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 RC565 .M38 1878 inebriety a disease; 
 
 RECAP 
 
 INEBRIETY A DISEASE. 
 
 PRESIDENT'S ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered before the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, 
 at Chicago, Illinois, September 13, 1877, 
 
 THEODORE L. MASON. M. D.. 
 
 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. 
 
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INEBRIETY A DISEASE, 
 
 PRESIDENTS 
 
 Anniversary Address 
 
 Delivered befoi-e the Amerkan Association for the Cure of 
 Itiebriates^ at Chicago, Illinois, S£ptember 13, 1877. 
 
 THEODORE L. MASON, M. D., 
 
 OF 
 
 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 
 
 ArSO 
 
 President of the Inebriates' Home, Fort Hamilton, N. Y. 
 
 FORT HAMILTON: 
 
 Pkintkd at the Inebriates' Home foe Kings County. 
 
 1878. 
 

IINEBRIETY A DISEASE. 
 
 '^ 
 
 President's Anniversary Address delivered before the Annerican Asso- 
 ciation for the Cure of Inebriates, at Chicago, Illinois, 
 
 s E :e=> T E nvE ::b E! .E=i. iscio., lavv, 
 
 BT 
 
 OF 
 BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, 
 
 Mr. Vice-Preside7it, and Members of the Association': 
 
 In the year 1870, the Presidents, Physicians 
 and Superintendents of several of the Inebriate Asylums in 
 these United States met in the City of J^Tew York and or- 
 ganized the Ameeicaj^ Association fob the Cure of Ine- 
 briates. 
 
 The objects of the Association, as set forth in the Plan of 
 Organization adopted by them, were "to study the disease 
 of inebriety, to discuss its proper treatment, and to endeavor 
 to bring about a cooperative public sentiment and jurispru- 
 dence." (Art. 3, Plan of Organization.) 
 
 In the progress of the meeting, a " Preamble and Declar- 
 ation of Principles'' were unanimously adopted, in which 
 these postulates were enunciated: 1st, "Intemperance is a 
 disease,'''' and 2d, " It is curable in the same sense as other 
 diseases are curable." 
 
 This Association further committed itself deliberately and 
 unanimously to the theory that, in certain cases, inebriety is 
 
a disease of a spcci/tl form, peculiarly induced and requiring 
 special treatment in hospitals adapted and devoted exclusively 
 to its cure. Have subsequent investigations in our oavu and 
 other countries served to coniirm its nierabers in these posi- 
 tions, or to show tliem tliat tliey were mistaken ? 
 
 Tlie first of tliese ''principles," viz: "That Inebriety is a 
 diseiise,'''' is the great fundamental principle upon which the 
 oldest, best establislied, best known and most successful In- 
 ebriate Asylums in this country are based. The correctness 
 of this principle has however, in a few instances, been de- 
 nied. I propose in this paper to inquire — WJiat hicbric/y is. 
 Is it, as some persons affirm, always a Vice merely ; or is it 
 also a Disease ? May it not be in certain circumstances one 
 of these — a Vice, and in other circumstances — a Disease ? 
 
 The decision of this cpiestion manifestly must depend upon 
 the amount and reliability of the testimony which can be 
 brought to bear upon it. It is my purpose, on the present 
 occasion, to summarize a portion of such testimony, and to 
 distriljute it in accordance with its relation to the following 
 points: 
 
 1st. What is the nature of the action of Alcohol upon the 
 human system ? 
 
 2d. Does Alcohol cause acute and chronic constitutional 
 disease in tlie persons habitually using it ? 
 
 3d. Is the Diseased Constitution thus caused transmissible 
 to the offspring of the drinker ? 
 
 4th. Is there evidence tijat family and national character 
 and constitution may be degraded by the general use of 
 Alcohol ? 
 
 And 5t]i and last — Are these evils thus caused remedia- 
 1)1 e ? and how ? 
 
 In doing this it is my [)urpose to use in tlieir own words 
 the statements wliich some of the best tliinkers of our own 
 day, and best informed on this subject, have placed on re- 
 cord and wliich must be accepted as the most authoritative, 
 
as tliey constitute the most fully established and reliahle tes- 
 timony which is accessible on the subject. 
 
 Before proceeding to this, however, let us pause a moment 
 and endeavor to agree upon tlie meanings of some of the 
 terras we are to use. 
 
 Vice. — " A bad or evil course of action ; the opposite to 
 virtue ; depravity ; evil," &c. ; generally nsed of an habitual 
 fault. 
 
 This word has been frequently confounded with the word 
 Crime, and some undesirable confusion has been the conse- 
 quence. The word crime properly refers to offence against 
 legal enactments. Yice, in its first signification, means a 
 violation of the pri?iciples of vrtue ; but it has been used to 
 imply such a departure from the requirements of man's phys- 
 ical nature as detracts from his physical welfare. In this 
 sense we shall use it in this discussion. 
 
 Disease; etymologically, Dis- (want of) ease — unqniet- 
 ness, distress. In Wvcliffe's translation of the Bible (14th 
 century) it is used thus: "In the world ye shall have dis- 
 ease," (John 16 : 33). In medicine the term is nsed to sig- 
 nify — "Any morbid state of the body generally; or of any 
 particular organ or part of the body ; any derangement of 
 the functions, or alteration of the structure of the animal 
 organs." 
 
 A few remarks may perhaps not improperly be here pre- 
 mised as to the character of the active agent, the substance 
 upon the use of which, in our own and in the insular and 
 continental countries of Europe, Ixebriety chiefly depends — 
 Alcohol, in some of its varied forms. I do this the more 
 readily because of the indefinite and modified manner in 
 which it is sometimes spoken of, even by intelligent phy- 
 sicians. That it is a poison all admit. But immediately 
 upon this admission you will not unfrequently hear this 
 qualifying remark: "It is a poison when taken to excess," 
 or: "It is good for the stomach, but becomes a poison when 
 
6 
 
 its effects are felt in the head." Now this betrays a con- 
 fusion of ideas, a lingering tendency to hold on to the ex- 
 ploded notions of the past, or aii ignorance of the latest 
 teachings of science, for which we might lind an apology in 
 tlie doctrine of the jolly monks of the schoJa salerniterna, 
 wliose maxim, as quoted by Duglinson, was " Si nocturna 
 tibi noccat v'uii,^' — " Hoc tu mane hihes iterum et fucrit 
 mcdicuia,^^ but neither of which we tliink is, at this late 
 day, worthy of intelligent medical men. 
 
