Drunkenness, its nature and cure, or, Asylums for inebriates : an address delivered before the Ohio State Medical Society at its annual session, June 1859 / by M.B. Wright.

  • Wright, M. B. (Marmaduke Burr), 1803-1879.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drunkenness, its nature and cure, or, Asylums for inebriates : an address delivered before the Ohio State Medical Society at its annual session, June 1859 / by M.B. Wright. 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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    receive a just penalty for his offense, and that a long exclusion from temptation would enable him to recover from his malady. He was willing to suffer shame, imprisonment, degradation, every thing that would release him from an enemy which had deprived him of his manhood and steeped his soul in bitterness and woe. Say not, then, that in providing for the reclamation of the drunkard, he will be confirmed in his habits. Those who look to law rather than facts, oppose the association of inebriety with disease, on the ground, that crime would necessarily go unpunished. With the enactment and enforcement of law, in the discussion of medical subjects, we have nothing to do. If our views of disease do not fit the law, or the law should not naturally apply to it, we should not be held responsible. The public must look for a more appropriate source than the medical profession, for protection against crime. If drunkenness be in truth a disease, we should say so, leaving the consequences, in a legal point of view, to be controlled by others. It is no part of my object on this occasion to present to you a plan for future action. The general statement may be made, however, that the actual cost of sustaining a State asylum for inebriates would be almost nominal. Indeed, there seems to be no good reason why it should not become a source of revenue. There were twenty- eight hundred applications for admission in the Binghampton asy- lum, N. Y., while its walls were in progress. This large number comprised men and women from all the walks of life ; and the insti- tution could have been filled at once with patients willing to pay al- most any sum to be cured of their fearful malady. So it would be in Ohio. Again, each county in the State might connect with its infirmary . an asylum for inebriates, with but little additional expense ; and the cost of keeping and restoring them to health, would be less than is now paid for their arrest, trial and punishment, And then we should have the unspeakable delight in knowing, that we had rescued the fallen, and secured to them their true position in society. What objection can be urged to the passage of a law requiring one, given to intemperance, to be placed under guardianship ? If he is in possession of property, it can be thus preserved. If, at any time, he should lose his self-control, he can be properly disposed of before he runs into excess; and if his situation should require it, he could be at once subjected to the necessary cure.