Remarks on the utility and necessity of asylums or retreats for the victims of intemperance.

Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the utility and necessity of asylums or retreats for the victims of intemperance. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    D prospect of an interminable slavery to his cups, he looks about for sympathy and help. If his resolution could be sustained at this critical moment, by a total separation from the means of indulgence, and from the associations which excite the vicious appetite, he might, in due time, be weaned from strong drink? and by a judicious treatment of his moral and physical ailments, as before suggested, he would probably be turned into a new path, to be pursued with sobriety and honour to the end of life. How this seasonable help can be afforded most effectually to the victim of intemperance, is a deeply interesting inquiry. Many a father's hopes have been blasted, and many a mother's heart torn with anguish, when a cherished son has returned from college, or from an apprenticeship, or from foreign travel, with the mark of the destroyer upon him. In the bitterness of their souls they have looked hither and thither to find some antidote to the fell disease—some refuge from the opportunity and temptation to indulge—some kind, judicious friend, under whose skilful treatment the evil might be checked, and the blight removed from the flower of their house. Who would weigh money against the restoration, to such a child, of a sound mind in a sound body 1 For the purpose of directing public attention to this subject in such a way as may tend to some practical results, we propose to exhibit, in an abridged form, the views of a distinguished physician respecting the establishment of an asylum for inebri- ates. We refer to Dr. Samuel B. Woodward, the Superin- tendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at Worcester, Mass., who has published, in an Eastern periodical, a series of Essays on this subject, containing information and suggestions which cannot be too widely diffused. It is our present object to inquire whether the plan of estab- lishing an asylum for inebriates is practicable, and to show some reasons why the experiment should be made. That no institution of the kind has yet been established, affords neither ground for doubt, nor argument for delay. There was a time, not long since, when no asylum for the insane was established, and as little hope was entertained of restoring or benefitting that class of sufferers as is now indulged by any one respecting inebriates. Nothing is known which would prevent our success with the