 We do not talk thus about arsenic, opium, atropine, In- 
 dian hemp, or prussic acid, or any other vegetable or mineral 
 poison. All of these, though poisonous, are of use, and have 
 their places in the armameiita mcdica — places which the mod- 
 ern practitioner would lind it difficult to Ull were they re- 
 moved. 
 
 They are all of great benefit to man as remedies for disease, 
 but tliey are nevertheless indisputably yoisonotis. Just so 
 alcohol has its use in the treatment of disease, but it is a 
 poison to the normal and healthy man. '^o intclh'gent person 
 would say "a little arsenic, or a little opium, or a little In- 
 dian hemp, or aconite, or atropine or prussic acid is a nutri- 
 ment, and is of benefit to man in health and should be taken 
 daily and regularly; but a little too mucli is a poison.^'' 
 
 Why then suffer ourselves to think or speak thus of alco- 
 hol ? No, alcohol is never a nutriment, nor fit for dailij use. 
 Alcohol is a poison, inherently, absolutely, essentially ; in a 
 drop or in a gill, in a pint or in a gallon, in all quantities 
 and in every quantity it is a ])oison. Plainly tlie quantity 
 cannot alter its chemical constitution. The chemical for- 
 mula, C H no, expresses the relative proportion of the 
 
 3 5 
 
 constituents, in a teaspoonful or a gallon, oi ethijlic, deiitilic, 
 or common alcoliol; and Chistison and many other authori- 
 ties in materia mediea have assigned its place amongst them 
 as a Tiarcotico/-irritant poison. 
 
 AlcohfA is supposed to have been discovered in the 11th 
 
century of our era, by an Arabian alchemist, Ca&a or Albu- 
 casis, a distinguished professor of the mystic art, whose 
 adepts were popularly supposed to be helped in their discov- 
 eries by the Devil, the great enemy of man from the begin- 
 ning ; and, verily, were I to judge from the results alone of 
 this discovery, I should be strongly inclined to the popular 
 belief; for surely I speak the words of truth and soberness 
 when I declare that, since the transgression of our first pa- 
 rents "brought sin into the world and all our woe," no single 
 discovery of man, in his persistent "seeking out of many in- 
 ventions," has been, fraught with such dire results to the 
 moral and physical well-being of our race. 
 
 These, I am aware, are " brave words ;" and those who 
 doubt, if there be any present, have a just claim for proof of 
 their correctness. Of written opinions on this point there 
 is no lack. For years the temperance press has teemed with 
 tractates on the subject, filled with the eloquence of truth, 
 and convincing by the power of a heartfelt sympathy. I do 
 not propose, however, to avail myself of aid of this descrip- 
 tion, but rather to use such as a strictly scientific and profes- 
 sional study has placed at the disposal of the earnest inves- 
 tigator. In attempting this, I shall draw freely from the 
 " Cantor Lectures" of Dr. B. W. Kichardson, F. R. 0. P., 
 published a year or two since in the 'Journal of the Society 
 of Arts.' inasmuch as they seem to me to approach more 
 nearly than any other to the latest conclusions of scientific 
 investigation, and to be distinguished by the calm and philo- 
 sophic spirit which marks and dignifies the impartial seeker 
 after truth. 
 
 We have asserted that alcohol is a poisDn. A reliable 
 authority defines a poison to be "any substance which, if in- 
 troduced into the animal economy, disturbs, suspends, or 
 destroys some or all of the vital functions," or organs. Let 
 us see how perfectly alcohol fulfils these conditions. 
 
 The experiments of this distinguished scientist, Dr. R., on 
 
tlie lower animals have plainly &liown that the lightest and 
 purest of these alcohols, methijlic alcohol or wood-spirits, is 
 poisox and will cause deatli. Of the common, or etJtylic 
 alcohol he saj^s: "Taken into tlie stomach in the diluted 
 state in which it is ordinarily used, as in whiskey, brandy, 
 gin, wine, &c., it exerts its poisonous influences first on the 
 stomach — ^influenctes so remarkable and so readily observable 
 during life, (as in the case of St. Martin, reported by Beau- 
 mont, and in a recent similar case noticed in a Paris jour- 
 nal,) and which leav^e such destructive traces in the dead 
 body in the results of inflammation, thickening, ulcerations, 
 and spliacelation, that they have long since attracted the at- 
 tention and scrutiny of physiologists and pathologists alike. 
 It next passes into the blood (in part certainly, and in form, 
 by endosmosis,) and attacks the I'ed globules, destroying their 
 forms by the abstraction of water, making their smooth outer 
 edge crenated or even starlike, or chauQ-ino; their round into 
 an oval shape, disposes them to run too closely together and 
 to adhere in rolls, causes an aggregation of rolls into masses, 
 and thus impairs the ease with which they pass through the 
 vessels of the luno-s and of the o'eneral circulation. The next 
 
 CI O 
 
 direct action is upon the fi brine or plastic colloid matter, 
 damaging its healthy condition. Soon the deleterious influ- 
 ence extends to the minute blood vessels and diminishes 
 their contractility, thus causing them to become preternatu- 
 rally distended with red globules, a part of the blood not to 
 be found in them permanently in health. 
 
 " Conne(;ted with this condition is the flushing of the face ; 
 and if tlie lungs conld be seen their vessels would be found 
 injected in like manner. This is also true of the brain 
 and spinal cord, of the stomach, liver, spleen, kidneys, and 
 all the otlicr vascular organs of tlie body. 
 
 "The action of alcohol does not stop here. The disturb- 
 ance extends to the heart, whose action is quickened and 
 rendered more forcible for a time, but flasfs at last for want 
 
of more alcohol to stimnlate it, and falls below its normal 
 frequency and force. This being supplied, or the quantity 
 originally taken being sufficient to continue its action beyond 
 the first stage, the function of the spinal cord is influenced, 
 the nervous control of the co-ordinating muscles is diminished 
 or lost, and the contractile power of the muscles themselves 
 fails. 
 
