Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 309
u- iss all his pouers, and one which espe- the enforcement of the suggestion, bv law
c.,;llv involved the employment of a num- will [ think, so apppeal to you all, that in
1"M .A men, whose direction would be under the near future I will have your assistance
h.. immediate personal control individually and collectively, as t'he Medi-
Ilans are now being made for fulfilling cal Society of Virginia, when I endeavor
this need. 1 he case seems notable in the^e to secure the passage of a law by our next
days when so many people are complaining Legislature that will require the sterilizaof
overwork. Here was a man who was tion of certain classes of our criminals I
falling into alcoholism because he had not have the rough draft of such a law now
work enough but it is such a new subject, this steriliza-
Durmg the Civil War it was a common tion of a man, criminal or otherwise and
observation that .some of the most valuable is so hedged about with foolish sentiment
officers in the field only showed their true and ideas of cruel and unusual punishment
worth during the conflict. When the war that I admit it will be up hill work to eduwas
over these men quickly degenerated into catethe average legislator to the full kiiowlalcoholism,
finding civil life too tame to edge that no single measure for the prevensufficieatly
interest them after the excite- tion of crime would be more far-reaching
ment of war. in its deterrent effects, first, and preventive
In dealing with an alcohol user there effects second, than a law which provided
seems to be nothing which so completely for the sterilization of certain classes of
fills the .physical indications as emetine, criminals. Stop the breed is the whole pro-
The patient takes a full dose at bedtime, position.
goes promptly to sleep, remains sound One of our oldest proverbs is, "An ounce
asleep until morning and gets up fresh, of prevention is worth a pound of cure"
active, ready for his breakfast and his an 1 this may be taken as the text for my
work. The bowels more freely, with bil- paper. Prevention is the crv of the age—
lous stools, and the craving for liquor, if or to put it better, of the ages,
there is any, disappeared. This remedy Jenner, with vaccination, was one of our
seems to more completely fulfill the iudica- greatest and earliest preventors of a loathtjons
for eepatic elimination than any pre- some disease. We have to-dav anti-vacciviously
employed. Hy the use of this one nation societies, made up of the uneducated
remedy I hove repeatedly slopped an attack and hypersensitive cruel inidunusual-talkof
pending delirium tremens, which .seemed ers. And were we 1 1 wander into the realms
passed beyond the period when it could be of serum-therapy, with the antitoxine for
successfully averted. dyi^htheria, tetanus, meningitis, hydropho-
It IS necessary, however, toemploychemi- bia. we could more than take up the time
cally pure emetine, since preparations ordi- allotted for this paper. The medical mind
iiarially known under that title contain of this generation, as well as that of preenough
of the other acrid emetic alkaloid of vious generations, is centered on the great
ipecacuanha to render it impossible for a basic proposition of Prevention,
sufficient dose to be retained on the stomach Four States in the Union— Indiana, Utah,
to properly accomplish the object. This is Connecticut and California—have passed
the more important now, as the Rio ipeca- laws requiring that certain classes of crimcuanha
seems to have disapfieared from the inmals shall be sterilized. Indiana has
market, being replaced by tlie Carthagena had such a law for several years, and has
variety, which all but the last pharmacopeas sterilized several hundred. Utah has only
proscribed on account of irritating qnalities. very recently passed the sterilization law.
None of the American supply houses fur- Such a law is bound to come in Virginia.
nishes the pure alkaloid, but a good phar- Texas and several other Southern States
macist can prepare it from the root or the bave earnest and thoughtful men giving
xtract. Unless cephaliiie is excluded it is their time and efforts to the securing of the
difficult to secure full action of this drug on passage of a sterilization law for habitual
the liver, because the necessary dose will criminals, believing, as I do, that fifteen
ause vomiting. ^ or twenty years after the enactment and
Slerillzallon of
enforcement of
Habltn'al Criminals.^
such a law our criminal
iivfi,... \- class Will
r- . ,.• be , , ,.
immensely decreased,
liy ( lia.s. \ . Carrnigtcm, Ric iiiioiit Va \l„ . t j i
nf n
About a year ago I read a short paper on
f^r. Jresideiil and Ft/lows of the Medwal the subject of sterilization, before the N a-
i>ocuty of V irgiiiia: tional Prison Association, then meeting in
llie proposition of the sterilization of Richmond. That little paper provoked an
labitual criminals, as a prevention of crime, immense amount of discussion and cories-
8 so new to us, that the novelty of the sug pondence. One dear old ladv who has tapstion
will, I hope, engage your thought- ken a keen interest in prison work for years
uiatleulioii. Ihen the positive merit of and is a deep thinker and good worker