Tine Treatment of Inebriates.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7075, 22 February 1893, Page 2

Tine Treatment of Inebriates.

A GRAPHIC PICT USE. In the Neiv Zealand Medical Journal for January, the retiring address of the President of the Canterbury branch (Dr Guthrie, of Lyttelton) is published, and from it we make the following extract on the subject of chronic drinkers and the difficulty experienced by the medical profession m dealing with ,them. Regarding chronic drinkers, we aro still as far from being able to deal intelligently with them as ever. Every medical man has to face | this difficulty, especially amongst the working classes and smaller shopkeepers and farmers. With the moneyed classes it is possible to arrange occasionally for some degree of restraint until the bettor part of the patient’s nature comes to tho surface ; but how many of us have to stand helplessly by and watch good men, though confirmed drunkards, day by day and month by month gradually undergoing a process of mental and physical ruin, when we know that there would be a good chance of checking this miserable process if we could only be snpplied with and have the power of sending our patients to some retreat where the expenses would bo proportioned to the social position of the patient At present what can wo do ? The law does not permit a policeman to go into a man’s house and take him out, however drunk he may bo. A doctor may visit a dipsomaniac daily, stand abmo of every kind, find his remedies and advice—even beseeching# thrown back in his teeth. See wife and daughters in continua l terror, not only for themselves, but for the man himself, who threatens suicide if he does not immediately get what be wants. All this, I say, wo may have to watch, and yet bo able to do nothing, for as long as the drunkard keeps his bed he is safe. It is not the hilarious drunkard, or even tho destructive drunkard, who causes anxiety, for in time they are all sure to give themselves away. It j is tho bod sticking, Jootbsorae set, who glures ■ end scowls ofc you, asks your business there, jerks away hia hand when you attempt to feel his pulse, demands more drink to prove what !»a thinks of you, and then turning hia face to the wall, relapses into his usual semi-coma- ‘ toes condition , or the emotional driveller 1 who swears he will stop it from this moment 1 and for ever, and then without a symptom of | shame implores a drink before you go. These j aro the ones which make you hopeless, for i they generally run the affair with such I nicety that, although always drunk, they have enough command over themselves to keep up the torture to their friends and tho supply of drink to themselves, and yet never lay themselves open to the police. You apply to the police. They express sorrow, hut say unless he attempts suicide or appears in tho street incapable or disorderly they cannot touch him. As he is too cowardly to do more than threaten tho former, and too cunning to do the latter their help is useless Bv.t, how quickly two medical men could deal w ? uh j him. They could stop the downward tr.aroh ■ i with its attendant misery, and after a month or two’s absence permit him to retui-n to his ’ work a better man, with a good chance of permanently remaining so, for ha would bo 1 stronger physically, and thus have increased strength of resolution ; and the very fact of hia Laving had to undergo restraint for & time would bring home to him his failings, , and thus keep him continually on his guard in the future. Still wo are kept powerless. Again, I wonder if the public have any ids a of the treatment a man suffering from delirium tremens receives when he has laid himself open to bo taken by the police. Tbo police and the warders in the prison revolt against it almost as much as wo do. Remember this is not the case of an ordinary “ drunk,’’ spending a night in the lockup preparatory to being fined 5s at tho R.M. Court next morning. It is a case of delirium tremens, requiring medical treatment. To test the case in Christchurch, two such unfortunates were actually taken by the police to the hospital, with warrants, &c., all complete, and left there. They were not only refused admittance, but not touched or attended to in any way—simply left at the door —so that the police, who had instructions to wait and watch, had to take them away again They were then dealt with as all are now - sent to the Lyttelton Gaol, and, regardless of social position, made to herd with, the prisoners until better. Serve them right, some will say, possibly. But that is not all. There is no proper ward in the gaol supplied for such cases. They have to bo placed in the padded call. That seems nothing at first, until you think what it means. The padded cell is so constructed that it is dark. Floor, walls, all are of painted canvas—ail the same. He is thrust in there to gropo about the monotonous walls with his clammy hands, in the darkness, and (o howl like a frightened beast all night. The other evening I had to cease writing in my own house, 200 yards at least from the gaol, on account of the roaring of one of thesa unfortunates. It went on for hours. Policemen tell mo that sometimes these patients beseech them not to put them in the dark. They say they aro all right if they have a light but immediately that goes the hallucinations, come. They aro sensible enough to know this, and pray for the light • yet i Q they must; go and suffer the tortures of the The gaol surgeons and warders do many acts, of kindness, and help where they can j yefc that is the present position, and I ask which is the most cruel—treating a mental disease in this way or treating a physical wound by drawing a file across ifc ! If two cases occur, one must go to a common cell; females also must be put there. How some of them have not injured themselves.is a matter of wonder. In oases of’accident .prisoners are sent to the hospital for treatment, as there is no gaol hospi-. tal only a room Of course the gaol authorities and wardens have no means of treating rfick cases, and like us, they have no power to eend D. i, oases lo tho hospital. While this subject I cannot help protesting against the unjust blame we are subjected to by some for, as t hey say, manufacturing drunkards by prescribing stimulants. Ibis is, a gross exaggeration, for nowaday* it is exceptional for us to prescribe alcohol, er.cepb in the most urgent cases. The amour/ of good we do by daily advice and warning is not acknowledged, when 1 behove it is infinitely better in its remits than all the oratory of the professional platform teetotaller, because it isgiven at the proper time, with calmness and good taste. It is, at anyrato, in better tastethan the moat recent development of platform* tontotalism —I mean the combination, of lecturing with tho vending of patent medicines, whether gilded qx oth^twjga.