OF CHRONIC INEBRIATION.

"We have _alcoholic epilepsy, alcoholic mania, delirium tremens,
tremors, hallucinations, insomnia, vertigo, mental and muscular
debility, impairment of vision, mental depression, paralysis, a partial
or total loss of self-respect and a departure of the power of
self-control._ Many minor difficulties arise from mere functional
derangement of the brain and nervous system, which surely and rapidly
disappear when the cause is removed."

The general rule, on the reception of a patient, is to cut off at once
and altogether the use of alcohol in every form. "More," says the
doctor, "can be done by diet and medicine, than can be obtained by a
compromise in the moderate use of stimulants for a limited period." It
is a mistake, he adds, to suppose "that any special danger arises from
stopping the accustomed stimulus. Alcohol is a poison, and we should
discontinue its use at once, as it can be done with safety and perfect
impunity, except in rare cases."

To secure all the benefits to be derived from medical treatment, "we
should have," says Dr. Dodge, "institutions for the reception of
inebriates, where total abstinence can be rigidly, but judiciously
enforced for a sufficient length of time, to test the curative powers of
absolute restraint from all intoxicating drinks. When the craving for
stimulants is irresistible, it is useless to make an attempt to reclaim
and cure the drunkard, _unless the detention is compulsory_, and
there is complete restraint from all spirituous or alcoholic
stimulants."

REMOVAL FROM TEMPTATION.

In regard to the compulsory power that should inhere in asylums for the
cure of drunkenness, there is little difference of opinion among those
who have had experience in their management. They have more faith in
time than in medicine, and think it as much the duty of the State to
establish asylums for the treatment of drunkenness as for the treatment
of insanity. "The length of time necessary to cure inebriation," says
Dr. Dodge, "is a very important consideration. A habit covering five,
ten, fifteen or twenty years, cannot be expected to be permanently
eradicated in a week or a month. The fact that the excessive use of
stimulants for a long period of time has caused a radical change,
physically, mentally and morally, is not only the strongest possible
proof that its entire absence is necessary, but, also, that it requires
a liberal allowance of time to effect a return to a