Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1917 — NEW DRUG CURE PROVES SUCCESS [ARTICLE]

NEW DRUG CURE PROVES SUCCESS

Treatment by Former Naval Surgeon General Is Effective in 25 Cases. DRUNKARDS ARE ALSO SAVED One Patient, a Mere Human Shell, Is Able to Walk in 48 Hours—To Be Made Public After 100 Cases Are Treated. New York. —A new treatment for drug addicts and drunkards which appears tn be of remarkable efficiency is being used at Warwick Farms, the 800acre retreat maintained by the city in Orange county for inebriates and other dereMcts. The remedy, or system of treatment, has been in use about three weeks. It has been applied to 25 drug users, each of whom has rapidly gained weight, has lost his craving for narcotics and stimulants and has acquired a normal appetite. The treatment was devised by Dr. Charles F. Stokes, superintendent of Warwick Farms. Doctor Stokes’ standing in his profession is lofty; he has served in many city hospitals, he was surgeon general of the navy under both President Roosevelt and President Taft, and he has attained distinction as the author of many monographs on military and general surgery. For the past two years he has had charge of the medical work at Warwick Farms, and most of his interest lay in the treatment of habitual drug users.

Note to Justice Kernochan. Most of the work of the farms heretofore has been in building up the strength of drunkards and narcotic victims after medical treatment had been given in city hospitals. Doctor Stokes’ desire to acquire patients upon whom to try the treatment was responsible for a know ledge of his cure becoming public prematurely. for he wrote to Justice Frederic Kernochan of special sessions asking, that a number of drug addicts be sent direct to the farms to try the new treatments . Doctor Stokes declined to discuss the treatment on the ground that to do so would be unethical; that if the cure proves satisfactory it will be made public in the recognized ethical way, i. e., through a paper read to the Academy of Medicine. Charles Samson, executive secretary of the board' of Inebriety, which conducts the farms, adopted the same attitude. The letter to Justice Kernochan asked that the worst cases be sent to try the treatment. The cure will not be made public by Doctor Stokes until he has treated and cured at least 100 cases.

No Failure in 25 Cases. However, there has been no failure so far in the 25 cases that have been treated. The cure causes no suffering, and the acute symptoms are reproved in from two to three days. One of the patients had used morphine for seven years and was in a state of collapse when he was sent to the farms. •After 48 hours he was able to walk around, and when the treatment was stopped he did not know .lt. Other methods require from ten days to three weeks before the cure is effective. .' » Some of those under treatment gained ten pounds in a week. All these cases will be kept at the farm for twolmonths for observation. The Increased number of addicts Is being handled without the addition of an extra staff. One nurse and one woman. who combines the duties of nurse and housekeeper, do all tne work. It is thought likely that if the treatment turns out to be a real cure it will permit the sllnjlnation of, the three dty institutions that now handle drug addicts, and in their place a receivjng station will be established, where, the dfur addicts can be gathered for shipment to the farina.