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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
Washington
Founded 1836
U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare



             Public Health Service 
3JJL 29 1959 
 
REMARKS
ON THE
UTILITY   AND  NECESSITY
ASYLUMS  OR  RETREATS
FOR THE
VICTIMS  OF  INTEMPERANCE.
                  PHILADELPHIA:
BROWN, BICKING &, GUILBERT, PRINTERS, NO. 56 NORTH 3d STREET.

                         1840.
         /J

                  * e 
HV
IS4o 
REMARKS,  &c.
  The  scenes of suffering and distress which  result from the
excessive use of intoxicating drinks, are too familiar to us  all to
need description.  If any one will survey, carefully, the circle
of his  own acquaintance, he  will scarcely  fail to find one or
more families whose peace is destroyed and whose  fair hopes
concerning some beloved son, or father, or brother, are blasted
by the curse of intemperance.   There is perhaps no  indulgence
to which there are so many temptations, and no temptations to
indulgence which are so numerous, so various and  so skilfully
adapted, by the spirit of evil, to  all ranks,  classes and ages of
mankind.
  In the  sketch of the pencil which embellishes this document,
we are presented with a  scene of domestic woe, the counterpart
of which has  been beheld,  many a time and oft,  in  deeper or
softer shades, in our towns and villages.  The father in  the full
strength of manhood gives himself up to the bottle.  The wife,
whom  he has solemnly and sincerely vowed to love and cherish,
would still be fair  and beautiful, if neglect and abuse had not
broken her loving heart, and poverty and despair become her por-
tion.  She bears her sick  boy in her arms, while the babe clings to
her neck, and the only remaining one of the little  circle that might
be so happy around a cheerful fireside, is brought to  premature
sorrow, and instead of the bright smile and joyous leap of child-
hood, he is doomed to tears of suffering and  grief.  The storm
rao-es !   The man who once was so tender  of his wife that he
" would not suffer the winds  of heaven to visit her face too
roughly" is now changed to a monster !  He feels no sympathy
for her and her  little ones, nor does  he blush  to think that his
brutal  appetite has brought them to want and infamy.   Where 
4
 shall they find a home?   The hardened inebriate would sell his
 clothes, his  furniture, the last stick of wood, the last loaf of
 bread, to satisfy his raging  thirst for strong drink!  What can
 be done  to  protect his  quiltless wife and his helpless children
 from  the effects of his  indulgence?   If he could  be  separated
 from  his cups and  from all opportunity  and temptation to in-
 dulgence, we might  hope  better  things;  and  in  his sober
 moments, especially in the earlier stages of his career, he would
 bless the  hand that should lead him away from his accustomed
 haunts and break the charm that binds him to his cups.  Thus
 removed, he  might be  weaned  from the  love  of intoxicating
 drinks.  His physical and moral nature might be recovered from ■
 their prostration, and he  might, perhaps in a brief twelve-month,
 be restored to the bosom of his family and to society, a loving
 husband—an affectionate father—a sober and industrious citizen !
   If we could assemble in one  company  the  many  thousands
 who are addicted to intemperance, and could analyse the causes
 which have contributed to the commencement and growth of the
 habit,  we should  find far more to pity than to condemn ;  many
 more that are sinned against  than sinning.   We should be sur-
 prised to  find  in how many instances the  sufferer would gladly
 escape from the toils of  his dreadful enemy, if every effort  did
 not seem to  aggravate the horrors and the hopelessness of his
 captivity.
   Few of those who have gone to the  bottom of the drunkard's
 earthly hell,  have returned to give  a  report of its unutterable
 woes.   But there are those  that have descended far into  the
 abyss, and have  been plucked  as " brands from the  burning,"
 who credibly testify  to us that when the momentary delirium is
 past,  there succeeds an indescribable  prostration  of  strength,
 accompanied  with a burning thirst, and pains  both animal and
 intellectual, which drive  the wretched  victim back to  his cups
 as the  only alleviation within  his reach.
   There are periods in the history of  almost every inebriate at
 which  effectual relief might be  afforded.  If appropriate means
 were employed in the early stages of  the habit, the morbid  ap-
 petite might be at once eradicated.   At later periods, when  the
 victim is sick at heart in the review of his life, and in the survey
of the  wreck  of  his fortune, character and  hopes, and in  the 
D
 prospect of an interminable slavery to  his cups, he  looks about
 for sympathy and  help.  If his resolution could be sustained  at
 this critical  moment,  by a total separation  from the means  of
 indulgence, and from  the  associations which excite the vicious
 appetite, he  might, in due time, be weaned  from strong drink*
 and by a judicious treatment of his moral and physical ailments,
 as before suggested, he would probably be  turned  into a new
 path, to be pursued with sobriety and honour to the end of life.
