Re belladonna cure:
 
As would be expected,  there were variations on the Towns-Lambert cure.
Napa State Hospital (California) used one, for instance.  If anyone is
REALLY interested, I will dig out some medical charts that I have from that
hospital  (ca. 1915-20) and give you the specifics of the cure's content and
administration.  (I have the nursing notes.)  Belladonna was not the only
significant ingredient; if memory serves, hyoscine was involved as well, but
I'd have to check..  At Napa, by the way, it was called "The Lambert," and
was not regarded as a specific cure but as a purgative aid to detoxification
(a word not then in use).  Its administration was followed by a lengthy
hydrotherapy regime.  It came into use at Napa with the appointment in 1913
of Andrew Hoisholt as superintendent.
 
Those interested in the state hospital treatment of drunks and addicts
during this period might see Jim Baumohl and Sarah W. Tracy, "Building
Systems to Manage Inebriates:  The Divergent Paths of California and
Massachusetts, 1891-1920."  Contemporary Drug Problems, 21 (1994), 557-97.
 
 
Jim Baumohl
Bryn Mawr College
 
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       Alcohol and Temperance History Group <[log in to unmask]>
>Poster:       Ron Roizen <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Fwd: Re: Belladonna Cure
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Bill White, who is writing a book on the history of alcoholism treatment in
> America,
>kindly offered the following remarks re this thread on ATHG-L.  Ron
>
>---- Begin Forwarded Message
>
>I am continuing research on the Charles Towns hospital and the exact
>detoxificatrion procedures used during 1934 when Bill W. experienced his "hot
>flash," but the following background material might be helpful.
>
>Charlie claimed his cure was obtained from a shadowy character who approached
>him in a bar offering an addiction cure that they could make some money on.
>For background on this auspicious beginning, see David Musto's The American
>Disease.  To test the cure, Charlie, as the legend goes, kidnapped a
>racetrack worker and forcibly put him through the cure.  (See Pittman's--AA
>The Way it Began.)  Towns took the cure to China in 1906 and opened the
>Charles Towns Hospital at 293 Park West in New York City upon his return.
>Under the patronage of Dr. Alexander Lambert, an influential figure within
>the AMA, the "Towns Cure" began to receive considerable press.  Towns
>hospital became an expensive drying out facility for persons addicted to a
>wide spectrum of substances who paid from $75 (general ward) to $300 (private
>room) per day to stay there.
>
>The cure itself was described by Lambert in a 1909 article in JAMA entitled
>"The Obliteration of the Craving for Narcotics" (53:13, 985-989).  Another
>Lambert article,  "Care and Control of the Alcoholics" that appeared in the
>Boston Medical and Surgical Journal in 1912 is worth reviewing (166:615-621).
>Towns himself made general references to his cure in his own writings, the
>most interesting of which include his 1915 text Habits that Handicap and a
>later 1931 book, Reclaiming the Drinker.  The latter along with a 1932
>monograph--Drug and Alcohol Sickness--are interesting in that they appear so
>close in time to Bill W's admission.   The monograph can be found in Grob's
>1981 edited text, The Medical Profession and Drug Addiction.  Towns also
>wrote a 1917 article entitled Successful Medical Treatment in Chronic
>Alcoholism that appeared in The Modern Hospital (8:6-10).
>
>As to the contents of the treatment at Towns Hospital, it varied over time
>and included a spectrum of drugs.  The centerpiece of the Towns Cure,
>however, seems to have been a combination of extract of prickly ash bark,
>fluid extract of hyoscyamus and tincture of belladonna.  The use of such
>substances was not exactly new.  There was a long history of the use of such
>substances as belladonna, strychnine, arsenic, atropine, hyoscin, and
>scopolamine  in the inebriate asylums and private sanataria catering to
>alcoholics and other addicts.  These substances were used both as a tonic
>stimulant and for their alledged ability to destroy the craving for
>intoxicants.  The side effects of atropine--the alkaloid found in
>belladonna--include delirum and hallucinations which some persons have
>alluded may have been the source of Bill's "hot flash."  What is as
>interesting as Bill's experience in Towns to me was his physician's response.
>Given Silkworth's knowledge of atropine, consider how easily it would have
>been to interpret Bill's experience in light of drug toxicity and respond
>with chemical sedation.  Instead, Silkworth framed Bill's experience within a
>spiritual/religious framework rather than a medical framework, and as they,
>say, the rest is history.   Hope this is helpful.  If you need more specific
>background or citations, contact me directly.  Bill White
> ([log in to unmask])
>
>
>
>
>
>
>--
>Ron Roizen
>voice:  510-848-9123
>fax:    510-848-9210
>home:   510-848-9098
>1818 Hearst Ave.
>Berkeley, CA 94703
>U.S.A.
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