Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/103

 PREVENTION OF MENTAL DISEASES 89

History teaches us that it is not unreasonable to seek con- quest over a vice by suggestions, and condemnation to a legal penalty is one of the most powerful means. The law should authorize the forfeiture of the rights of a father or mother who is an inebriate ; this would be a social protective measure of incontestable value, and one which would cause many husbands and wives to reflect.

Dr. Jouffroy divides the alcoholics into several categories : The category of simple drinkers who do not manifest any mental trouble, or any grave visceral lesion. Being strong, they might be helped by a method which would establish an active habit, in a house of abstinence and labor. Among these patients we should find most of the proselytes who, once healed, would go out to speak a good word to others. The second category includes alcoholics affected by mental troubles, and who suffer from affections of the stomach, liver, or kidneys. Dr. Jouffroy proposes to confine the former in asylums of abstinence, and the others in hospitals of abstinence. The celebrated professor of the faculty of medicine at Paris does not recommend send- ing all the insane alcoholics to a special asylum ; but he proposes to send the incurable, the general paralytics, and demented cases into asylums for the insane in order not to crowd the special inebriate houses.

Dr. Serieux proposes to collect in a single establishment all alcoholics by classes, according to their physical and mental state, even taking account of their social rank and positions.

Dr. Toulouse, in his excellent book. The Causes of Insanity, limits himself to recommending, as conditions of admission to a special institution, the absence of mental disorders or their ces- sation. This measure, says the author, appears at first sight strange, and yet, if one reflects that the purpose of those houses is essentially to correct habitual alcoholics, it is important to undertake this work under the best possible conditions. It is for this reason that most authors agree on the principle that the disturbances provoked by alcohol are curable. When a person is attacked by a subacute alcoholic delirium, he is sequestered. He is subjected at the asylum for the insane to a regime of