The history of the first inebriate asylum in the world / by its founder [Jonathan Edward Turner]. An account of his indictment, also a sketch of the Woman's national hospital, by its founder.

  • Turner, J. Edward, 1822-1889.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the first inebriate asylum in the world / by its founder [Jonathan Edward Turner]. An account of his indictment, also a sketch of the Woman's national hospital, by its founder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    At this point it was found that pnl)lic sentiment must be awakened and educated to this view of inebriety as a disease. To tliis end four years were spent in trav- eling over nine of the northern and middle states, and dni’ing that time more than three thousand of the promi- nent men of the nation, known widely for their superior intelligence, large wealth, and undoubted benevolence, were visited and lal)oi'ed with; yet only sixty-six out of the three thousand were found willing to subscribe ten dollars each to the stock of the proposed Inebriate Asy- lum, on condition that fifty thousand dollars should be subscribed to its ca]»ital stock, and a charter for its organ- ization procured from the legislature of the State of New York. There were three other subscril:)ers of ten dollars each on the following conditions: The first, to j^ay his subscription when the Asylum buildings should be finished; the second, when the Asylum should be finished and twenty patients under treatment; the third, when the Asylum should be finished, and the first patient dis- charged as cured, and remain cured at the end of one year. These three men were noted for their great wealth, and for their large gifts to the religious and benevolent objects of their day ; they Avere intensely practical in their bestowals, never patronizing an object of charity unless it had proved itself a success by years of trial and ex2>erience. But life is short, and they were num- bered Avith the dead long before the first patient Avas received in the Hos}>ital. Sixteen years of patient labor Avere given to secure subscrijAtions to the capital stock, and during that time over seventy thousand calls Avere made, the most of the travel by rail Ijeing done by uight, to leave the day free for lal)or. To this part of the Avork must be added three years’ travel, folloAving the fire of 1869, to raise the thirty