 " In a yet further degree of intoxication the brain centers 
 are affected ; the reason is now off duty, and the mere animal 
 instincts are laid atrociously bare. Finally, the action of the 
 alcoliol still extending, the superior cerebral structures are 
 overpowered, the sense;i fail, the voluntary muscular prostra- 
 tion is perfected, and the man lies a mere log. Tlie heart 
 alone just lives and feeds the breathing power, and keeps 
 the mass within the domain of life, until the poison begins 
 to pass away, the nervous centers revive again, and the pa- 
 tient lives to die another day. Thus there are four stages 
 of alcoholic poisoning in the jprimary or acute form : 
 
 " A. A stage of vascular excitement and exhaustion. 
 
 "5. A stage of excitement and exhaustion of the spinal 
 cord, with muscidar perturbation. 
 
 " C. A stage of unbalanced reasoning powers and of voli- 
 tion. 
 
 " 1>. A stage of complete collapse of nervous functions." 
 
 Of tlie Secondary Physiological effects of simple or ethylic 
 alcohol (the least poisonous, with one exception, of the eleven 
 varieties of which he gives a tabulary description,) Dr. R. 
 remarks: "As a cause of disease, it gives origin to a great 
 population of afflicted persons, many of whom suffer even 
 death, without themselves suspecting from what they suffer, 
 and unsuspected by others. Amongst them are alcoholic 
 dyspepsia, alcoholic insomnia, organic deterioration, special 
 structural deterioration, alcoholic disease of the heart, alco- 
 holic consumption, organic nervous lesions, loss of memory 
 or speech, dipsomania, and mania, a potu. 
 
10 
 
 "To us physiologists,'^ he adds, "tliese maniacs a, pofu are 
 men under the influence of alcohol, with certain of their 
 brain centers paralysed, and with a broken balance, there- 
 fore, of brain power, which we with infinite labor and much 
 exactitude have learned to understand." 
 
 Is Alcohol Food ? Concerning this question, which has 
 been much and earnestly discussed of late, and in favor of 
 which the most that has been claimed by the supporters of 
 the affirmative answer is that perhaps one and a lialf ounces 
 might be taken daily A%nthout injury, possibly with advantage, 
 by an individual in ordinary health, Dr. K. thus speaks: 
 " Xature lias prepared for man two fluids — water and milk — 
 and tliey are all that is essential. When we inquire into the 
 physiological construction of man, or the lower animals, we 
 can discover no necessity for any other fluid. The mass of 
 the blood is water, the mass of the nervous system is water, 
 the mass of all the active vital organs is water, the secretions 
 are watery fluids, and if into any of them any other agent 
 than water is introduced, the result is instant and injurious 
 disturbance of function. Alcohol cannot, by any ingenuity of 
 excuse for it, be classed among the foods of man. It neither 
 supplies matter for Construction nor Heat. It is not, there- 
 for, fit for Drink, nor is it Food." 
 
 It is not necessary for my purpose to dwell longer on this 
 phase of the subject, and I will therefor dismiss it with a 
 short quotation from the writer I have so freely used: "In 
 conclusion, therefore, on this one point of alcohol, its use as 
 a builder of tlie substantial parts of the animal organism, I 
 fear I must give up all hope of affirmative proof. It does 
 not certainly help to build up the active nitrogenous struct- 
 ures. It probably does not produce fatty matter, except by 
 an indirect and injurious interference with the natural pro- 
 cesses." "This chemical substance, alcohol, an artificial 
 product devised by man for his purposes, and in many tilings 
 that lie outside of his organism a useful substance, is neither 
 
11 
 
 a FOOD nor a drink suitable for his natural demands. Its 
 application is projDerlj limited by the learning and skill pos- 
 sessed by tlie physician — a learning that itself admits of 
 being recast and revised in many important details and per- 
 haps principles. If this agent does really for the moment 
 cheer the weary and impart a flush of transient pleasure to 
 the unwearied who crave for mirth, its influence (doubtful 
 even in these modest and moderate degrees,) is an infinitesi- 
 mal advantage by the side of an injinity of evil for which 
 there is no compensation and no human cure." 
 
 These latter despairing words I trust we may 7iow receive 
 with much allowance. A cure by God's help — we will not 
 doubt, if not already discovered — may yet be found. 
 
 But these conclusions on this most important subject, 
 should not rest upon the testimony of one witness only, 
 however impartial, intelligent or competent he may be. 
 Scores of able, well-informed men could be summoned to 
 testify on this subject and their evidence would fill a vol- 
 ume, not to quote the more than seven thousand members of 
 the British Medical Association, the hundreds of the Ameri- 
 can Medical Association, who met tliis year in this city.* 
 
 The report made before the section of medicine of the 
 Centennial Medical Convention in Philadelphia, in 1876, 
 composed of representative men from all parts of this coun- 
 try and from Europe, all, substantially, concur in this one 
 opinion of the noxious effects of alcohol on those who indulge 
 in its habitual use. 
 
 To this testimony, so clear and full, in justice to our own 
 members and as proof ol the views held by them from the 
 organization of this Association, I feel constrained to add 
 their evidence. In a report of Dr. Earle, of the Washing- 
 tonian Home, of Chicago, I find this description : " Alcoholic 
 mania is the term we apply when, with impaired mental and 
 physical condition, the man seems to have lost all will-yower 
 
 * Chicago. 
 
12 
 
 to do as he would. He would do right, but he seems to 
 have lost tlie power to do it." " He makes the best of reso- 
 lutions, calls the Divine Being to his help, but at the first 
 opportunity falls.'' Is there no disease here ? Is this man 
 in a normal, healthy condition ? "Delirium tremens," he 
 says, "is characterized by insomnia, hallucinations of the 
 special senses, low delirium, with its consequent decreased 
 mental vigor, and with increased digestive derangement." 
 Does no disease exist in this case ? 
 
 Dr. Day, in his paper on 'Inebriety and its Cure,' read 
 before the Suffolk District Medical Society, in December, 
 1876, propounds this question : "Is there satisfactory proof 
 of the existence of a disease called Di23Somania or Oinoma- 
 nia ? If so, can it be cured ? I give an unhesitating answer 
 in the affirmative to both these questions." 
 
 We cannot follow the Doctor in his expansion of these 
 propositions, but will quote a sentence from page 5th of his 
 paper, as directly bearing on the point we are considei'ing : 
 " This condition is by no means rare. Many such cases are 
 reported in the medical journals of England, France .and 
 Germany. Men of experience have reported similar cases, 
 and certainly more tlian one hundred have come under my 
 own observation." Is such a person a responsible being ? 
 Only so far as he may have directly or indirectly hrovght this 
 disease upon kimsdf. Is the Doctor describing a vice or a 
 disease ? 
 
