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
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--
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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