RESULTS
The result of treatment in a disease of the nature of inebriety, can hardly be estimated in such time as the Hospital has been open. Our statistics are simply offered to show possibilities. As the statute under which the Hospital operates, contemplates a period of detention and treatment for not less than two months,—and that period is even too short in the vast majority of cases,—anyone resident in the Hospital for less than two months has been placed in a separate class, and we can learn that only two of these are doing well. Of 172 men, aside from those who have been discharged as not proper subjects, 54 were paroled, of whom 37, or 68 per cent, are reported as doing well, 27 were released under bond, of whom 17, or 63 per cent, are reporting. Over one-half of the voluntary patients are reporting.
Averaging all, we find 57 reporting as doing well; 30 fail to report; 29 are escaped, and we can learn nothing of them; and 56 were here less than two months, 38 of these being escaped; 7 voluntary patients; and 8 were released under bond. A percentage of abstainers of 25, is to be regarded as most excellent; and as one-third of those who have left here are still abstaining, the greater number of failures occurring in the first month, the outlook for the future is very encouraging.
So far, we have been speaking of what we are trying to do for the more hopeful class of patients. But what are we to do in the future with the incurable, the recidivists? Are we to send them back into the world time and again, let them abuse themselves, perchance their families, and let them be, as it were, a constant menace to society? No, society has a right to protect itself and to protect an individual against himself. There should be provision made for this class. They should be cared for in an institution under strict discipline, and made to support themselves there and to contribute to the support of those who may be dependent upon them.
As soon as considerable numbers are received at an institution, the more apparent becomes the need of means for classification, especially as to character. It is decidedly unwise to allow the intermingling of the young lad who has just commenced to drink, with the incorrigible or the sodden, whose every thought may lie bestial.
The most practical means of classification is by the use of cottages; and it is on that plan that Minnesota’s institution has been started. If two cottages were built at Willmar we should be able to make four groups of patients with decided advantage to our inmates. Not more than forty inmates should be cared for in each cottage: and I am strongly in favor of separate rooms for sleeping-quarters, instead of dormitories.