Inebriety / by J. Johnston.

  • Johnston, J.
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Inebriety / by J. Johnston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/36 (page 20)
    INEBRIETY The granting of licences for these Homes is in the hands of the County and Borough Councils, but as there is no compulsion for the proprietors to take them out, the unlicensed institutions in England number at least as many as the licensed. All inebriates who enter these Homes must do so of their own free will, and no legal pressure can be brought to bear upon them to become inmates ; but the managers have power to detain them until the expiration of the period for which they have signed before entry—this being the only exception to the permissive character of the Act under which the Homes are established. The difficulty often experienced in obtaining the con¬ sent of the ordinary inebriates to submit to detention and treatment, in the early and more hopeful stages, and the absence of accommodation for poor inebriates, are the main influences which detract from the value of these Homes as now constituted. In some of them a special feature of the treatment adopted is the systematic use of drugs. At one of these ^vhich is conducted by a Medical Superintendent and a Committee of eminent physicians and surgeons, it is -claimed that a combination of certain drugs used for about six weeks is the chief factor in the recovery of the patients. The last annual report shows a percentage of recoveries of 48*6 per cent., though this by no means represents the totality of its good work, which is unquestionable. But what is questionable is the curative part played by the drugs and their implied anti-alcoholic power. A medical man cannot ignore the deeply-rooted human belief in the potency of ' medicine,' nor forget under what other varied, contradictory, and seemingly inadequate means the ' cure ' of inebriety has taken place—moral suasion, hypnotism, Christian science, or other religious or psychic influence. Is it too much, then, to hint that this systematic administration of drugs some eight times a day, both hypodermically and by the mouth, combined with the helpful environmental influences of the institu- 20