Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1894 — Dr. Washburn i Views On the Liquor Habit. [ARTICLE]

Dr. Washburn i Views On the Liquor Habit.

In an article in tbeWinamac Journal, Dr. I. B. Washburn, of this place, discusses some phases of the drink habit at considerable length. The Doctor takes a sensible as well as ascient be view of the matter, as the following extracts will snow: Alcohol is a poison and its main effect is upon the bruin centers. It a man drinks for the fan of it or because some one asks him when he does not need it, that is a vice. If he drinks in order to brace up his courage so he can whip some man or do an evil deed that is a crime and should be punished. If a 'man drinks because he has inherited or contracted an appetite for liquors, that is a disease, and the individual should be placed in a hospital and treated for the same. Moralists, in my opinion, take the wrong view of the matter; I confess tha f , years ago, I thought “a man could drink or he could leave it ■alone,” but after a more thorough study of the matter, I believe the moral and a majority of the medical world are. wrong. The man who becomes a dipsomaniac is as much diseased as one who is insane or has consumption or cancer, and he should be placed in a hospital and treated. The state should provide for him as she does for the insane and bliqfl. Seventyfive per cent, of them can be cured. The tax upon the sale should be doubled and one half the amount should be used to maintain the hospitals for inebriates.