of inheritance, it seems as if the time had fully come for the State to take this question under advisement, with a view to furnishing a proper solution of the evils which so manifestly afflict and degrade the people.

The favorable results which have attended the treatment of inebriety in the New York State Inebriate Asylum, under the adverse circumstances of public ignorance and opposition, and professional prejudice, will appear more in detail in the statements and statistics which are furnished in the report of the superintendent of that institution. Prominent as a hindrance in the way of reformation and cure, may be mentioned the reception of many cases of chronic alcoholism, in which physical and mental deterioration and decay entirely forbid the operation of restorative agencies. Such cases find in the asylum a longer or shorter interruption of the habits which have. served to produce the extreme condition into which they have lapsed. Generally, no other advantage than temporary isolation and seclusion attaches to this class of patients; chronic alcoholism, with structural degeneration and a state but little removed from dementia, presents nearly a hopeless prospect of amelioration; under the disciplinary care and management of the asylum, however, in which good food regularly administered, freedom from anxiety and irritation, and rest and recreation are the chief factors employed, certain apparently irremediable cases of drunkenness have been permanently restored.

Another hindrance in the plan of reformation consists in the admission of men sent by friends, who come with the fixed resolution not to be benefited by the plan of treatment instituted in their behalf. In a few examples, a full comprehension of the scope and purpose of treatment, expanded by observation and reflection, has been efficient in changing their resolution, and making them yield. to the benign influences by which they are surrounded; if they resist such efforts with willful spirit and determination, they should be returned to their friends as incorrigible and to avoid the effects of insubordination in the asylum.

A further obstacle in the system of reformation consist in the freedom exercised by patients to make their sojourn in the asylum short and insufficient for the purpose of absolute removal of the habit of inebriety. No adequate legal power exists for correcting this evil, save with persons committed by order of the courts. The brief tarry of patients in the asylum, even of the most promising class, is commonly without reward, and no greater error is made than to infer, because temporary correction of drunkenness is attained under asylum treatment, further improvement necessary to eradicate the infirmity, can be wrought among the individuals and scenes which originally suggested the vice of intoxication.

Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances to which allusion has been made, the report of the superintendent illustrates the practical working of the plan by which a vast number of drunkards have been rescued from the degradation of besotted indulgence and made to occupy positions in society which their talents, education, tastes and training qualify them to fill.

With aid from the Legislature, we shall be able to finish and furnish the north wing of the asylum, which was burned out in 1864. This will give double our present capacity for receiving patients, and with increased patronage will enable us to reduce the cost of maintenance, with but little additional hired labor.

We ask for a moderate appropriation for the purpose of extending our facilities in the line of humanitarian effort, convinced that great and lasting good will follow a wise, economical and enlightened method for eradicating the consequences of a faulty public sentiment, which consigns the drunkard, in every stage of his habit, to criminal punishment, when other, safer and juster means will accomplish infinitely better results, both to the individual himself and in the community which he represents.

The appropriation of six thousand dollars, made by the last Legislature, to build cisterns and a work shop at the asylum, has been discreetly expended, under the supervision of the executive committee. The cisterns divided in compartments, are constructed in a substantial and durable manner, and contain in the aggregate, when all the cisterns at the asylum are filled, five million gallons of good, soft spring water, a supply sufficient for all ordinary and even extraordinary need, in case of protracted dry weather. The common water supply from a spring a mile from the asylum, by the use of larger pipe, has been greatly increased in force and volume, and the question of scarcity, necessarily including that of the quality of water, will not again arise, with the abundance now flowing in and in store, in connection with the future of the institution.

The work shop, ingeniously adapted to the purpose in view, is inclosed and nearly ready for occupation. The value of this shop, in giving occupation to patients and in supplying them with tools for many kinds of handicraft, can scarcely be estimated.

During the past summer, Dr. J. Edward Turner, the first superintendent of the asylum, commenced proceedings against the managers in the United States District Court, to obtain possession of the property, on the ground that the assumption of the State in occupation and control was unconstitutional and void. A copy of the complaint of the plaintiff is herewith presented. The case was heard at the session of the court in Utica, on the ninth day of December, when the plaintiff was granted time in which to amend his complaint. The managers were represented by their attorneys, Messrs. Hotchkiss and Millard, of Binghamton, who continue in charge of the case.

SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.

To the Managers of the New York State Inebriate Asylum for the year 1876:

GENTLEMEN. This asylum, in its conception, founding and partial construction, was the work of individual effort, under a charter obtained from the Legislature of this State.

The first act of incorporation of this asylum, then known as "The United States Inebriate Asylum," was passed April 15, 1854. This law was amended in 1867, and the name changed to "The New York State Inebriate Asylum," and both before and since that time no less than seven acts have been passed by the Legislature affecting it.

Under the act of March 27, 1857, the asylum was founded and constructed, so far as construction has progressed, and under this act, as an incorporation, all of its affairs were conducted until the 1st day of July, 1873. The asylum became a State institution by virtue of chapter 625 of the Laws of 1873, passed May twenty-seventh, which took effect on the first day of July in that year, since which time there has been no change in the law.

The asylum was first opened for the admission of patients in June, 1864, and although but few patients were received, under the most unfavorable circumstances, with indifferent or unsatisfactory results, its real work did not commence till May, 1867. And since then, notwithstanding the discouragements it has labored under, the misfortunes it has experienced, and the misrepresentations it has had to contend against, not only from the ignorant but from designing enemies, it has fully realized in its results the anticipations and promises of its projectors and friends.

Those who profess otherwise, or who believe that the institution has proved a failure as an inebriate asylum, and that it should be abandoned as such, can have no knowledge of its history, or can know or appreciate but little of the good it has done or is capable of doing.

