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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    destroyed eiglit liiuidred tliousand lives, and had refused to ])ay one dollar to the widows and or])hans of its victims, such a corporation would have aroused the con- demnation of all Christendom, and challeno-ed the con- tempt of the civilized world. Yet this is exactly what our Government is doing. It is carrying on the same injustice and committing the same outrage upon the widows and orphans of the deceased drunkards, while receiving the revenue of the liquoi' traffic, out of which grow the causes of their insanity and death. It is estimated by the best medical authority that there are in the United States more than twelve millions of drinkers and opium-eaters. This vast multitude embraces all from the sipper of the wine at the festive board to the diseased victim who in his dying delirium calls for his last and fatal glass. One-tifth of the entire popula- tion of the country is divided into almost innumerable varieties of drinkers, which it would be impossible to describe or even to classify under diseased conditions. The hereditary inebriety which produces the periodical attacks once in three days, or the j:)eculiar phase of the malady which attacks its victims once in three years, causes them to suffer alike from the same jdiysical condi- tions modified or intensified by an exciting cause. This phenomenon of dipsomania is noticed by the practitioner, and can be calculated upon with as close mathematical precision as the revolutions of the jdanetary system. There are about five per cent of periodical inebriates who are constitutional drunkards. Tliese cases often develoji homicidal insanity, and are the cause of more social disturbance and divorces than any other form of the disease, and are more to be dreaded than any other phase of the malady. When this constitutional condi- tion of inebriety is developed in woman it is a certain