 How this seasonable help can be afforded most effectually to the
 victim of intemperance, is a deeply interesting inquiry.   Many
 a father's hopes  have been blasted, and many a mother's heart
 torn  with anguish, when  a cherished  son  has  returned  from
 college, or from  an apprenticeship, or from  foreign  travel, with
 the mark of the destroyer  upon him.  In the bitterness of their
 souls they have looked hither and thither to  find some antidote
 to the  fell  disease—some refuge  from  the  opportunity  and
 temptation to indulge—some kind, judicious  friend, under whose
 skilful treatment the  evil might be checked,  and  the  blight
 removed from the flower of their house.  Who  would weigh
 money against the restoration, to such a child, of a sound mind
 in a sound body ?
   For the purpose  of directing public attention to this subject in
 such  a way as may tend  to some practical  results,  we propose
 to exhibit, in an abridged  form, the views  of a distinguished
 physician respecting the establishment of an  asylum for inebri-
 ates.  We refer to  Dr. Samuel B. Woodward,  the Superin-
 tendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at Worcester, Mass., who
 has published,  in an  Eastern periodical, a series  of Essays on
 this subject,   containing  information  and  suggestions  which
 cannot be too widely  diffused.
   It is our present object to  inquire whether the plan of estab-
 lishing an asylum for inebriates is practicable, and to  show some
 reasons why the experiment should be made.  That  no institution
 of the kind has yet been established, affords neither ground  for
 doubt, nor argument for delay.  There was a  time, not long
 since, when no asylum  for the insane was established, and as
 little hope was entertained  of restoring or benefitting that class
of sufferers as is  now indulged by any one respecting inebriates.
Nothing  is known  which  would prevent  our success with the 
G
latter, that might not have  been very plausibly urged against
any effort to relieve the former, while some  circumstances are
eminently favourable to the effort for inebriates which are not
found in the case of the insane.   We will only specify one, viz :
that the provocatives to insanity are much more numerous, va-
rious, subtle and uncontrollable, than those to inebriation—the
latter being much less connected with intellectual or spiritual
derangement than the former.
  Dr. Woodward's advantages  for ascertaining the results of
confinement and entire abstinence from intoxicating drink for a
long period have been rare and unusual, having been connected
for  twelve successive years with two institutions, in which nu-
merous  individuals, amounting to many hundreds, were confined,
who by  intemperance had become insane, or  who had  perpe-
trated crimes which rendered confinement necessary.
  The result of this experience is the fullest conviction, that  a
large proportion of the intemperate in a well-conducted institution
would be radically cured, and would again go into society with
health re-established, diseased appetites removed, with principles
of intemperance well grounded  and thoroughly understood, so
that they would be afterwards  safe and  sober men.
  It is important to a right  understanding of  this  subject that
we have correct views of  the nature of intemperance.
  Intemperance, when established as a  habit, is a physical evil,
depending on certain diseases or modifications of the functions
of the system important  to  life, and not under the  control of
the  will.  Here a mistake is  commonly committed by those
who oppose, as well as  those  who  use intoxicaiing liquors.
Habitual drinkers do not know their own condition,  and  have
never tried the principle for which  they contend, by  a fair ex-
periment.
  Intemperance cannot be said  to be  confirmed till  a morbid
condition of the stomach  is  produced.   This  diseased state of
the  stomach is known  by a sense of vacuity, faintness, and de-
pression, which calls imperiously for a repetition of the stimulant
upon which it depends.
  It must be perfectly apparent that alcohol  is improper in a
healthy   state.  The first organ to suffer  from its use  is the
stomach, the common centre of the system,  and  the medium 
7
through which all nutrition  must be  derived.  The tone and
energy of the stomach are  all-important to the vigorous and
healthy performance  of all  the mental  and physical powers.
The constant and daily impression of  so powerful an agent  as
alcohol, must produce a marked action, both of the nerves and
vessels of the stomach.  Constantly excited  by such factitious
influence, the stomach soon loses its  healthy tone and  suscepti-
bility, and will not act, unless goaded  by artificial excitements:
this is the first, or incipient stage of disease.  Its influence does
not  stop here.   The  brain, the nerves,  the  heart, and vessels,
the glands, all receive an impulse from its influence,  and  all  get
into a condition which renders this continued influence necessary.
After a time, the quantity  must be  increased  or  the effect is
lost, and more in quantity or stronger doses must be substituted.
The whole system is  dependent on its  influence, and  suffers  by
its abstraction.
   This is  Intemperance.   A host of diseases originate from
the same cause, according to the greater or less  susceptibility
to disease.   Dyspepsia is most frequently thus caused,—diseased
liver scarcely less so,—palsy, apoplexy, insanity, gout, rheu-
matism, gravel  and  numerous others,  are  excited by  its in-
fluence.
