THE TREATMENT OF INEBRIATES BY DIET.

White Ribbon, Volume 15, Issue 171, 16 September 1909, Page 1

THE TREATMENT OF INEBRIATES BY DIET.

(By Mrs. Bramwell Booth in The British Health Reneie).

The question of diet is. 1 am satisfied, a moral as well as a material one, and my observations, during long years of experience in dealing with fallen humanity, have convinced me that few things favour the degradation of the moral nature more powerfully than the debasing habits of eating and drinking which flourish around us.

One evil appetite feeds another, and what is food for one passion adds strength to the rest. People drink tea and smoke tobacco from morning till night, and then wonder why they are the playthings of temptations to sins of the flesh.

Alas! there are crowds of men and women, especially in our great cities, who are almost compelled to live very unnatural lives, herded together in factories, offices, mills, or workrooms, breathing exhausted air through long hours of every day. And when because they are igno-

rant of the values of the different foods and beverages -within their reach they spend their limited money on what contains more adulteration than nourishment, or worse still, what is actually degrading and debasing in its effects, how can we wonder at the low moral standards which obtain among them? I feel very strongly indeed that a great extension of wise and simple instruction as to the choice and preparation of pure food is urgently needed among people of all classes, if the deterioration of the race is to be arrested. Particularly have I been impressed and gratified by the good results of the careful dietetic treatment inkour two Homes for women victims of inebrietv. It is now six and a-half years since the fleshless diet was introduced into the older of the two homes; the second one has been vegetarian from the day of its opening. and indeed flesh-meat is a diminishing quantity in all the institutions under my care. While we never lose sight of the fact that the power and grace of God alone can effect any change of character, we are satisfied that it is an immense assistance in bringing about that change when there is intelligent obedience to (iod’s own Natural Laws. And it is this duty of being a worker together with God in her own liberation that we seek to impress upon every woman who enters our Inebriate Homes. Instead of being resented, as might have been expected, the food reformation was received with approval, and in a very short time there was a perceptible improvement in the

digestion, temper, and [complexion of all concerned. diet, there had been ten or eleven trays sent upstairs every morning, for those who were not well enough to rise for the first meal; but very soon, all in the home were found at the table together, bright and hungry for their breakfast. When the drink-crave is strong upon a woman, she is fed with i grapes. At first she thinks she is being trifled with, but when she has been coaxed to eat a few she always i wants more, and they have a really soothing effect. Oranges and apples come second in value for this purpose, but all kinds of fruit are found good as regular items of food. Stewed prunes and figs are perhaps as popular as anything, and quantities of bananas are consumed, jams and marmalade also being freely used. We do not aim at lessening expense by this diet. What is saved from the butcher goes to the greengrocer and fruiterer. A very significant fact is that when the craving for stimulants is upon a woman she also longs for animal food. When once the truth has dawned upon her, when once she has seen that by eating meat she strengthens the desire to drink alcohol —if she be sincere, her co-i Iteration is secured. The acquired taste for mustard, pickles, vinegar, and othersuch flavourings isalways particularly strong in the alcohol victim, so that abstinence from these condiments which we also encourage —helps in the cure. It is needless to say that in cases

of fainting, intoxicants arc not given. It has been found that the

Juice of a Lemon in hot water is very helpful at such a time, and no one under my care has ever expired for the lack of brandy ! We understand that in any case where the heart has had sufficient vitality to answer to a stimulant, consciousness would have returned in a natural way, had it not been administered.

Cases are frequently received in so bad a state, that under the old m/////c, we should have expected them to need bed and medicine for weeks before they could be pulled together; but now, with the aid of the diet, they are up and about in less than a fortnight. Many are much better in a day or two. This, of course, is a great advantage to all in the Home. As an instance of the first tieatment given in extreme cases, I may mention one who came to us. She was a lady of means, but had become a slave to opium. We were asked to take her from another institution where she had proved to he totally unmanageable. Certainly she was in a very terrible condition, not having had a proper night's rest for months, and having been taking an incredible quantity of opium daily. On her arrival she was put to bed, and was not left alone for a moment nightorday. Homoeopathic medicine was given to her every nour for forty-eight hours, and as she could take no solid food, she was, for three days, fed alternately upon hot milk and grapes. Turkish and hot water baths also soothed her, helping her skin to act and give her sleep. She gained ground lapidly, and in three weeks her mind was at least clear, and her general condition normal.

A most encouragingly high percentage of our inebriate cases have been permanently cured, and if only they could all continue the diet on their return to their homes or in the situations found for them, the failures would, I am convinced, he few er still.

