The Ottawa Free Trader

Putnam's Monthly for August discusses the question of inebriety with practical originality. We subjoin some of the suggestions:

THE BEGINNING

There is no "tapering off" with the devil. Either he has got you, or he has not got you. The first part of the medical treatment in this physical disease requires the immediate removal of the patient from all disturbing influences, of whatever nature.

There must be no noisy children about, no quarreling women, no scandal-mongers pouring out their distilled venom to jar upon his nerves and disturb his spirit; he must have absolute quiet and repose.

But to obtain this, there need not be recourse to an asylum. There is none so poor, who is worthy to be saved, who has not a friend. Let him then reach some such friend, trust and confide in him, and obtain the required shelter, rest, and attendance for a few days.

Having gained this temporary asylum, we will say that he drinks his usual allowance of liquor, and retires to bed in his usual condition of inebriety.

He has taken care, in his steadier moments, to provide himself twelve twenty-grain powders of bromide of potassium, which he will get at a first-class drug-store, on presenting the following prescription, which he can either obtain from a physician, or write for himself; but it is best to submit it to a physician before presenting:

PRESCRIPTION.

R. Potassii Bromidi 3 ij.

Sigma vi. Pulv.

THE STRUGGLE.

He has given himself a two-weeks' holiday and his friends have promised to "see him through," and will keep their promise, for it is sacred; and so he need not get out of bed at all, and one horrible fear is removed at once.

Now he takes one of his 20-grain powders of bromide of potassium, and the internal conflict begins. It is a mortal fight with the foul fiend himself.

The patient has no cares, no thoughts. Some one smooths his pillow, shuts out the bright light which would torture his eyes, airs the room to suit him, and he feels once more as though he were a child again, nursed by his mother.

He does not want to eat, and he need not eat for he has nothing to do but to lie still and fight.

Ah! There is the point. And now he shall show of what stuff he is made.

For there is no sterner, as there is no nobler battle waged than this conflict of the sick man with himself and with the devil who has gotten possession of him.

FIRST RESULTS,

At first the system, surprised by this novel condition of things, waits, patiently enough, for its usual morning corrective; but at length grown weary of waiting, and becoming even impatient, as the best regulated systems, not to speak of ill-regulated ones, sometimes will, it begins to make itself heard.

There is a gnawing at the pit of the stomach cold sweats crawl up and down the body, the skin is clammy, the head swims around and about, the muscles become completely relaxed, the nervous system is entirely unstrung, "strange dreams perplex" the dozing brain, he slumbers for an instant, and is awakened by a spasm; cramps assail his limbs, and he kicks them out; if a pin drops it has the reverberation of a ten-pin; spots, black and white, dance before his eyes, open or closed: hideous faces glare at him, and change like the patterns of a kaleidoscope; out of the pocket of his coat, hanging over yonder, there comes a wheel, which increases itself, and whirls spirally in the air towards him, till it vanishes under his very eyes, and still, behind all this phantasmagoria, he hears a soft, musical voice saying,

"Be not afraid! You shall win the fight!"

And by-and-by the sedative which he has taken, and which has insidiously been seeking out the enemy's weak point all the time, finds it, and the patient falls into a sleep, the first natural sleep he has had for years.

But he wakes again to find the conflict going on harder than ever, and the craving stronger: and he takes a second powder, say three hours after the first, and a third at nightfall; and so the day passes.

THE SECOND DAY.

The second day is worse than the first. The fancies are intensified; the system is coming out from under the alcoholic influence: and the reaction is the more terrible. But there must be no flinching now! Keeping continually before the mind, as it becomes clearer, the determination to crush out and root out, at any cost, this vile enemy to health and progress, the sufferer may also remember that each hour brings him more and more under the influence of his only friend, and each hour improves his condition and increases his ability to continue the conflict successfully.

Food should not be taken, unless urgently desired, and then it should be of the most nutritious character.

Broths of fowl or beef steak, and such other meats as are best calculated to preserve the tone of the stomach, are to be preferred.

THE VICTORY.

By continuing the powders the writer assures the reader that perfect success and glorious victory are attainable. The desire for drink will be completely eradicated, and its return will not be likely to occur.