  There is also  a list of diseases to which those only who  are
addicted to the free use of spirits are liable. Such  are delirium
tremens, a peculiar and very painful affection of the  lower ex-
tremities, a most disgusting disease of  the eyes and eyelids, and
others equally dangerous and distressing, all which frequently
prove an outlet  to human  life.   Hence, besides the increased
danger of all  diseases in intemperate  habits, death is likely to
come suddenly  upon such,  in a  variety of new  and peculiar
forms, besides intemperance, strictly so  called.  If not compli-
cated with  other diseases of a fatal character, intemperance can
be cured, and its effects be eradicated from  the system.  This
is no longer problematical; since the grand temperance reforma-
tion  commenced, hundreds of cases have been  radically cured,
and  the constitution  has  been renovated,  and perfectly good
health established.
  The disease may be hereditary, and thus liable  to return ; it
may be reproduced, by resorting again to the causes  which first 
8
 produced it.   So it is with many other diseases; one attack in-
 creases the susceptibility of the system to a second.   Yet if the
 cause  be avoided,  the  disease,  in  either instance,  will never
 return.
    Total  abstinence from all alcoholic potations is the grand
 instrument by which this security is effected.
    To the temperate, it is now considered to afford the only se-
 curity from  the dreaded evil of intemperance.   To  the intem-
 perate, the only hope of restoration to health, and respectability,
 and happiness.
    By means of total abstinence, and such remedies  as  the
 particular symptoms of  the case may call  for, most cases of
 intemperance  may  be radically  cured.  Many cases of gout,
 rheumatism, gravel, delirium tremens, will  subside,  and never
 return, if total abstinence is rigorously adhered  to.
   Intemperance being a physical evil, and  connected with an
 appetite more  imperious than  any other  to  which the  human
 system is incident,  it will be obviously  most difficult of  cure
 while the  subject of it is  within the reach  of temptation,  and
 while the means of relief are so nearly at hand.   Seclusion  and
 restraints are as important in the case of this malady, as in the
 case  of insanity;  and it  may be  said  without  exaggeration
 that as many recent cases will be  cured—wholly and  totally
 cured—as of recent cases of insanity, or any disease of equal
 severity.   It is somewhat surprising, that amidst all the  efforts
 to  advance temperance,  and to eradicate  the  evil  of  intem-
 perance, the  experiment  of an  institution  to  restore those who
 have persisted in the practice, and will  persist in it, in spite of
 reason, and all inducements that can be presented, has never been
 tried.
  Is the benevolent mind satisfied with the saying that the " old
 drunkards will soon die off, and then, if total  abstinence prevail
 universally, there will be none to take their places, and the evil
will be ended."   If this were  true, it still would  be  an  object
worthy  of serious consideration, whether an effort should  not
be made to save the  present unfortunate race of inebriates.   If
there  are thirty thousand drunkards in this  country, and  one
tenth  part are  susceptible  of cure, it  will afford  sufficient
motives to commence immediately the important work. Doubt- 
9
less one half may be cured, and the habit be wholly removed, if
proper means are  persisted in, for  a sufficient length of time.
If thirty  thousand  people in this  country were to  have the
small-pox, in the next  ten  years, and it should be known that
the disease would then be forever at an end, would the philan-
thropist fold up his arms and be satisfied, that when these cases
were ended, the disease would be extinct? or rather would he
not exert himself to see that hospitals were provided, and every
means secured that should lessen the severity and fatal tendency
of the malady even for these ten years ?
   But no sober and considerate man can for a moment suppose
that the evil of intemperance is to be removed from amongst
us.  Intemperance will continue to be the  scourge of  our coun-
try, will send its thousands of victims to an early and untimely
grave, probably for ages yet to come.  A large class of man-
kind  will  pursue their  accustomed habits, and drunkards will
still be thick among us;  poverty and wretchedness, and disease
will by this  means  for  years, perhaps centuries to come, be en-
tailed upon our race.   Shall we then sit idle and see the mighty
evil, witness the ruin and wretchedness it entails upon man, and
not make  an effort for its cure ?
   Let the  experiment be fairly  tried; let  an institution  be
founded ; let the means of cure be provided; let the principles on
which it  is to be founded  be extensively promulgated, and
intelligent men will be satisfied of its feasability, and  be ready
to extend to it ample  benefactions, to build up and  endow  it
with every necessary means.
   It  cannot with  exact certainty be told what would be the
necessary  expense of  such an institution.  It  would  be de-
sirable to  connect  it with  a  good farm of moderate  size, with
plain,  substantial buildings, a  sufficient  number  of rooms for
public instruction and private accommodation, in a pleasant and
inviting section of the  country.   Twenty-five thousand dollars
would be  ample means for such accommodations  as  would be
sufficient  to  make a  magnificent  experiment of the utility of
I he scheme.