It is a painful glimpse into the selfishness of human nature to find so many friends and relatives who cannot, even for the sake of their weak ones, become abstainers from alcohol. The mere suggestion that

their dietary should he changed is often greeted with derision. The medical man attending the Home, when referring to the fact that a very small percentage of the cases who come to us can he regarded as either encouraging or hopeful, having nearly all gone to the bottom before they entered the Home and many of them having accustomed themselves, not only to alcohol but to drugs opium, cocaine,etc., which cause very rapid deterioration says that our results are very remarkable. Under any circumstances,” continues the doctor,” they would be creditable, but when we consider that the material upon which you work is such that it would be rejected by many other organisations, then your results are marvellously successful.”

There is no age limit to the cases we receive; many of them have been

habitual Drunkards

for twenty-five years. They are of varying classes; w idow s of men of indv * dent means, wives of govern!..cut officials, nurses, governesses, book-keepers, dressmakers, milliners, barmaids, servants, the wives of tradesmen and mechanics, and especially women who have suffered. Trouble or loneliness will most frequently be found to have led to the formation of alcoholic habits, and, alas, tlie advice of medical men must too often he held accountable.

Perhaps some particulars as to the daily routine in our Inebriates' Homes may be of interest. Every patient is encouraged to work. Ladies, who have had servants to wait on them, agree cheerfully to this arrangement, accepting it as part of the cure, which of course it is.

A work-list is drawn up and revised week by week, and on it each inmate finds her own name, with carefully chosen duties assigned for her during every section of the day. Waking-up time is 6.30, and lights are out by 9.30 every night. Before breakfast, all the beds are airing, upper rooms are tidy, and downstairs apartments swept and dusted. After breakfast, prayers conclude at 8.30, and then the beds are made, each by its owner, the finish-

ing touches being put to the bedrooms by a couple told off for this, while the rest enter the work-room at 9.30.

Sewing ceases for the day at 6 p.m. There are of course intervals for meals and recreation, and the airy, well-lighted work-room is a happy place, often enlivened by chorus and song, and full of the interest of learning how to do beautiful work beautifully. Everything combines to stimulate hope and awaken right ambitions. Such mottoes will he found on the walls, or in the women’s possession, as “ Be strong, and let thine heart take courage,” “ Fight, trust, conquer! You con!

There are four things which the officer in charge seeks to do with every woman who comes under her care. First, win her confidence; second, foster her will-power; third, exercise her memory ; fourth, whatever happens, show no discouragement, hut lead her to depend for sure deliverance and victory upon God.

The Drink Thirst

has been the central idea of most of the women, sleeping or waking particularly with morphine cases. The great point is to he able to switch off their minds from morphia, cocaine, or whiskey—whatever it may happen to he and switch them on to God, His power, the charm of His Service, and the bliss of having His approving smile upon one’s life.

Referring to one who entered the Home lazy, incorrigible, and apparently hopeless, and after fourteen months’ stay went out to earn her living, first in the laundry, and then in service, the Warden wrote:

“ When her mistress sent me her photograph, showing her in a wellmade gown with a happy face, I should not have recognised in her the poor, miserable outcast who shambled into my office the day I welcomed her to the Home. The transforming power of God’s grace is wonderful! ”

Danger confronts every woman who holds the conventional notions concerning diet and drink. “A little stimulant will pick you up; you are below par,” says the well-meaning friend. And the first step is taken along a descending road, from which

few are strong enough to turn back until it is too late. Thankful as I am to have any hand in the cure of those thus victimised, ] should be still more glad if I could do something towards the Prevention of the Evil. Because our Maker has not endowed us with that faculty which we see in the lower creatures, and whichwecall instinct whichmakes the mother know at once what is good for her young He has clearly intended that our higher intelligences should take its place. And yet it seems that people who take infinite trouble about their clothing, their reading, and many other matters of less real importance, are content to consume any food which is offered them provided it suits their palates, without giving one thought to its properties, or its purity. Indeed, the mere taste of their food appears with many to be the all-important factor. “ I like it,” is a sufficient reason for eating many harmful things. Now, the sense of taste, were it quite undepraved, either by heredity or by habit would, 1 think, he a safe guide. A healthy child chooses simple foods, and would never want tea, meat, strong flavourings, or intoxicants, unless deliberately taught to take them, or induced by curiosity to imitate the habits of its elders. The chief hope of all food reformers lies with the rising generation. If parents can be induced to bring up the children on a pure and simple fruit and vegetable diet, and for their sakes to abolish all that is harmful from the home, J think the need for Inebriate Homes and all the other apparatus for rescuing the human wreck will diminish and finally disappear.