 In his paper on 'ThePathologic-al Influence of Alcohol, or 
 the Nature of Inebriation,' by N. S. Davis, M. D., pul)lished 
 ill tlie 'Proceedings of the first meeting of this Association, 
 in 1870,' in answer to the question: "Is Inebriation really 
 a crime (vice) or a disease ?" and stating certain conditions 
 in wliicli to become inebriated was criminal, he says: "But 
 tliat tlie aj)petite for alcoholic drinks and the state of inebri- 
 ation are diseased conditions of certain organs or structures is 
 
13 
 
 snscepti])le of clearest demonstration." (See p. 15, Proceed- 
 ings 1870, also p. 23, on Treatment, &c.) 
 
 Dr. Wm. C. Wej, in liis paper entitled 'Inebriety by In- 
 heritance,' read before this Association in 1871, on page 
 28, says: "Inebriety being accepted as Vi, i)hy steal disorder, 
 * * * it becomes ns to look back in the train of morbid 
 phenomena by which it has been fostered and developed, 
 and endeavor to analyze its near and remote causes. Con- 
 spicuously in this connection comes the consideration of 
 inherited tendevcy.''^ 
 
 These views Dr. Wey reaffirmed in a paper entitled, 'A 
 Medical Aspect of Drunkenness,' read by request before the 
 Annual Convention of the Diocese of Central New York, 
 7th of February, 1877, and published at the desire of the 
 Bishop and Clergy of the Convention. 
 
 Dr. G-eo. Burr, of Binghampton, IST. Y., Trustee of the N. 
 Y. Inebriate Asylum, who has had ample opportunities for 
 the study of this aifection and has assiduously improved 
 them — bringing to the study a mind unusually logical and 
 observant — ^has in the same number of the proceedings a 
 contribution on 'The Pathology of Inebriety,' singularly 
 clear, original and convincing. On pages 57 and 58 he has 
 these remarks : 
 
 "Inebriety makes its approach as other diseases make theirs, sometimes 
 by the fault of the individual attacked, and at other times from causes over 
 which he has no control. 
 
 "The propensity is quite often hereditary, and transmitted from one gen- 
 eration to another, in accordance with the same law by which any consti- 
 tutional taint, like scrofula or tubercular disease, is handed down. 
 
 "The law of development which, from the germ, fashions and matures 
 an individual, and by which it is made to resemble its prototype or parents, 
 will also in due time bring forth the defects which may have existed in a 
 previous generation. The fact is a familiar one, that children resemble 
 their parents to a certain extent in mental characteristics, disposition, pecu- 
 liarity of constitution, temperament and form. They are, however, not 
 born with all these characteristics present, but as the child is developed into 
 the man, they one after the other make their appearance. With the devel- 
 opment of consumption under this law we are all familiar. The child is 
 
14 
 
 bom •with a tuberculous taint. During the years of its childhood it may 
 be well and sprightly, may keep pace in growth with the most robust ; but 
 in the course of its development it reaches a point where its prototype fell 
 into decay and died. This individual will do the same." 
 
 In an article in the Proceedings of 1872, Dr. B. announces 
 the following propositions : 
 
 "Upon the subject of Inebriety, I think the following ma\^ be regarded 
 as facts : 
 
 "1. That it is a disease of constitutional character, involving the entire 
 organism in its consequences. 
 
 "2. That the true disease is the morbid craving for alcohol, of which the 
 act of drinking is but an effect. 
 
 "3. "Whatever the true physiological action of alimentation maybe, or 
 in whichever system of neiTes the sensations which give rise to hunger 
 and thirst may reside, the symptoms of inebrietj- indicate that the disease is 
 a disordered condition of this function, and that the ordiuaiy sensations of 
 appetite for food and drink are perverted and uncontrollable." 
 
 The opinions of Drs. Par^ker and Parrish, the able pion- 
 eers in the study of this sitbject, afe so well known that quo- 
 tations from their writings would be snpei'iluous here. Tes- 
 timony in support of these views is in fact abundant ; but I 
 will summon only one other witness. In the Proceedings 
 of 1872, pages SS and 54, we Und these statements: 
 
 * * * "I knew a boy who could not bear to see a cut finger without 
 becoming sick, and yet he became a surgeon, and finally performed with 
 success one of the boldest of all surgical opei'ations ; but it was done under 
 WHISKEY C0UR.4.GE, and he finally ceased to practice his profession because 
 of its distastefulness. Such men 'necessarily' become drunkards, and re. 
 quire for refonnation not only a change of habit, but of busmess also, that 
 their peculiar 'nervous organization' may not be disturbed in their daily 
 life. 
 
 "Men become drunkards fi"om verj' different causes, and require very 
 different treatment to effect a cure. The case of the regular tippler is, as a 
 general rule, more hopeful than that of one who for a long period has no 
 desire for drink, and then ])ecomes seized with an 'inordinate passion,' even 
 before he has tasted it. Some men are constituted with a perfect command 
 over their appetites, lasting thnjughout life ; some lose this power and be- 
 come drunkards in old age; some have an 'innate fondness for liquor,' 
 which makes them run on to intemperance at the first indulgence, and con- 
 tinue the habit Avith occasional intermissions throughout life. 
 
 "Other subjects of iutemperance are the unfortunate possessors of 'a 
 
15 
 
 peculiar neivous organization from childhood up,' which renders them lia- 
 ble to indescribable attacks of agitation of 'the nervous system,' which are 
 at first under the control of alcohol, but require, for their continued sup- 
 pression, larger and larger potations, until the amount consumed is in some 
 cases marvelously great." 
 
 These last extracts are from the Report of the 'Franklin 
 Home,' Philadelphia. (Proceedings 1872.) 
 
 The testimony which i have thus brought before you is 
 but a small portion of what is accessible, yet I trust it will 
 h'e deemed sufBcient to establish the proposition with which 
 I commenced, that alcohol is a jjoisoji, producing in persons 
 who use it habitually the Disease of Inebriety — a disease 
 whose forms and features and diagnostic symptoms are 
 quite well understood. This is, however, but a small portion 
 of the evil. Were these influences confined to those who 
 accustom themselves to the daily use of alcohol in some of 
 its varied forms, the damaging results would be greatly 
 diminished. But this is far from the fact. 
 