   At the  head of this institution place  a physician of zeal,
medical skill, and  enlarged  benevolence: let the principle of
                             2 
10
 total  abstinence  be  rigorously adopted  and  enforced;  let the
 patients be so placed  as  absolutely to prohibit all  access to the
 intoxicating draught.  If the health suffered, let appropriate
 medication be  afforded ; let  the  mind  be soothed, hope,  that
 balm which is potent  to save, be  held out; let the certainty of
 success be  clearly  delineated to the  mind  of  the  sufferer,
 founded in the undeviating and ample experience which the last
 ten years  have afforded;  let good  nutrition  be  regularly ad-
 ministered, let perfect quiet be enjoined while  the prostration  of
 strength and  energy continued:—this course, rigorously  adopt-
 ed and pursued,  will  restore nine  of ten in all  cases, were
 organic disease of liver, brain, stomach, heart, or other organs
 essential to life, has not been produced.
   After the powers of the system  begin to rally, let the patient
 take moderate exercise, labour or  diversion, as will best  please
 him ; let his physical system  be thoroughly attended to;  let his
 mind be interested by every  means consistent with his confine-
 ment;  let  him \\ alk abroad accompanied by a faithful and tem-
perate  attendant  in the intervals  of his labour, which should
 be long at first; let him play backgammon, checkers, ninepins,
 and pursue any other amusements  congenial  to  his  feelings.
 Tea, coffee,  and  water should constitute  the whole  drink.
 When his  physical system becomes, in  a degree, renovated, let
 it be accustomed to labour, and some other hardships, to give
 vigour  to  the physical body, and let a plain, practical, experi-
 mental  course of  familiar lectures or  conversations  be  daily
given, to  explain  ihe danger of moderate drinking, and espe-
cially the danger  of recommencing a practice  which  has  led
to all the  disastrous consequences  from which the patient has
suffered.  Show to him, as  far as practicable,  the  reason why
the case is not controllable by the will, that it is a physical evil,
a disease of the stomach and nervous system, and entirely in-
curable while the practice  is followed, and easily  reproduced
when wholly cured, by a return to the habit, even  in a mode-
rate way, and for a short time.  These truths daily impressed
by a physician in whom the patient has  confidence, and he can
hardly  fail to have confidence in  one who has  carried him
through perils  which he could  hardly  be made to believe would
not be  fatal to him, and  can  it be  supposed  that  he would be 
11
easily induced  to  resume  these practices, if  the appetite  and
consequent habit had been subdued and wholly conquered?
   Gardening, the cultivation of the land, the  raising of  silk,
garden-seeds,  or  profitable  vegetables,  would  be  worthy
of attention, both as a means of restoration, and of diminishing
the expense  of support.   Every patient might  have particular
portions of  land to  cultivate,  the  avails of which he  might
enjoy in little comforts  or luxuries not incompatible with the
principles  of confinement and restraint, or an hourly stipend or
wages  might be allowed  to  diminish  expenses.  Mechanics'
shops, accommodated with tools, might be annexed to the insti-
tution,  where labour  of that kind  might be performed.  The
enclosure  might be rendered  inviting  by ornamenting it with
fruit-trees  and flowers, by a tasteful decoration of the grounds
with  plants and  shrubs.  Every thing of this kind would render
the place  inviting, and  tend to reconcile  the  inmates  to the
necessary  restraints and privations.   The patients in process of
time  might perform, under the eye of  an attendant, all the
requisite labour to beautify and ornament the grounds, cultivate
the gardens, and also be  engaged in  such profitable labour as
would diminish  the necessary expenses, upon  the principle of
the manual labour institutions.   With kind and benevolent treau
ment, every indulgence compatible with  security and the great
curative object  in  view, interesting conversation, a judicious
selection of books, paper,  writing materials, and all  the  social
innocent amusements, the inmates in general will be  reconciled
to their situation, and in  a  short time feel  grateful for the kind-
ness  of friends,  and the  indulgences and privileges enjoyed in
the institution, and  soon  be reconciled  to  the privations, in
consideration of the enjoyments and advantages to be derived
from  them.
  Having  considered  the  general  features of the plan  of an
institution  where the victims of intemperance may obtain help
in their efforts to reform, we shall pass to some miscellaneous
topics connected with the details of  the system.
  Jis to time.—The time that it will require to  effect this most
desirable end, will be very  different in different cases, according
to the severity of the disease, or the power of the influence'on
the one hand to  continue the habit,  or  the effect of the  means 
12
presented  to eradicate  it on the  other.  The experience  of
many physicians and  some  institutions in the country would
show that a very large proportion of cases may be cured in one
year; that in that time all desire  for the stimulus will be re-
moved, the powers of the constitution  will be renovated, and
health  be fully re-established;  and that this  new  state of the
constitution will  be such as not  necessarily to call the  good
resolutions into exercise, as the appetite will wholly subside.
  As  we  must produce a  state of  certain security, and afford
time for the debilitated powers to become firmly established in
health  and vigour, probably not  less than one year would be
time enough  to accomplish so  great  a  change, and render it
permanent.
   Jl sudden change of habits is not dangerous.—The general
impression that some substitute must  be used  when  spirituous
liquors are taken from the  intemperate  man, or he  would fall
into delirium tremens, or  sink into irrecoverable debility, is in-
correct.   If the  system is not otherwise diseased, this precaution
is  not  needed.   It  is worse  than  useless, as  a general  rule.
