INEBRIATE ASYLUMS.

The theory of treating inebriety as a disease in especially appointed hospitals has been mentioned for over two thousand years. Many of the fathers of medicine declared that drink-madness should be treated by restraint and drugs. From that time down to the present this theory has been urged with increasing frequency.

In 1747 Condillac, of France, wrote that the State should provide special hospitals for drinkmaniacs, and urged a change of law and public sentiment to this end.

In 1830 the Connecticut Medical Society appointed a committee to report on the need of an asylum for the medical treatment of inebriates.

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In 1833 Dr. Woodward, of the Worcester Insane Asylum, in Massachusetts, urged that inebriety be regarded as a disease and special hospitals provided for its treatment.

In 1844 the English lunacy commission urged that inebriates be regarded as insane and sent to asylums for special treatment.

It is a curious fact that inebriety was recognized as a disease long before insanity was thought to be other than spiritual madness and a possession of the devil.

While eminent men in both Europe and

America recognized the need and value of asylums for this class, nothing was done, practically, until 1846, when Dr. J. E. Turner, of Maine, a practicing physician, became interested in this work from an ineffectual effort to save an early friend who was an inebriate. He recognized the nature of the disease and the need of hospital treatment and began an enthusiastic agitation of the subject. After years of persistent effort in the fact of great opposition he succeeded in forming a company to build an inebriate hospital, with the late famous surgeon, Dr. Valentine Mott, as president. Laws were passed giving power to hold inmates and a charter was granted.

Dr. Turner, worked on most assiduously, with but little aid from others, and finally, in 1864, this first asylum of the world was opened for the physical care and treatment of inebriates at Binghamton, N. Y.

It asked no pledges or promises from the patient; it aimed to give each one positive protection and medical treatment.

The patients were locked in at night and only allowed out under the strict care of attendants. Each case was considered a suicidal case of insanity, requiring long medical care and restraint.

These methods were far in advance of that time, and even to-day are just beginning to be recognized as the latest teachings of science.

In 1867 the board of management deeded the property to the State of New York for one dollar, without the advice or consent of any author

ity. From that time a series of misfortunes followed, during which seven superintendents were in charge in eleven years. Then the State changed the asylum to an insane hospital, and a political governor, in justification of the act, called the inebriate asylum a failure.

But, like all other great enterprises of the world, the death of Binghamton marked the birth of a large number of similar asylums, some of which are doing grand work in the world.

The great fact that inebriates were diseased, requiring positive hospital care, was demonstrated to the world by this asylum beyond all question.

The Washingtonian Home, of Boston, began in 1857 as an inebriate lodging-house in the centre of the city of Boston.

The second large asylum in the world is Kings County Home, of Brooklyn, N. Y., Dr. Blanchard, superintendent.

This was opened in 1867, and, from small beginnings, has gone on to be a magnificent hospital crowded with patients.

Notwithstanding the misfortunes of the first hospital a large number of similar places have been organized and managed with success.

As in all new enterprises, these hospitals must suffer from non-expert management and be organized on some theory of the nature and treatment of inebriety not founded on correct study and experience. After a time they are abandoned or changed to homes for nervous cases and insane.

Over fifty different hospitals for inebriates have been established in America.

There are over one hundred different asylums in the world to-day, each one attempting to solve the problem of the cure of inebriates by the best means and knowledge at their command.

The inebriate asylums of Europe are nearly all private institutions or under the control of churches and temperance societies.

All these places, both at home and abroad, are yet in their infancy; not one of them is able to do the work that should be accomplished, because of the criticism and obstacles which they have to overcome. The results of treatment in the few scientific hospitals for inebriates are most encouraging.

The first statistical study was made at Binghamton asylum in 1874. The object was to find out how many persons, who had been under treatment, continued temperate years after. Accordingly, over a thousand circular letters were addressed to friends of patients who had been under treatment five years before, asking the present condition of the patient. The answers indicated sixty-two and a half per cent. as yet temperate and total abstainers. This result, after an interval of five years, was clear evidence that, a large per cent. would remain cured during the remainder of life.

In view of the chronic character of these cases, and the imperfect means of treatment, the results so far are encouraging and indicate great