Show I x nl New Yorkers Becoming Hysterical I t 4J lf BY PR S T ARMSTRONG i IIF 1 1 Superintendent of Dellevue and the Allied Hospitals t It j I1I7 Now Yorkers are becoming n TUB people They show an Increasing excitability a dlinln llshment of self control This demonstrates i demon-strates Itself In all forms of excesses I a Less and less restraint is exercised f Tho extreme tension of life hero Is showing on the people One sees i plenty of examples of this in Individual t Individ-ual life A vast demonstration of itt it-t among n mass of tho people Is observed i ob-served in tho increasing hysteria of such celebrations as those of tho t night boforoftho Now Year What Is true of the city non Is true of the city women The Increase of drunkenness t i drunk-enness Is a distressing fact It Is ti a natural outcome of the restlessness r f I > > tho overstrivlng the unrestraint oft of-t present day life In Now York I kt This subject is of tremendous Im t t jportanco We should know just what G I a wo art confronting what tho future 71 I qj has In store for us just where and 0 111 how we arc threatened One may n i form an opinion ns to an Increasing l j inebriety among women from such exhibitions f l I ex-hibitions as those of Now Years ovo but beyond that It Is not easy to go I I There arc no ofllclal statistics bearing i on the question Thu subject has had no investigation of scientific value fi t One cannot speak exactly as to condi fit j i J ions or to make comparisons between be-tween the present and tho past Tho records of the alcoholic and psycopath Ic wards of Bcllovuo haspltal do not show tho facts of Inebriety oven among tho classes of men and women who would seek aid from this hospital hos-pital In 1901 there were 8941 admissions admis-sions to Bellevuo for various forms of alcoholism Tho number now Is greatly great-ly leas than that In 100C it had alien to CG53 But even with this reduce tlon tho number of alcoholic patients is more than 25 per cent of all the patients admitted to Bellevue BU these records provo nothing In the line we would follow Tho number or Inebriates who seek treatment at Bellevue has fallen off simply bo call so an old offender who comes here is now liable to bo turned over to a city magistrate who will sentence him to an asylum as a chronic drunkard drunk-ard This had the effect especially of keeping many women from taking repeated advantage of treatment at Helluvue What Is tho cure of tho evil of increasing In-creasing Inebriety in New York Whatever will bring easement to the restless life in the city will lessen all forms of dissipation Tho whole subject needs careful and thorough investigation to know what pnlllntlv measures can ho taken Drinking Is i only one symptom of what is wrong with us nunnn |