While any substitute  is used, the habit  is not conquered; for
the substitute has, in some  degree,  the effect of the intoxi-
cating article, or it would  prove  no  substitute, and  afford no
relief.
   The probability of cure is very strong.—Intemperance  is of
all degrees, from the gentle craving  that warns  a man of the
hour to take  his  accustomed stimulus, to the horrid gnawing,
the death-like sinking at the stomach,  the agitation and distress
of the nervous system so highly excited, that no ordinary reso-
lutions can prevent the individual from  partaking of the  relief
which is  offered and urged upon him, from the various sources
where it  can be  so easily obtained.  The  first may  be easily
cured, if the individual feels his danger; but he generally  does
not, and cannot  be made to, till other sufferings are added, and
till the system begins seriously to  feel  the influence, and still
more  seriously,  the abstraction  of this  bewitching  potation.
He has now  a Herculean labour to  perform, and  he must  have
firmness  above the ordinary lots of mortals,  to effect his  cure
alone and unassisted by restraints.
   The suffering  is intense, and the desire of immediate relief so 
13
entirely uncontrollable, that it is quite questionable whether the
moral power of many of its victims is sufficient to withstand its
imperative demands.
  His situation calls aloud for the sympathy and encouragement
of his friends, for all the aid which benevolence and Christian
fellowship can extend to him.
  An institution for the cure of intemperance, before it should
be long established, will be  available only for the young.  And,
if well conducted, and properly appreciated, will be highly bene-
ficial, in restoring to usefulness and to health, to friends and to
society, many who have unwarily been led astray, in  the  dan-
gerous path of the  inebriate.   For, as evil habits are easily es-
tablished at this period, so, comparatively, are they easily eradi-
cated, and the good substituted. Take the youth by the hand who
has unfortunately commenced the career of the  drunkard, place
him in seclusion, out of the  reach of his temptations, and out of
the way of all indulgence,—show him kindly, but candidly, the
danger of his practice, and the inevitable ruin that it will bring
upon him,—point out to him the  road to  honour, respectability,
and usefulness,—furnish him with employment and amusements,
—means of information,—and you bring him  back within the
 range of moral principle,  and under the influence of reason.
Keep him till his appetite is removed, till his physical energies are
re-established, till all desire for alcoholic drinks  is eradicated,—
and what should induce him to resume his bad practice ?
  The attempt to cure intemperance will, of course, meet with
various success, according to the inveteracy of the habit, or the
disposition of the individual to submit to the treatment.  If the
desire for  alcoholic drinks  is  removed, and the system is
recovered from  the  shock, the disease  is  cured, and will not
return, unless the  cause  is  again applied,  and moderate or
excessive  drinking is  again resumed.  The plain question then
is,  can  intemperance, in  the  generality of  cases, be cured
without  restraint ?   If not, can  it be cured  with it ?   Within
the last few years,  there have been a very considerable number
of cases  of voluntary abandonment  of ardent  spirit,  by those
who have used it  freely and  intemperately.   But  many, very
many have made firm resolutions, and  commenced with  con-
fidence the work of reform, and have failed of its accomplish- 
14
  ment altogether.   This we know.   Many more, doubtless, have
  done the same secretly, and  failed;  so that we have  every
  reason to suppose  that intemperance, particularly  the inveterate
  form of the evil, will not be extensively cured without restraint,
  without placing ardent spirits entirely out of the reach of its
  victim,  and rendering hopeless all efforts to obtain it.  For the
  more certain  the  utter  uselessness  of  all  efforts  to obtain
  alcoholic  drink, the  more  sure are  good  resolutions on the
  subject  of abstinence.  The  facility  with  which  intoxicating
  liquors may be obtained, will ever prove the bane  of the intem-
  perate.   Out of the reach of the temptations, he  would  make
  a virtue of necessity, and commence his practice  upon his new
 principles of abstinence with vigour and success;  at the  same
 time within  the reach  of them, no resolutions can be obtained,
 or if obtained, they will soon be abandoned.
   The probability  that the love of strong drink may be coun-
 teracted if seasonably attempted, is as  strong as that  insanity,
 taken in due season, may be cured.  The proportion of cures
 in what  are  called recent cases of insanity is, at the lowest esti-
 mate, 80 per cent.
   To the question.   How shall inmates be placed in institutions
 of this character, and how retained ? the answer must obviously
 depend upon the nature of the  institution.
   Suppose a respectable physician of well knowrn  character
 should open a private asylum  for the  reception of inebriates,
 giving to the public an outline of his plan of treatment, based
 upon benevolent principles.   Are there not parents  enough who
 have intemperate sons, that  would readily avail themselves of
 such  a favourable opportunity  to restore them to respectability
 and usefulness?  And would  they not have the same legal right
 to place them in such an asylum, as they would to place them
 at  a  manual labour  school, or in a  college, or  store, or as
 apprentices to a trade ?
