DRUNKENNESS AS A

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXII, Issue 91, 26 April 1898, Page 3

DRUNKENNESS AS A

Tlie Bi-CMoride of Gold Cure. A Great Discovery. Ta drunkenness a crime, a vice, or a disease ? Modern thought and modern, science have agreed to consider that it is a disease, curable as other diseases are contracted as other diseases are, with the only difference, under certain conditions, that in some instances violition is the only cause, while in other circumstances heredity leaves it as a legacy to its unborn generations. The admission by the most pharisaic public opinion of the word " dipsomaniac " to describe Ihe confirmed drunkard is in itself an ncknoivledgoment that the sentiment of society towards the victim of alcohol in changing. The prison cell is giving place to the doctor's consulting room, the lunatic asylum to the home for inebriates, and the very prohibition order—that ineffectual effort to grapple with a great medical and sociological problem through tho medium of the law—is an amendment on tho system which simply punished a sick person and left him ill instead of attempting his euro. The evolution of thought directing modern sentiment' to regard the dipsomaniac aa a patient to bo cured, instead of a criminal to bo pnnished or a lunatic to be confined in a strait-jacket and cell, has been accompanied by efforts to discover medicines for tho newly-discovered disease. We have many processes of treatment, moral and physical. These range from the compulsory or voluntary con finement of the patient (ensuring his removal from temptation and from the means of obtaining the poison, for which his system craves', to direct chemical agencies which, acting on the diseased nerve-centres and the digestion, creates a repulsion against tho formerly sought poison, or that rejuvenate the system till it becomes again that of the xhild, to whom alcohol is a distasteful substance to be rejected by instinct. Of all the curative agencies thus discovered the medicinal process known and used throughout the civilised world as Bi-chloride of Gold oure has proved the most efficacious, the most lasting, and showing the best results. The discovery of the properties of certain chemicals in combination as the creator of a repulsion against alcohol waß made in America fifteen years ago, and for the last seven y^ara the administration of the remedy has been carried on as a great business, which, while making no pretence to be Erim _-ily philanthropical in its. objects, as done more than avowed philanthrophy has accomplished. That is to say, it has restored thousands to happiness, to self-respect, to thrift and industry ; and rescued them from tho sloogh of despond into which tbe drunkard and those who love him are so often thrust by a motive power whose origin, however obßonre, is in disease. No fewer than 600,000 people have been treated in the United States and Canada, and there is an institute for the administration of the process in every town of any importance in America, Canada and British Colnmbia. The process has also be'en officially adopted by a great many of the municipalities and State Governments, by the United States Ariry, and by numerous philanthropical and charitable organisations, ln Australasia too' the BiChloride of Gold treatment plays its part as a reformer more puissant than the Temperance apostle and the Prohibitionist, for it acts while the other orateß, oures while the other is groping for a remedy. In this colony 400 people have been treated in eleven months. Of these there have been only 12 relapses, in every instance persons of the weak and irresponsible class whom no human agency conld redeem from inherent frailty, Jtis not claimed that the process can work miraoles. In other words, while it will so cleanse the system of the poison as to restore it to its pristine condition of repugnance against the flavour and effeotsof ac accustomed and therefore distasteful drink, it will not provide the temperament which enables one to resist temptation. It will aid strength of character by. removing inclination or craving, and even by creating [a sense of nausea ; but it will not undertake to supply a coat of moral chain armour against whioh the darts of the devil may blunt themselves in vain. If a person, after cure, will place himself in the way of drink, if he will re-absorb the poison which has been expelled from hi 3 system, then all tbat is left for him to do is to seek the anew antidote. It must be clearly understood that a patient leaves an establishment where he has been treated by the Bi-Chloride of Gold process cured, but a free agent; and if thereafter he fall a victim once more to Ihe disease whioh afflioted him, it wiU be his own fault, not the systom'a. To prevent the re-absorn,tion of the poison, the poison must not be taken in. The process of cure helps to attain this object by removing all craving, by actually re-creating the instinctive 'distaste for alcohol with which healthy people are born ; but it gives no license