Commitment, detention, care and treatment of the insane : being a report of the fourth section of the International congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893 / edited by G. Alder Blumer, A. B. Richardson.

  • International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
Date:
1894
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Commitment, detention, care and treatment of the insane : being a report of the fourth section of the International congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893 / edited by G. Alder Blumer, A. B. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    T. D. Crothers, M. D., Superintendent of the Walnut Lodge Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut, then read the following paper:— SOME STUDIES OF INEBRIATE AND PAUPER CRIMINALS. T. D. CROTHERS. This class of inebriates are quite numerous in all the large cities and manufacturing towns, and are also prominent in seaports, and on the frontier of civilization, and yet, as a class, they have never been studied. They form a conspicuous element of the great under- stratum of the dangerous classes, and permeate all ranks of society, from the hovel to the palace. They occupy an uncertain and anom- alous position in the estimation of the public, and are either regarded as debased criminals and paupers, requiring severe punishment, or as insane, and only partially responsible. A careful study of the literature of inebriety reveals the startling fact that many of the theories and deductions of inebriety are based on the superficial observations of criminal drunkards. To illustrate: The superintendent of an insane asylum who has a number of this class under treatment, finding the alcoholic symp- toms disappearing and the criminality prominent, denies the disease theory of inebriety. In the same way, the penitentiary and alms- house physician, seeing only vicious symptoms in the inebriates under his care, reaches the same conclusion. The judge on the bench, the lawyer in court, and the daily press, each form a theory of inebriety from this basis, which they put forth with confidence, and thus the public have the most complex and erroneous views. Up to this time, no general study of inebriety has been made which includes all classes, hence this confusion of both theory and treatment. The student of any phase of insanity, who has seen many cases of melancholy, or dementia, and who builds up a theory of cause, pathology, and treatment based on these cases, announcing authori- tatively that it comprehended them all, would be in error. In this way, much of the literature of inebriety is based on the imperfect studies of particular classes, and especially the classes we are to con- sider in this paper. A comprehensive study of the whole subject from a higher stand- point is essential before the great underlying laws and principles governing this disorder can be discovered. In a study of this class.