  And would not any town or  county, after obtaining permis-
 sion to hold  real estate for  the purpose, by existing  laws be
 authorised  to establish  on  a  greater or  smaller scale  such an
institution for the detention and recovery of intemperate paupers?
It is conceived that  very soon all common drunkards would be
sent to such  houses by legal authority, instead of being com- 
15
mitted to  houses of correction.  If the first experiment should
be  successful,  and  intemperate  persons be  reformed, other
experiments would be made.
  As respects the disgrace that would  be attached to such per-
sons, as were placed in these institutions, public opinion is fast
getting right on the subject.  Whether it be more  creditable to
continue habits of intemperance, or seek the means of cure, is
not a subject for grave discussion.   The individual who went
voluntarily  to  such  an asylum, or  was  placed  there  by his
friends, whose mind and body had become diseased and debased
by  this practice, who had  become, not only a useless  member
of society, but  a heavy tax upon, as well as a reproach to his
friends,—restored  to  health, and  returned  to society with re-
newed vigour  of mind, and firm  temperance  principles, now
seeing the  danger which  he  had escaped, and  the evils which
he  had overcome, would  not be likely to feel very keenly the
disgrace of such confinement.  There are those who would scoff
at him, and ridicule him;  but in this  respect his fate  would be
the common fate of all who commence and effect a reformation
of character.
  The friends  of  the  intemperate, who  have suffered anxiety
and solicitude unknown to others,—who have tried every expe-
dient of  reform without  benefit—will  best  appreciate  such
institutions. Experience teaches all such that pledges, and bonds,
and oaths,  are ineffectual to restrain  from the  indulgence
of appetite, when temptations assail the drunkard: he must be
placed out of the reach of temptation, or his case is  hopeless
and irremediable.
  If in fact, intemperance  in general cannot be cured without
restraint, and can be cured with it—what is obviously the duty
of  the  community  towards  the  intemperate? and  what is
obviously  the best policy to  pursue ?   If, by an expenditure of
one or two hundred dollars, an individual who is now a burden
upon his friends or society, with a prospect of  speedily being
removed from  life  by the most degrading  of all  deaths—the
death of the drunkard—can  be restored to  health, and useful-
ness, the dictates of humanity, as well as  the true principles of
political economy, require that the  means of relief be afforded 
16
by  the  efforts of  the  benevolent, or the  benefactions  of the
State.
  While the arm of benevolence is stayed  in this enterprise,
and no progress is made  in the work of fitting  up institutions
for  the  reception  of the unfortunate, many  a father's anxious
inquiry  is, " where shall I place my  son, that  he  may be out of
the reach of temptation, till the evil which is upon him,  that is
wearing me down with anguish, and that  is prostrating his
energies, and hastening the decrepitude of age, shall be cured?"
  A very strong argument for such institutions  as these may
be drawn from the nature and success of kindred establishments.
  There are no  greater monuments  of benevolence in a Chris-
tian community, than  institutions for  the  relief  of  insanity,
conducted upon principles of kindness and indulgence.  In them
the hapless maniac finds a  home, with all the remedial means
which science has devised and experience approved.  Here, he
is secluded  from the insults and  abuses of the world, withheld
from the means of injuring himself, and  withdrawn  from  the
influence of those causes which too often  prolong and enhance
his  sufferings.
  In  the United States, the insane  bear a  proportion  to  the
whole community of about one in a thousand, of which number,
in well-regulated  hospitals, three  fourths, at least, will  be re-
stored to  reason,  if placed under judicious treatment,  during
the   first six months of  the  existence of  the  disease; while
probably not more than  one  fourth will be restored,  whose
insanity has existed over one year.  Intemperate  persons  bear
a much  greater  proportion to the rest of the community  than
the  insane; probably not less than eight or ten in a thousand, in
the  most virtuous and temperate society.
  Intemperance  being  a  disease of  less  severity,  although
similar  in character, doubtless  a greater proportion of  both
recent and  old  cases would be  cured in asylums, than  of the
insane;  this would be particularly true of old cases.
  Is this evil less than insanity ?   And while the benevolent  are
actively engaged  in  the  most  laudible work of  establishing
institutions for the comfort  and  cure of the insane, shall the
drunkard be permitted to go on in his  destructive and contamina- 
17
ting career, and the public look carelessly  and indifferently
on ?—While insanity destroys its  hundreds, intemperance de-
stroys its  thousands.  Insanity takes its  single victim, but
contaminates  no one.  Intemperance extends a  widened  in-
fluence, and brings its sorrow upon many.   Insanity wastes the
property of a few, by violence, and by its expenses.  Intem-
perance spreads poverty and debts by broad-cast, wherever it
prevails.  The insane man is  considered  irresponsible for his
acts  of  destruction,  and  very properly escapes punishment.