to drink with impunity, no immunity from the consequences of drunkenness while a person drinks. "Within these well-defined limits it is claimed fcr the process that it does oure dipsomania,'inasmuch as it enables those who desire to do so to resist—in fact never again to feel—the otherwise resistless craving which draws a man to alcohol as a loadstone draws to itself a needle — as, alas ! women too are drawn to a fearful doom. From data calculated on the basis of actual cures effected during the past ten years, it is estimated that 20 per cent of patients eventually do revert to drunkenness, because of environments, temptations, weakness of will power to resist solicitations, and other more obscure reasons. But 4-sth of the cases are permanently cured. The treatment extends over 21 days, and consists of fonr painless hypodermic injections giren daily. A pleasant and invaluable tonio is nko administered simultaneously. The tendency of the entire course of treatment is to re-build the system and to re-invigorate it, and at least three results are guaranteed : — 1. The paient will leave the institute after treatment in a generally better condition than when he. entered it. 2. His nerves will be steady and he will have a good appetite. He will also be free from insomnia. Many people not suffering from dipaomania and in no way given to excessive drinking undergo a course of treatment merely in order to secure relief arid escape from nerve trouble. 3. Speaking from their own experience, embracing the treatment |of over 10,000 cases, the management have yet to sco or hear of one instance in which a patient has regretted undergoing the process or been dissatisfied with ihe result. The fee charged a patient for the full course of treatment is 25 guineas (£26 6s) but the management do not ask the payment of a penny till the patient himself feels to his own satisfaction that he is cured. In fact, the patient is left to be tho sole judge in the matter. It is also especially desired that those who wish to be treated should know that financial disabilities need not deter them from entering the institution. The terms of payment are soarranged as to suit all purses, even those purses which for the present are empty. The scale of instalments is co fixed that the poorest working man need not go without the treatment for fear lest he should be hampered by a liability the discharge of which might tax his resources, for seldom if ever have such liberal proposals been made in a business transaction. The experience of years has taught the management to discern those whom they can trust—and it is noteworthy that they havo lost little or nothing by their faith in human nature. Thus they are ready to meet any respectable person, however poor, half way, and to so arrange financial matters as to[render the repayments the easiest known. '' The statistics of the Bi-Chloride treatment show that many prominent and representative men in thie colony as in other places have placed themselves under the process with' beneficial results. These include several Government official* 5 ministers of religion, S physioians, 2 editors of newspapers, and a large number of professional men, mechanics, business people, and others. The treatment is administered by Dr Henry C. Dukes, M.D,, a physician registered as in practice in America and Australia. He haa had 25 years experience and he was in a most lucrative practice in California, which he gave up 10 years - ago to undertake the treatment and cure of the victims of the drink disease by the Bi-Ohloride of Gold process. Dr Dukes haa been.associated with the institutes ever since, and he haa helped to establish them in many important places. The . result of Dr Dukes' personal treatment, • and of those whom he instruots to adininfilter the process, show a much higher

percentage of cures than any other treatment known. In regard to tho continuation of the process locally after the departure of the present management, it is intended to start the institute in Nolson in Messrs B'sley Bros' new rooms, where patients are now being treated daily, and to instrnot a local physician and other competent persons "in-tho administration of the hypodermic injection of the BiChloride of Gold aud the tonics, and in the conduct of the institute generally. Matters will then be left in their hands —for experience has Bhown that once these institutes are opened their doors are never closed. In conclusion it may be mentioned that no one undergoing treatment need abandon or suspend his usual avocations during the process. He or she may so arrange the hours of the visits as to suit one a own convenience entirely, and there is no necessity te interrupt ordinary employments. There are absolutely no illeffects from the treatment, as nothing of a deleterious or painful nature is used in tho medicines employed ; and it may be reitorated that only good, and no harm, can poseibly result to a patient, even in tho rare instance of a cure of the drink habit not being completed. j i > > > > i i i > ;