Many hard drinkers live under the conviction that if they should cease
drinking alcoholic liquors suddenly, they would die in a few days. This
is a complete error. No "tapering off" is allowed here. Dr. Day
discovered years ago that a man who has been drinking a quart of
whiskey a day for a long time suffers more if his allowance is reduced
to a pint than if he is put at once upon the system of total
abstinence. He not only suffers less, but for a shorter time. The
clergyman before referred to informed me that, for two years and a half
before entering the Asylum, he drank a quart of brandy daily, and he
felt confident that he would die if he should suddenly cease. He
reached Binghamton drunk; he went to bed that evening drunk; he drank
twelve glasses of brandy the next morning before eleven o'clock; he
went up to the Asylum saturated with brandy, expecting to make the
preliminary arrangements for his admission, then return to the hotel,
and finish the day drinking. But precisely at that point Albert Day
laid his hand upon him, and marked him for his own. Dr. Day quietly
objected to his return to the town, sent for his trunk, caused the
tavern bill to be paid, and cut off his brandy at once and totally. For
forty-eight hours the patient craved the accustomed stimulant
intensely, and he was only enabled to sleep by the assistance of
bromide of potassium. On the third day the craving ceased, and he
assured me that he never felt it again. Other morbid experiences he
had, but not that; and now, after two years of abstinence, he enjoys
good health, has no desire for drink, and is capable of extraordinary
exertions. Other patients, however, informed me that they suffered a
morbid craving for two or three weeks. But all agreed that the sudden
discontinuance of the stimulant gave them less inconvenience than they
had anticipated, and was in no degree dangerous. It is, indeed, most
surprising to see how soon the system begins to rally when once it is
relieved of the inimical influence. Complete recovery, of course, is a
slow and long effort of nature; but the improvement in the health,
feelings, and appearance of patients, after only a month's residence
upon that breezy hill, is very remarkable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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