The  intoxicated man, hardly less  bereft  of  reason, is  held
responsible  for his conduct, and is punished, when sober, for his
crimes.  It is considered necessary for the safety of the  com-
munity that the insane man be detained within the walls of a
mad-house; because  occasionally he may  destroy the life  an
individual;  while murder and manslaughter,  and other  high
crimes against the  persons  of men,  are  committed almost
exclusively  under  the influence  of intoxication,  and to  an
appalling extent in this and every community, and the public
look only at the offence, without  inquiring  why it is so!  The
sympathies  of the public are wide awake for  the maniac, and
means are provided, with great expense, for his safety and  his
cure.  Shall the poor drunkard  go on to  hopeless, inevitable
ruin, and no effort be made to save him ?   It is he that suffers
punishment and death for the violation of laws.  And yet laws
are enacted to license and regulate the sale of  the cause of his
crimes.  He becomes a drunkard by the law, and suffers the
punishment of the law, for becoming a drunkard!
  Is there no evil here ?  And  shall we acknowledge the evil
in  all  its extent and magnitude, and  devise  no  way for  its
removal ?   Can a  doubt be entertained that the  remedy here
proposed will be effectual ?  If it fail, no other ill will arise but
the loss of a few thousand dollars.  If it succeed, it will open a
road to health and happiness for thousands, who have looked at
the dark prospects  before them with  utter  despair!   What a
field is here presented  for active benevolence!  A broad rami-
fication of the interminable and exhaustless subject of the Tem-
perance Reform !
  It is no longer problematical that intemperance can be cured,
but it is well known that the insuperable difficulty in  the way,
                            3 
18
in a large proportion of the cases,  is the temptation which as-
sails the  victim of the  habit, in every pathway.  In an institu-
tion of the character contemplated, the means of cure can be
more  certainly applied, and  the necessary restraints can be im-
posed.   If strength of resolution is sustained  by firmness of
principle, the inebriate  may  be cured at his own home; should
either or  both these be wanting, an asylum may effect what can
never be  accomplished  elsewhere.  Besides, those who  shall be
called to conduct such institutions will gain experience, which
will be valuable, and will finally be able to add  to  the present
knowledge of  remedial means necessary to  conduct the indivi-
dual safely and pleasently as possible from his present habits to
those  of  sobriety and abstinence.
   There  are  many individuals, in every community, who are
spending  their  substance, and bringing poverty upon themselves
and families; who are contaminating their offspring by the evil
example set before them.   As such persons  bring paupers  upon
public charge by hundreds, government ought to have the power
of arresting them in their career, and of adopting the means of
removing the habit by any expedient which will promise success.
Benevolent individuals must  be the pioneers, and satisfy the pub-
lic of the feasibility of the plan, of the success and utility of the
project.   If this can be done, and it cannot be doubted that in-
stitutions will rise up in succession under the fostering care of the
governments of some of the states, till the whole community shall
be satisfied of  their success,  and encourage and patronize them.
   Let the condition of the inebriate be contrasted, as he is found
in the alms-house, the jail, or the prison, with his  condition in
the asylum, that we here contemplate.  In the former, he  finds
every thing to  debase, to exasperate, and to render him ranco-
rous.  Disgusted with the world, and disappointed  in the nume-
rous efforts at reformation—humbled by the  wretchedness of
his condition—trampled under foot as he is,  and made  the in-
strument   of  executing  the  diabolical designs  of others—he
drinks deeper o  the accursed cup, and yields himself up to des-
pair.  No sympathizing hand is extended to afford him relief;
no human countenance beams upon him in his dark and gloomy
solitude.    As his  unfeeling keeper  conducts  the idle  gazer
through the apartments which he  occupies, " he is a drunkard?1 
19
is the opprobrious epithet and scornful taunt of him who is often
but a little elevated above  the  culprit,  either in condition  or
habits.
   But let him be taken into a  well-conducted  asylum.  There
let every comfort be offered him—fire  to warm his benumbed
limbs, clothes to cover his naked body, savory food  to sustain
and  tranquilize his sinking, debilitated stomach, cordials to calm
the  agitation  of his nervous system; and above all, kindness,
gentleness,  benevolence,  beaming  from  surrounding  counte-
nances, and yielding all the aid which his debased and agonizing
condition of mind and  feelings  require.   Will he not respond,
and  will he not be grateful ?  Will he not be ready to submit to
any  system that can be devised, to restore him to health and to
usefulness ?  And now let the system begin.  Let him  have a
neat and quiet sleeping room, to which he can retire for repose,
and  a day room to meet his companions and unite in conversa-
tion  or amusement.  Let him have regular meals of wholesome,
nutritious food—books  to read, paper and materials to write,
implements of labour ;  instruments for diversion, if he prefer, as
the balls, the quoits, the bowl;  opportunities to walk, &c.
   If he is irritable, calm him—if violent, appease him—if des-
ponding, cheer and encourage him.  Bring him, as soon as pos-
sible, within the compass  of reason and  reflection.   If need  be
to prepare him for this, give him medicine, and  watch the in-
fluence of his new practices upon his physical system, and if in
any   measure they  are prejudicial, apply the  remedy  in due
season.
