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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    We prove bv comparative anatomy that alcohol intro- duced into the stomach produces a diseased action and a morbid anatomy of the animal economy. These morbid con- ditions are as marked in their character, and as unmistak- able in their appearance as the diseased action and morbid condition of the body found in yellow fever generated from animal or vegetable decav. Every physician knows full well that a i>redisposition to become affected by certain diseases, on the application of the exciting cause, does certainly exist in the human family, and particularl.y in the diseases of inebriety, scrofula, gout, and mania. In some instances the predisposition is more strongly marked than in others, but where it is inert and insufficient of itself to produce disease, it requires the application of an exciting cause. This is the proper light in which we should view hereditary predispositions to inebriety as we find it in adults. Every family in our land is more or less predisposed to this disease. It may pass over one generation and appear in the next. So the grandfather and the grandson (the first and third generation) may be inebriates, while the interven- ing link esca]jes. This phenomenon is noticed by every com- mon observer. Does it then require a stronger argument than this to prove the importance of founding in our State an inebriate asylum? Has not everv family throughout the length and breadth of America an interest in this institution paramount to all others? Dr. Darwin says: “ It is remarkable that all the diseases from drinking s])irituous or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary even to the third generation, gradually increasing, if the cause be continued, until the family becomes extinct.”—Botan. Gard., Part II., Note on vitis. Other cases of a similar origin are recorded in medical works. Dr. William Wood, of London, in a work published on insanity, in 1852, says, in speaking of hereditary dipsoma- nia: “In.stances are sufficiently familiar, and several have occurred within m^^own personal knowledge, where the father, having died at an early age from the effects of intemperance, has left a son to be brought up by those who have severely suffered from his excesses, and have, therefore, the strongest motive to prevent, if possible, a repetition of such misery.