 Heredity. — "In referring to the influence of alcohol," 
 says Prof. Willard Parker, "lYe must not omit to speak of 
 the condition of the ofispring of the inebriate. The inherit- 
 ance is a sad one. A tendency to the disease of the parent is 
 induced as strong if not stronger than that of consumption, 
 cancer or gout. The tendency referred to has its origin in 
 the nervous system. The unfortunate children of the ine- 
 briate come into the world with a defective organization 
 of the nerves." (See Proceedings 1871.) 
 
 In view of the vast importance of this relation of our 
 subject, I ask your careful and patient attention whilst 1 
 submit to you a brief abstract of the testimony of other emi- 
 nent medical specialists who, in 1872, were examined before 
 a select committee of the British House of Commons on 
 " Habitual Drunkards," as to the nature of the disease caused 
 by the habitual use of alcoholic drinks, not onh' in the indi- 
 vidual DBiNKEK, but as to the yet more appalling nature of its 
 
16 
 
 infl/fence on the Descendants of Drunkards, or even moderate 
 drinkers. 
 
 Dr. James Cricliton Browne, Superintendent of the West 
 Kiding Asjlum, at Wakefield, and who is understood to be 
 high authority in his specialty", thus sj^eaks of Dipsomania 
 which, lie says, " consists of an irresistible craving for alcoliolic 
 stinnihmts occurring very frequently, pei'iodically, parox- 
 ysniallv, and with a constant liability to periodical exacer- 
 bation, when tlie craving becomes altogether irresistible. 
 
 " It is, in the majority of cases, the result of habitual 
 drunkenness, although I have seen it produced by sunstroke 
 and by other causes. 1 recollect the case of a gentleman 
 perfectly sober who had dipsomania, which was attributed to 
 taking a draught of water on a hot day, which caused faint- 
 ing and was succeeded by an entire change of charac^ter." 
 In answer to quesfcion 451 — ' This distinction you \vould 
 draw between disease which drives men to drinking, and 
 drinking which produces disease?' he says : " Precisely so ; 
 dipsomania may come on either way." Again he says : 
 "Habitual drunkenness is a mce ; dipsomania is a disease. I 
 believe that in a case of habitual drunkenness, which is at 
 first voluntary, the vice may become involuntary and a dis- 
 ease." "With the dipsomaniac the cause is a vis a tergo ; 
 witli the drunkard it is a vis a fronte. The dipsomaniac is 
 driven into a debauch by an irresistible impulse ; the drunk- 
 ard seeks the intoxicating effects. In dipsomaniacs it (the 
 attack) comes in paroxysms, is liable to exacerbation, and is 
 not determined by opportunities." The Doctor adds this 
 striking remark: "I have known dipsomaniacs who, in the 
 intervals between tlie attacks, would not take stimulants 
 (even) wlien placed before them ; but a drunkard, on the 
 other hand, will take a stimulant when (ever) he can get it. 
 That is no so witli a di])Somaniac." On the question of 
 Heredity, Dr. Browne well expressed the fac^t when he said, 
 " A drunkard transmits a weak nervous system to liis ofi- 
 spring." 
 
17 
 
 Dr. Francis Edimmd Anstie, a physician in London, Lec- 
 turer in Medicine at Westminster Hospital, practising among 
 the higher classes and meeting the lower in hospital prac- 
 tice, the author of a well-known work on Oinomania, seeing 
 large numbers of intemperate persons, recognizes the distinc- 
 tion made by Dr. Browne between the frequent drunkard 
 and the man who has drunk liimself into a state of per- 
 fect want of resisting power. He says : " Should say that 
 this was a matter of degree ; whereas there is another affec- 
 tion separated absolutely as a matter of kind, which is entirely 
 paroxysmal, and which, so far as I know, never occurs ex- 
 cept in persons of a certain hereditary conformation. This 
 disease, first called Oinomania by a Frenchman, ♦ * comes 
 upon men at intervals, who are otherwise not inclined to 
 drink at all, and who, between their times of drinking, are 
 perfectly free from any tendency to drink whatever. These 
 persons are the children of families, invariably, or almost in. 
 variably, in which insanity is hereditary. Yery often drink- 
 ing has been hereditary in a marked manner. I believe that 
 drinking in this * * case is the result of disease. * * * 
 A man begins to drink when he is altogether in an abnormal 
 state. It is a mere variety of hereditary insanity." He 
 adds, in answer to question 571 : "Where drinking has been 
 strong in both parents, I think it is a physical certainty that 
 it will be traced in the children." 
 
 Again: "I have no doubt that many persons who were 
 never drunk — parents in the old port-wine drinking period — 
 have transmitted very unstable nervous systems to their 
 children," " Then, to a certain extent, you endorse the Aris- 
 totelian maxim, that 'drunken parents beget drunken chil- 
 dren?' " "No question of it." 
 
 Dr. Anstie knew a manufacturer — a man in a good posi- 
 tion, and one of the cleverest business men he ever knew — 
 who always lived a chaste, sober life, except when the fit 
 was npon him. Then he went to the nearest public house, 
 
IB" 
 
 consorted witli loose women, shut himself up in a back 
 parlor, and drank bi*andy with them for six weeks, close 
 to the village where he was an ivnportant man and well 
 known. 
 
 Dr. Bree^ a magistrate and practitioner of forty years 
 standing, in his testimony says : " I have no doubt that a 
 drunken man never has healthy children ; that, I believe, is 
 an established axiom." Again: "A man is not able to pro- 
 create healthy children, who is in a constant state of drunk- 
 enness. It is physiologically impossible." 
 
 Dr. Forbes Winslow (of large experience for thirty years) 
 says : " I think alcohol should be dealt with as a source of 
 both moral and physical degeneration. The human race is, 
 I believe, morally, mentally and socially deteriorated by that 
 poison. Drunkards have dmnken children. I was looking 
 at a list of criminals the other day ; there was a father a 
 drunkard and a grandfather a drunkard and a grandmother 
 an idiot in that family. In the whole line they were drunk- 
 ards, they were criminals, they were idiots; all the forms of 
 vice were hereditarily transmitted." 
 
