TREATMENT OF INEBRIATES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 199, 16 May 1908, Page 10

TREATMENT OF INEBRIATES.

"DEFECT IN MENTAL MECHANISM;"

I Dr.. C. W. Salceiiy.N palls- attention iii , tho "Pall .-MalL, Gazette "...to " what can only be., termed a disgracofiil squabble botWeeii the Government: and tlitj London County Council,: in .consequence of thd determination'-. of : .the 'London. County Cdiiiicil iii. dffedt to. turn out hiiiidi : ed3 df

Hopeless, chronic inebriate; women jiito tho streets because of 1 ;a difference of opinion with th 6 Government as to a question of a shilling or, two per head. .In tho 'British' Journal of Inebriety' ;• for. January, is published a lecture by Dr. Welsh .Branthwaitc, H.M. Inspector _ under .the Inebriate's. Act;'the onty man in closo toiich with all inebriates under legal detention .in' England.' H6 declares that the sourco 'of all tho mischief is defect in mental mechanism, .and is doubtf ill whether habitual inebriety 'is. over really acquired -in the. strictest .sense of tie word —that is; in the absence Of 'somo measure of pre-existing defect.' Examining thousands of cages, lio finds palpable .mental defect iii_ two-thirds of themj'' arid, of these ho says 'it .is morldly certain tlisit tho large majority of them started life, handicapped jjy. itnperfect brain development.;' "Of these; ail are. hopeless from a reformation standpoint. For theiji rejpeatod imprisonment is 'indefensible aiid liihuiiiano:' Yet it is. to this sbandalous treatment that we are now to rctiirn in the case of hundreds Of women in London—after thb fashioii' of Jane Cakebread, at whos6 record one -used, when a schoolboy as. ignorant .as those wliti iitiW govern us, to laugh: . NO apology is needed for quoting a few sentences from Dr. Brari-1

thwaite. Ho siiys that the unfortunate peoplo whom he studies.'tire hot ill the least affected by 01-tlifidox teiiiporaiico efforts; they .continue .to jirfitiiigate dftiiikeiinessj- tiiid, therefore, nullify tile gofid. rfesults of teinpbrarico c'hergyi Tlieir '■ eliiklfeii, bfari'i 6f parents, iiiid wtileatbd by -itlieir shrroundings, grow up -without-■& chaiice of decent lift:, aiid constitute this rbsfcrvd frdin which tho Streiigth of oitr jireseiit 'arnijr of liabitUals is iiiairitairied.' Thfe matter is oiie Of urgent national iiirinMt, inyolviiig the facial life which is the only wealth of liatioiis," \vritts Dr. Sitleeby. ' '!lii>'The Tiriihs' of' February 27, the fcliaifniiiii of. the Public Control Coniinittcb of the Lbhiibii County Couiicil seeks to defend ,its feceiit iifction by saying that 'reformation, not mere dfeteiltioiij was its object 'whbri it instituted its.,reforniabfy, iiiidef the. liiebriates Acts. 1 T!ie case of his Committee, he says, 'is tliat the removal afid detention of tlio hopplpss habituals is a matter for the police.' Tlio explanation aggravates the offeiice. Dr. UralithWaito is liat altiiie iii siiyiiig that'refdrmatioli is practically : iiliposslblh' iii the gl'eat majority of these ciseS. Hb hits oii his fiido a dozen of the fbrbiiiost authorities wjiose communications are priiitbd after his lecture in the Journal referred td." '