From May 1, 1867, to December 31, 1867, 2,065 patients were under treatment at the asylum-three-fourths of whom were from this State. All who came have been admitted, if there was room, invariably giving preference to citizens of our own State. The price of admission has been determined in every instance by the circumstances of the applicant, or the ability of friends to pay. Believing that the board of managers desire to exclude none from its advantages, we have endeavored to meet the exigences of each particular case of those of moderate and limited means as well as the rich. There is no classification of patients according to price paid; financially considered, it is simply desired to have the receipts from the patients equal the current expenses of the establishment; and the great aim and object has been to cure and reform the unfortunate inebriate and those afflicted with the opium habit.

In more than half the cases received into the asylum a permanent

cure has been effected. Carefully compiled statistics, extending over three and a-half years, including 1,000 patients received and treated, show that over fifty per cent are thoroughly restored; and each year this per centage will be increased as our plans and methods of restraint and treatment are being perfected.

It is true that the asylum is cursed with chronic drunkards-men who do not care to reform, who have no principle or purpose except their own gratification in the indulgence of their depraved appetites who are sent here by friends, and whose stay is attended with willful violations of the rules, and a constant chafing under the judicious and healthy restraint of the asylum. These men go away (many of them expelled for disobedience of rules) and relapse at once into their former evil habits-like the dog, they return to their vomit, and instead of being kept out of sight, like the incurable insane, are to be met with on the corners of the streets and in public places, bringing undeserved reproach upon our institution because we cannot cure the incurable. As might be expected, these subjects become our most violent denouncers. Some of them are insane and should be placed in insane asylums. Again, in addition to being dipsomaniacs, many are wickedly vicious, and need reformatory restraint and discipline. The class of men who recover permanently are usually from the middle walks in life; men who honestly wish to get well, and so co-operate with us in all earnestness in every effort for their restoration; men who have business and business habits, but who, through circumstances and misfortune, have become inebriates these men finally go forth and pursue the even tenor of their way, and, mingling with the better class of citizens with whom they associate and have business relations, in time cease to be remembered as having been patients of the asylum. The former class bring odium or contempt upon the institution, while the latter, from modesty and self-respect, are unable to counteract the bad example and worse influence of the vicious and incurable.

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Disavowing any idea or intention of making invidious comparisons, I find, on making a careful examination of the reports of the insane asylums in this State, that the per centage of cases cured to the number of patients treated is greater in this asylum than in the asylums for the insane. And in all candor, I would ask, Is not an inebriate cured of a vicious habit and a disease of equal value to a lunatic "clothed in his right mind?" All things being equal, do not the family, friends, society and the State gain as much by the cure of the one as of the other?

Fifty years ago the insane were regarded as utterly lost to the human family; they were maltreated in many instances chained in dungeons and left to wallow in filth; there was no known cure and no hope for their restoration. To-day how changed is the treatment of the insane! We have the experience of eminent medical men to guide and instruct the physician in the best methods to effect a permanent cure, in many cases while, in some important respects, the condition of all is materially improved. How is it with regard to the inebriate? Hardly a decade of experi

a cure

mental knowledge has been obtained in this specialty; before which time the confirmed inebriate and dipsomaniac were either punished by fine or imprisonment, or both; or were left to run their disgraceful courses, shunned by friends, while no effort beyond, perhaps, moral suasion or weaker agents were put forth to redeem or restore them to health and usefulness to others, and, above all, to themselves. Is it reasonable to suppose that this comparatively new field has received that attention and investigation which its importance demands in so short an experience? But it is hoped that the day is not far distant when some of the best medical talent in the country will give the subject the thought and study that will enable us to claim for asylums of this character a favorable comparison with our kindred asylums that have made the treatment of insanity a specialty. Then, and not before, shall we expect to grapple with and treat successfully, medically or otherwise, a habit and disease which all other means and appliances have utterly failed to relieve or ameliorate.

With suffi

In this connection, I would suggest that the assistant physician of the asylum should devote much of his time and attention to the pathology of inebriety; the action of alcoholic stimulants upon the different tissues and organs of the body. This special department would necessitate a knowledge of chemistry and of all the revelations of the microscope in the hands of a competent person. cient interest manifested in this subject by the medical profession, we have a right to expect that what has been accomplished for the insane during the past fifty years may be done for inebriety in the course of the next twenty-five years; owing mainly to the advanced knowledge of the science of medicine and its collateral branches of the present day.

In looking at the more immediate effects of alcohol upon the system, we find that indulgence in alcoholic stimulants develops and strengthens the appetite for them, and correspondingly undermines and weakens the will; and, the habit persisted in, a time surely follows when the will becomes absolutely subservient to the morbid appetite, and its gratification is paramount to every other consideration, social, moral or religious. Every thing must bend and yield to gratify this diseased, growing and insatiable appetite. Up to this point, perhaps, the intellectual powers are not necessarily weakened; on the contrary, the excitement caused by the stimulant, if it stops short of inebriation, tends to increase and intensify the intellectual powers. Temporary or occasional drunkenness may be regarded as a craving for drink which should be ranked as a vice; but let this habit be continued for years at short intervals, and the symptoms of moral insanity will be fully developed in the unhappy victim. Men, honorable and truthful in their former days, become dishonest and regardless of the truth; their whole moral nature undergoes a radical change; and unless, haply, their downward career can be arrested and they seasonably reclaimed, their good qualities are too apt to be blotted out or merged in their animal passions and evil propensities until they rise up to govern all their thoughts and actions. And it is peculiarly the province of the asylum to grapple with this disease;