 Dr. A. Mitchell says : "-I think it quite certain that the 
 children of habitual drunkards are, in a large proportion, idi- 
 otic ; and, in a larger proportion, themselves drunkards than 
 other children. Many habitual drunkards are also strongly 
 predisposed to insanity ; tiie habitual drinking in them is 
 just the shape that insanity takes. What they transmit 
 to their children is really that predispositioji which they have 
 themselves. 
 
 "Delirium Tremens, the disease of constant tipplers, is 
 not necessarily produced by constant intoxication. Mania. 
 a potu is not intoxication, but comes on as intoxication is 
 passing oif. It may occur in a man never drunk before, nor 
 ever drunk afterwards. 
 
 "Dipsomania is sometimes the product and sometimes the 
 cause of drinking, and is an ungovernable and remitting 
 
19 
 
 craving for drink withont any reference to externals. It is 
 almost always accompanied by a change of character in the 
 direction of degradation ; a loss of the sense of duty, of hon- 
 or, of affection, of truth ; * * it occurs sometimes after fever, 
 hemorrhage, mental shock, the commotion in the system 
 which attends the establishment of puberty, or the arrival of 
 the climacteric period." 
 
 Dr. White says : " Habitual drunkards often desire to be 
 cured. 1 know a man who has had the delirium tremens several 
 times, who knows what is Defore him, who seems perfectly 
 rational, but declares that he cannot restrain the cravings for 
 drink." Dr. White thinks that, as a rule, habitual drunk- 
 ards desire to be cured of drinking : "They make ineffectual 
 efforts to abandon their drink, but the craving comes on 
 which they cannot resist, and they do not resist." 
 
 Dr. David Skae, Royal Edinburgh Asylum, says : " Dip- 
 somaniacs lose all control over themselves, and drink to any 
 extent possible. If they cannot get spirits, they will drink 
 hail wash or anything stimulating. These cases are mostly 
 hereditary. They are often caused by disease, by blows on 
 the head, sometimes by hemorrhage, the loss of large quan- 
 tities of blood, sometimes by disease of the brain. This is 
 really a disease, and not a mere case of drunkenness." 
 
 To these extracts I might add others from a pamphlet 
 published this year by S. S. Alford, Esq., F. E. C. S., Hon- 
 orary Secretary to the 'Society for Promoting Legislation 
 for the Control of Habitual drunkards ;' of which the Kight 
 Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury, K. G., is the President, and 
 having for Vice-Presidents the Duke of Westminster, the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury and York, the Lord Bishops of 
 Salisbury, Ripon, Llandaff, Winchester, &c., and a long list 
 of other gentlemen of high position and rank, and an Exec- 
 utive Committee of gentlemen of means in the legal and 
 medical professions, magistrates and others. The existence 
 of such a Society, whose Honorary Secretary reads, prints 
 
20 
 
 and pnblislies a tractate on Dipsomania, is sufficient evidence 
 that they agree as to the theory of Disease. 
 
 I will summon but one or two other witnesses, whose evi- 
 dence will be very brief. 
 
 Dr. Elam, a recent and interesting writer on 'Natural 
 Heritasre,' has these remarks : " Under the law of uniform 
 transmission, we observe children inheriting not only the 
 general form and appearance of their parents, but also their 
 mental and moral constitutions ; not only in their original 
 and essential characters, but in their acquired habits of life, 
 of intellect, of virtue, or of vice, for which they have been re- 
 markable." Again: ^^ Inherent intellectual or moral quali- 
 ties may not always be transmitted; but an acquired and ha- 
 bitual vice will rarely fail to leave its trace upon one or more 
 of the offspring, either in its original form or one closely al- 
 lied. The habit of the parent becomes the all but irresistible 
 instinct of the child. * * • The organic tendency is excited 
 to the uttermost, and the power of the will and conscience is 
 proportionately weakened." 
 
 If these things be so, we surely have a sufficient reason 
 for the very natural question : "K the habitual use of alcohol 
 is the exciting cause of a disease so terrible and so far-reach- 
 ing in its effects, why is its use so common V To this we 
 may reply : — 
 
 First — The Social Customs of the day and country. Many 
 an inebriate has become so, simply because he desired to be 
 courteous, and felt that to refuse the refreshment, which it 
 would be held inhospitable in his host or friend not to offer, 
 would be impolite. Now it is the well-known, prominent 
 and peculiar property of alcohol, in whatever quantities, form 
 or admixture, to beget, in the great majority of men who 
 partake of it, a desire for its repeated use. 
 
 It is doubtless owing to this peculiar quality and to another 
 fact, that not only its repeated use, but its use in increasing 
 quantities is necessary in order to its special effects, that the 
 
21 
 
 habit of using it to intoxication is, sooner or later, formed, 
 and the man becomes an inebriate. 
 
 This habit however, in the stage we are now considering^ 
 is not uncontrollable by the subject of it. He has not yet 
 lost the power of restraint over himself, nor is he necessarily 
 incapable of understanding its debasing and destructive na- 
 ture, or the cogency of the reasons, why he should abandon 
 it, but prefers to indulge his appetite. He knowingly ex- 
 poses himself to temptation and the danger attendant upon 
 indulgence. Use begets habit, and he becomes an inebriate ; 
 and in liim Inebriety is a Vice. But this vicious habit thus 
 engendered, if persisted in, sooner or later developes the full 
 specific effects of the poisonous draft ; and signally, and in a 
 degree and order, and with a rapidity modified by the con- 
 stitutional tendencies of the subject, it aifects the great nerv- 
 ous centers, deranging their nutrition, destroying their nor- 
 mal and healthy functions, and, if not arrested, ultimately 
 engendering in them organic and fatal disorder. This man 
 is an inebriate and his Inebriety is a Disease. He is no 
 longer capable of sound reasoning. He has become insensi- 
 ble to the appeals of duty and affection, to the claims of his 
 family, his fellow-men, his own welfare, or his duty to his 
 Maker. Or if, in some more rational interval — his con- 
 science, somewhat dpnarcotized, awakes to reproach him — 
 he weeps and prays and resolves, and falls before the first 
 temptation and yields to the terrible, unendurable craving 
 for the poisonous beverage, helpless, hopeless, (so far as his 
 own power is concerned,) a "Dipsomaniac," most appropri- 
 ately so called. 
 
