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.

    29/512 (page 25)
    the Roman statesman, g:eneral and soldier. Tims Rome fell by this })hysical contagion, and the dark ages followed her downfall. Arabic history proves conclusively that the Arabians were a temperate ]ieople. Their philosophers considered wine as the blood of the devil, and that whoever partook of it was devilish, and labored under the most loathsome disease. The Ishmaelite with his temperate and primitive mode of life combined with his indomitable courage, has i)roved to the physiologist that where the disease of inebriety has not been found in a race, there will be discovered a full develop- ment of ])hysical power capable of enduring the greatest amount of labor and fatigue, a mind with energies that- know no defeat, a will that can never be subdued. We have thus briefl}’ alluded to the history of inebriety as a disease through the ages of the world when alcohol was unknown. The Greeks and Romans were ignorant of ardent spirits. They never understood the art of distillation. The method of extracting alcohol was discovered bv an Arabic chemist, and was well understood in the time of Gmber, who flourished in the seventh century. The first spirits known in Euroi)e were manufactured from the grape, and sold for medical purposes in Italy and S])ain under the name of alco- hol. At a later period the Genoese made it from grain, and sold it in small bottles at an extravagant price under the name of ar/zza vitie. From this commenced a new era in the history of this important element which chemistry had revealed to the world. Distilled s])ii-itswere added to the fer- mented ones, which l)y their combination have brought upon man a greater agent in ])rodiicing the disease of inebriety than was felt l>y the ancients. AVe are not able to glea.n much from history as regards the effects of inebriety ii]>on individuals from the seventh to the twelfth century. The primitive mode of life of the north- ern bai'bai-ians ])revented them from being ex])osed to the Racchanalian feasts of the ])olished Greek and the luxuriant Roman. In proof of the fact that alcolnd was not generally known in the dark ages, we can state that in the thirteenfh century it was sold as a. cordial by the English a])othecary, and drunk only in small quantities by the nobility and the