   This done,  commence  the additional  moral ireatment of in-
culcating correct principles and an adherence to certain  rules.
Daily devotional  exercises,  and particularly the  regular atten-
dance on the religious worship of the Sabbath, will have a very
favourable influence.   Total abstinence must be engraved on
every door post.
   Satisfy him that  this is the only safe principle—that this will
again lead him to honour and respectability amongst men, (and
it will commend itself to his own  reason and conscience) that
the least deviation from it will again plunge him into all his for-
mer suffering and wretchedness—that he cannot  take one  step
in  this  enticing and  dangerous road,  with being involved  in
inevitable and  irretrivable ruin. 
20
   Will not such an individual go forth into the world, fortified
 against  temptation, and ready not only to practice  temperance
 but to advocate it, and  enforce it by precept  and example ?
 Knowing the danger, will he not be a successful advocate with
 those who are pursuing the  course from which he  has  so  re-
 cently emerged ?   The restraints—the examples—the  absence
 of unfavourable associates and comtaminating influerices—the
 influence of moral precepts and  medical  prescriptions, and  es-
 pecially of  long-continued habits of sobriety  and temperance,
 aided  by the correct views of the subject, so fully inculcated,
 cannot fail to make a powerful impression, and it is confidently
 believed, will save  thousands from the dreadful  end of the drunk-
 ard, if fairly and faithfully tried.
   On  the  subject of expense,  it may be remarked, that  if the
 cost of the public maintenance of intemperate  persons could be
 reserved, transferred, and appropriated to the  cure of the evil,
 it would erect and sustain such  an asylum  in every city and
 considerable village in this country.  This money is  at present
 certainly badly expended ; if it produces  temporary relief, it on
 the whole  increases the evil.
   If the victims of intemperance could early be placed  in such
 asylums, where the best effort would be made  to restore health,
 and fortify them from the  future  return of intemperance,  by in-
 culcating correct views, and instilling right principles of absti-
 nence—it  is conceived that on the scoie of political economy,
 the  necessary expenditures  would be found  satisfactory,  and
 admitted to be expedient.
   Are we not incurring a fearful responsibility on this subject ?
 It will not be sufficient for us to say that  we did not know the
 necessity of these efforts, or that we wanted confidence  in the
 projects proposed.   The evil exists, and  can  be cured.  If no
 project yet presented is adequate to  meet the  exigency,  let us
 advise some other, and  let it be put in immediate operation.
   Intemperance can be  cured.  If this  be  true, it  should be
 cured, and it rests with those whom  Providence has provided
 with the means, to consider faithfully how and when it shall be
 done.
   The views we have presented are sufficient, we apprehend, to
 convince any candid mind of the necessity and practicability
of establishing an institution  in which  the victim of inebriation 
21
may find  relief from  his  cruel bondage.  We have  in  view,
at this moment, more than one young man of ample fortune (in
expectation) whose parents would eagerly seize the opportunity
to place their son, who is already drawn into the fearful vortex,
in an asylum like that we contemplate—gladly would they fit
up for him, apartments of princely grandeur in such an asylum,
if they could save him from the  certain  ruin  which  seems  to
await him.  And we know men of ample means of living, who
are surrounded by every motive  to  sobriety and  temperance,
which a beloved  family, a circle of invaluable friends, and a
regard to character and standing, can unitedly furnish, who yet
give themselves  up to the dominion of  the destroyer, and who
only need a total separation from the  means of indulgence,
to check  the growing habit, and restore them to  self-control.
Such a separation the proposed asylum would furnish.
   It is believed that an eligible site might be obtained, and suita*
ble buildings and appurtenances provided at  an  expense not
exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, and it is susceptible
of almost demonstrative evidence, that such an institution, when
established and known, would be amply sustained by  its yearly
income.   Many a one would become an inmate of it who would
willingly part with half his fortune to be  weaned from the love
of strong  drink.   It would, of course, be placed on a footing and
under regulations, that would make it  not only a  respectable
but an honourable retreat from the insidious and cruel  assaults
of an inexorable  enemy, and the results would be so soon seen
and  so highly  appreciated, as to- secure for  it  all  desirable
patronage.
   Some hopes are entertained that private  enterprise, may be
stimulated by motives of  humanity and  patriotism to  attempt
the establishment of such an institution,  and  this  pamphlet is
circulated to call attention to the subject and  elicit  information.
Nothing great, or good can be accomplished without labour and
pains—and, if to have  founded the first asylum for the widow, the
orphan, the blind,  the deaf-mute, or the lunatic, is to have lived for
a great and good purpose, surely it will be a deed not less noble
and humane to have provided a  refuge to which the  unhappy
victim of intemperance can flee,and find protection and release
from  the foul fiend that seeks to  change  him into a loathsome
maniac, and then bury him alive  in infamy and despair ! 
 
 
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