 This is, perhaps, the most common mode of the approach 
 and development of this disease among men of ordinary 
 mental caliber, culture and sound condition. These persons 
 have ruined themselves, they have been their own destroyers- 
 
 But this is by no means the only manner in which inebri- 
 ety makes its approach or runs its course. Nor is it the only 
 form which it assumes. Another phase of the affection is to 
 
22 
 
 be recognized and has been distinguished as 'Mania a Potd".' 
 This is a kind of prolonged and modified delirium tremens, 
 from wliich it differs in the length of its continuance and the 
 comparative mildness of its symptoms, lasting, under appro- 
 priate treatment, five, six or eight weeks, whereas delirium 
 tremens is recovered from in as many days. It is, in fact, a 
 genuine mania, always characterized by the same sort of de- 
 lusions as are present in delirium tremens, viz : morbid sus- 
 picions, alarm and ideas of persecution, restlessness and agi- 
 tation. It is generally due to repeated attacks of delirium 
 tremens, and is followed by mental depression and stupidity, 
 the indications of the failure of brain power. 
 
 Another form is that which has been denominated 'The 
 Mania of Suspicion.' The patient talks rationally on gen- 
 eral subjects, but has a furtive manner, believes that he is 
 persecuted ; that some persons are conspiring against him ; or 
 that the ground is undermined ; or that electricity is injuring 
 his health. These delusions may be latent, yet may become 
 so urgent as to goad the victim to attempts at suicide, or even 
 homicide. 
 
 Still another form is the ' Chronic Alcoholism ' of Marcet, 
 or 'Alcoholic Dementia,' the symptoms of which are failure 
 of memory and of judgment, with paralysis and other symp- 
 toms, the tendency being not to recover^j but to a fatal issue. 
 
 These diversities of the alcoholic disease may be and often 
 are induced in persons, not by nature or original constitution 
 predisposed to habitual drunkenness. 
 
 But beside tliese there is a class in every community of 
 which we have before spoken, how numerous it is not 
 easy to say, the inherited mobility of whose nervous organ- 
 ization 'predisposes them to fall into this diseased condition 
 with an almost positive certainty. "It is a fact," says a 
 recent writer, "that drunkenness or dipsomania is n physical 
 disease, depending on some molecular change in the nerve 
 tissue, the direct effect of alcoholic poisoning ; and the 'gem 
 
23 
 
 mules' of this tissue, when transmitted, become active factors 
 in the formation of character."''* "It is important," sayS 
 another writer, "to keep in view that the person afflicted 
 with tendency to drunkenness obeys a law of his members 
 more potent than his will."t 
 
 Heredity, then, is another fruitful cause why the drinking 
 habit continues amid such abundant evidence of its terrible 
 results. 
 
 In the presence of these facts and statements, coming to 
 us from varied and most reliable sources, what appalling di- 
 mensions does our subject assume ? Well might Dr. R., 
 in view of them, say : " The solemnest fact of all bear- 
 ing upon these mental aberrations produced by alcohol, and 
 upon the physical not less than upon the mental, is that the 
 mischief inflicted on man by his own act and deed cannot 
 fail to be transferred (transmitted were the better word) to 
 those vvho descend from him, and who are thus irresponsibly 
 afflicted. Amongst the inscrutable designs of nature none 
 is more manifest than this, that physical vice, like physical 
 vu'tue, descends in line. It is, I say, a solemn reflection for 
 every man and woman that whatsoever we do to ourselves, 
 so as to modify our own physical conformation and mental 
 type for good or evil, is passed on to generations that are yet 
 to be. Not one of the transmitted wrongs, physical or men- 
 tal, is more certainly passed on to those yet unborn than the 
 wrongs that are inflicted by alcohol. We, therefore, who 
 live to reform the present age in this respect, are stretching 
 forth our powers to the next, to purify it, to beautify it, and 
 to lead it toward that millenial happiness and blessedness 
 which, in the fulness of time, shall visit this earth, making 
 it, under increasing light and knowledge, a garden of human 
 delight, a 'paradise regained.' " 
 
 Another Cause why drinking habits prevail is found in the 
 Ignorance or Scepticism of the masses of the people. Kot- 
 
 * Hamilton. t Dodge, quoted by Hamilton. 
 
24 
 
 withstanding the abundant testimony on these points, neither 
 the majority of the medical profession, nor of the ministers of 
 religion, nor of the public have hitherto accepted these truths, 
 nor regulated their conduct in accordance with them. 
 
 This ignorance must be dispelled. This scepticism over- 
 come.* 
 
 The experience of man in all ages is that, when the con- 
 victions of the intellect are at variance with his habits, desires 
 and appetites, he requires "line upon line and precept upon 
 precept," to move and keep him in the right path. In these 
 views I find mj apology for reiterating as I have done this 
 evening facts and principles so often and so ably stated and 
 demonstrated by others. 
 
 And just here, it seems to me, comes into strong rehef 
 that function of this Association set forth -vvith great direct- 
 ness in the 3d section of the Plan of Organization, in these 
 words : "Its object shall be to study the disease of Inebriety 
 * ■* * and to endeavor to bring about a cooperative public 
 sentiment and legislation." This is a vast field into which 
 we have entered, and in which we may hope to reap the re- 
 ward of true laborers ; which, on high authority, we learn is 
 apportioned in accordance with their sincere purposes and 
 persevering efforts rather than with their success. 
 
 Hitherto we have confined our remarks to the effects of 
 alcoholic poisoning upon Individuals and Families. Its 
 wider influence on National Character and Constitution re- 
 main for brief consideration. 
 
 A work just published has traced the destructive effects of 
 intemperance and its consequent pauperism, disease and 
 
 * We do not ignore the Temperance movements of the last few months in 
 Western and Central Xew York, and in other portions of the countrj". Much 
 good has been accomplished, and yet, if we may predict the future from the 
 experience of the past, we must apprehend a reaction that will somewhat 
 check the movement in the direction of reform. The conviction which we 
 desire to establish in the minds of the influential and instructed portion of 
 he community will, we believe, produce more PEEMAifENT and progees- 
 sivE results. 
 
25 
 
 crime, in a community of several hundred persons- — it being 
 a detailed statement of facts, — results, known in a general 
 way before — and exhibiting these effects on a sviall and 
 isolated community. But similar results of habitual intem- 
 perance on national health and morals are not unknown. 
 The chief illustration of this is found in Sweden ; with which, 
 through the writings of Dr. Magnus Huss, we are familiar. 
 He informs us that Dr. Hagstrom, in 1785, appealed in an 
 energetic manner to his fellow citizens to check this vice, 
 "which was not only an outrage on religion and morals, but 
 which seriously threatened future generations. Since that 
 time many voices have been raised to the same end." 
 
