our high appreciation of the generosity of the

public, who have voluntarily contributed £2055, and that contribution was much enhanced by the cheerful encouragement given by the contributors to the Superintendent, who collected nearly the whole of that amount. The Superintendent’s time being now entirely taken up with the management, and not having any collector, the public subscriptions have fallen off, being entirely confined to donations through the post. The sum received from the public in 1876 amounted only to £72 2s. 6d., of which sum there was received for building additional bedrooms, £lO from S. LivingstoneLearmonth, £2 from Miss Christina Gordon Apsley, and £1 from C. Hunter Brown, Nelson, New Zealand. If the Government would pay the mortgage of £I7OO on the property, and build accommodation for say forty patients, and furnish the bedrooms, we would not ask them for another penny. We would undertake to make the institution self-support-ing, and take in patients for as small an amount as possible, having regard to the object, and some special cases gratuitously. The Government received in 1876, on account of alcoholic liquors, £619,400 ; for hops and malt, £26,600; for tobacco, £115,000; on account of opium, £17,000; total, £778,000. The institution was established to cure the mischief caused by these poisons, and if the Government devoted £1 to the retreat out of every £IOOO received by them from the above, they would gain a hundredfold in the good effect to the community, and in saving expenditure on various institutions. For though drunkenness is the greatest curse of this colony, there is little likelihood of the spirit interest being materially interfered with. A minister of the Crown in England lately said publicly, ‘ That as there is invested in the spirit interest £117,000,000, it cannot materially be interfered with, whatever may be the result of its influence on the community for good or for evil !’ A hard struggle was made in Parliament by Government to obtain five per cent, of the licence fees to defray the coat •of testing liquors, &c. This cry of adulteration is a cunning device got up for the purpose of imposing on the public. It is the alcohol, and not adulterations, that kills thousands. Dr. Richardson, of London, one of our highest authorities, says, ‘lf all the liquors sold under various names—wine, brandy, gin, rum, whisky, ale, stout, perry, cider—were divested of their alcoholic spirit, they would contain comparatively little of anything that would affect those who partook of them.’ It would be more rational for the Government to give that five or ten per cent, to the Retreat to cure the evils of alcohol, than expend it on hunting for that which is comparatively harmless. It is thus they act in America, where they put more value on human life, and make the liquor traffic pay for the mischief it has done. If any one merchant had received annually £778,000 for these poisons, and refused to give one penny to cure those so poisoned, he would be denounced by every right-thinking member of the community. In 1872 the celebrated Dr. Parrish, of Philadelphia, was examined before a committee of the British House of Commons on this subject. Question 2741 ;—‘Would you not think that the State would be justified in spending a portion of the public money in establishing asylums of the kind ? ’ Answer ; —‘ I think the State would find it exceedingly economical to do so.’ This was the answer of Dr. Parrish, who was requested to come to London to give evidence as to the value of inebriate retreats. “If the Victorian Government had done its duty, ten times more good would have been effected, and many lives saved, and much misery prevented ; and the public will not be slow in attributing to Government neglect the loss of some lives that appear daily in the public press. “The total receipts for 1876 amounted to £1169 12s. 4d., and the expenditure to £1377 4s. 6d.”

Attached to the report are a number of extracts from the sayings and writings of’ medical men as to the desirableness of treating habitual drunkenness as a disease, and Dr. McCarthy, superintendent, adds a protest against the inhuman custom • of putting helpless drunkards into the lock-up, which Dr. Richardson calls the anteroom to the grave, for as alcohol produces cold, the cold cell increases the cold, and causes death. He makes a very practical remark to distinguish apoplexy from drunkenness in §hch“cases. In apoplexy the patient’s temperature is above 98deg., that of health ;in drunkenness below 98deg. In drunkenness the patient cannot be kept too warm. A thermometer will enable any policeman to judge. The annual return shows that the number of patients on Ist January, 1876, was 5; admitted during year, 15 males, 11 females, 26; treated during the year, 31; discharged since January, 26; remaining in the Retreat, Dec. Slat, 5; had delirium tremens, 6 ; used tobacco, 9 ; married, 22; single, 4; natives of England, 16; natives of Ireland, 5; natives of Scotland, 1; natives of Tasmania, 2; natives of Victoria, 1; natives of Africa, 1 ; constant drinkers, 22; periodical, 4 ; had intemperate parents, 3 ; entered voluntarily, 21 ; entered compulsorily, 5. ' ■ '