 Dr. Huss does not hesitate to say — " Tilings have come to 
 such a point that, if some energetic means are not adopted 
 * * * the Swedish nation is menaced with incalculable 
 evil. The danger is not future * * * it is a present 
 evil * * * no measm-es can be too strong ! It is bet- 
 ter to save at any price than to have to say — It is too late." 
 Dr. Huss also states that "one million and a half of per- 
 sons, being about half the population of Sweden, annually 
 consume from 140 to 175 pints of brandy or other spirits 
 each." He also alleges, positively, "that the Swedes, as a 
 nation, have deteriorated in stature and physical strength ; 
 new diseases have appeared, and old ones have increased 
 fearfully in numbers and in intensity." 
 
 The chief new disease is " Epidemic Chronic Gastritis." 
 "Scrofulous affections" abound; heritage also plays its 
 part, and children of twelve, ten, or even eight years evince 
 the fatal predilection." 
 
 The average dm-ation of life in those parts of the country 
 where the evil is most rife is much shortened, and suicides 
 and crime are greatly on the increase. But Sweden is not 
 alone in this condition. The author of a work on "Punish- 
 ment and Prevention of Crime" regards drinking "to be 
 the cause of at least two-thirds of all crime and pauperism 
 
26 
 
 in England;" and in thi« opinion he is unanimouslj sup- 
 ported bj all who have the means of knowing the facts. 
 
 Nor is our own country any exception. The evil is no 
 less amongst us. Reliable statistics lead to the conclusion 
 that two-thirds of our pauperism, disease and crime have 
 their origin in this prolific source. In the endeavor to form 
 some proper estimate of the far-reaching influences of this 
 agent, we must not forget how nearly the complicated and 
 all-important questions of the prevention and punishment of 
 crime and of individual and social responsibility are related 
 to this subject. They have already attracted the attention 
 of students of medico-legal science, which is doubtless des- 
 tined to be modified in the future by the study of tliem. 
 Moreover, in this country, inebriety has already passed into 
 the legislation of numerous States, and the duty of legisla- 
 tors in reference to it excites increasing attention. Nor 
 lias the annual squandering of six hundred millions of dol- 
 lars ($600,000,000)— with its harvest of want and woe, and 
 sixty thousand deaths — escaped the notice of statesmen. 
 
 In the House of Representatives of our Congress, at its 
 last session, an elaborate bill was introduced by a very prom- 
 inent and influential member, by the provisions of which he 
 hoped to greatly diminish these evils. 
 
 In Great Britain there has been, and now exists, with a 
 quickened activity, an influential association for promoting 
 legislation for the " Control of Habitual Drunkards," — legis- 
 lation for the aid of institutions based upon the specific views 
 and dogmas upon which om- American asylums are founded. 
 
 In Australia the colonial government has already enacted 
 such laws, and the Home parliament has sanctioned the 
 action. 
 
 In France the second imml)er of "La Temperance" has 
 made its appearance, and gives evidence tliat it will do good 
 work in the cause. 
 
 There are indications that the minds of the Medical Pro- 
 
27 
 
 fession are taking tbe true directiou, and that, relinquishing 
 the errors of the past, many of them are ranking themselves 
 on the right side. 
 
 The Church is awaking to the moral bearing of these 
 questions. Witness the position of the Bishop and Clergy 
 of Central I^ew York, listening with respectful attention and 
 approval to the teachings of our associate, Dr. Wey ! 
 
 A few days since, in the city of Buffalo, there was a grand 
 
 demonstration, sanctioned and led by the bishop and priests 
 
 of the Roman church, which, if I am not in error, has no 
 
 precedent in the histor}^ of this movement in this country. 
 
 The vast influence thus exerted we can hardly estimate. In 
 
 the same city, a few days since, the pastor of a large and 
 
 influential Protestant church made the remarks which I read 
 
 from the printed report of a morning journal : 
 
 In England, where the evil is even more marked than with us, the Es- 
 tablished church, so long indifferent to the danger, has begun to arm herself 
 for the conflict. The clergy are manifesting a zeal never before seen. 
 Canon Duckworth, one of the royal chaplains, and Canon Farrar, among 
 the most brilliant of English writers, have spoken decidedly in favor of to- 
 tal abstinence. For men brought up as they have been, holding the posi- 
 tions to which the}^ have been raised by royal favor, to take this stand 
 requires an amount of moral heroism which unfortunately but few chiis- 
 tians possess. Never in the history of the great university of Oxford had a 
 temperance sermon been delivered from its pulpit, till Canon Farrar preach- 
 ed there a few months ago. When the Church of England is zealous on 
 the subject of temperance, we may know that the evil is of gigantic pro- 
 portions. " 
 
 In June last, the General Synod of the Reformed (Dutch) 
 Church in America passed stringent resolutions condemning 
 the use or sale by its members of alcoholic drinks. 
 
 Surely, in all these movements, we may find cause for the 
 hope that Remedies adequate to the removal of this over- 
 shadowing calamity will become universally known and ap 
 plied. That this Association has already done much to 
 disseminate the knowledge of its vastness, and of the meth- 
 ods of its prevention and its cure, we need not doubt. We 
 may be but one of the forces at work in this cause, l:)ut we 
 
28 
 
 are far from being an unimportant one. The seed we sow 
 is springing up, and must in due time bear an abundant har- 
 vest. May we not. tlien, without the appearance of indeco- 
 rous self-assertion, claim to hold the place — not of "advanc- 
 ed students" only, but also of instructors to those who truly 
 desire to be informed on these engrossing themes ; and go 
 on with our appropriate work with renewed diligence, confi- 
 dence and hope I As certainly as the " good days we look 
 for " shall irradiate the earth, so certainly shall this stupen- 
 dous obstacle to their advent be taken away ; for the era of 
 universal peace and purity can never visit a race debased 
 and embruited by this prolific source of moral and physical 
 degradation. 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 DATE DUE 
 
 This b'^"!' '" -'"- 
 expiratic 
 provided 
 ment wit 
 
 Demco. Inc. 38-293 
 
 C28(lt4t)MtOO 
 
Mason 
 
 Inebriety a disease. 
 
 RC565 
 
 M38 
 1878