ARE INEBRIATES AUTOMATONS? [From the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, December, 1878.] 
ARE INEBRIATES AUTOMATONS ? * 
GEORGE M. BEARD, M.D., OF NEWYORK. 
The phrase, involuntary life, is one that I have often used 
during the last four years to express that part of our natures 
that is independent of volition or of consciousness or of both. 
It refers to the action of mind and body in their reciprocal 
relations, both in health and disease. This is the side of 
physiology and of pathology that has been least studied, and 
is least understood, even among physicians and physiologists. 
It is, however, the most important part of physiology and 
pathology, both in its relations to many diseases, and in rela- 
tion to modern delusions. It is a department of science in 
which great advances are destined to be made,—in which 
advances are already being made,—and in proportion to this 
advance will many of the dark problems of the nervous sys- 
tem in health and disease be triumphantly solved. It is 
because of the backwardness of this side of physiology that 
so many of the great problems have thus far been the oppro- 
brium of the human mind. 
As an illustration of the involuntary life in disease, ine- 
briety is one of the most interesting, as well as most difficult 
to comprehend. So long as a man is merely a drunkard, or 
a victim of the vice of drinking to excess, he has it in his 
power to reform if he have a good endowment of will and 
can keep out of temptation. But in the disease of inebriety 
the sufferer has little or no more volitional control over his 
drinking symptoms than has a sufferer from neuralgia, or from 
sick-headache, or from hay-fever. All the influence he can 
exert over himself in the way of reform must be indirect,— 
*Read before the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates at Boston 
October, 1878. Are Inebriates Automatons? 
3 
through the avoidance of the exciting causes whatever they 
may be; and in order to do this, it is oftentimes necessary 
for him to have the aid of outside parties. When his envi- 
ronment is bad, when temptation is before him, he has, prac- 
tically, no will in this special relation, but is as truly an 
automaton as a patient in the horrors of tic-douloureux or 
small-pox, subject to the varying influence of weather, of 
wind, of diet, of medication, of mental influence in every 
form ; the inebriate is, indeed, not himself but somebody else. 
In perfect health man is a bundle of reflex actions, with a 
very small margin of volitional life; but in a disease of the 
nervous system, like inebriety, this small margin of what we 
call volition is swept away, and the man is an automaton so 
long as he is in the face of environment that excites the mor- 
bid desire and has no other mode of exhibiting his manhood 
than by changing his environment, which he is oftentimes 
powerless to do without external aid ; for the very effect of 
the environment is to take away the power of changing it, 
which is the very thing desired. Periodical inebriates, in the 
intervals of their attacks, often put themselves under charge 
of some friend, or enter an asylum, or leave the vicinity of 
temptation, and this infinitesimal fraction is all that is left of 
their volition. 
The best way to study such cases of disease, is to com- 
pare them with the lower forms of life; for example, with 
the venus (fly-trap), which has been so well studied by Mr. 
Darwin and others. This plant, according to Darwin and 
other experimenters, feeds on meat and other substances that 
may be given to it. It is so sensitive to external irritation, 
that when irritated by so small an object as a particle of hair 
weighing only of a grain, the tentacles sweep through 
an angle of about 18o° ; less than a millionth of a grain of 
phosphate of ammonia in solution, causes movement. It is 
shown that these plants do all that animals can do in the way 
of catching, digesting, and absorbing food. In the light of 
these studies, the ordinary distinctions between plants and 
animals break down. These plants have no demonstrable nerv- 
ous systems, and yet they respond to irritation as intelligently 4 
Are Inebriates Automatons f 
as even the higher orders of animals. Conscious responsibility 
none would claim for these plants ; but their actions are as 
orderly as many of the phenomena that are all the time 
taking place in the human system. If these plants were 
endowed with mind they could not perform these special 
functions any better than they now do. If, then, there is no 
conscious responsibility in the movements of these plants, 
there is no reason for attributing conscious responsibility to 
many of the constantly occurring phenomena of the human 
organism. Through the varied phases of nervous disease 
illustrations of human automatism are seen. Thus, no one 
would think of attributing responsibility to the phenomena 
of typhoid-fever, or small-pox; after these diseases are once 
contracted, these maladies take a definite form uninfluenced, 
to any great extent, by the mind of the sufferer. In other 
words, the phenomena of these maladies move on automati- 
cally as though the patient were a plant, or even a lower 
form of life. Whatever responsibility belongs to the patient 
applies to the period before the symptoms of the disease 
appeared ; while yet there was opportunity and ability to 
avoid exposure. 
Such is the philosophy of nearly all the functions of the 
human body in health and in disease ; the phenomena of life, 
physiological and pathological, those relating to the body and 
those relating to the mind, take place automatically ; all that 
we can do is to control, so far as possible, our environment. 
Certain diseases connected with the sexual organs illus- 
trate automatism in a most remarkable way, and assist us in 
obtaining a clear and correct idea of the true philosophy of in- 
ebriety. Dr. J. N. Hyde of Chicago, has lately published 
some cases of a most striking character in their bearings on 
this subject of automatism in disease, thus: 
A young man had the habit of masturbating in the morn- 
ing a little while before rising, and while asleep and uncon- 
scious of his acts; a severe pain in the head would attend 
the act and follow it. The habit being entirely beyond the 
patient’s direct control, was only broken up by the cooperation 
of his brother, who woke him up half an hour or so before Are Inebriates Automatons.f 
5 
the usual hour of rising, and thus saved the involuntary per- 
formance. Another case yet more remarkable cited by the 
same author, was that of a young man who one day after 
a hearty dinner, arose from the table, went into his room and 
locked himself in, where he was seen to be engaged in the 
act of masturbation. On being subsequently reproved for 
the habit, he expressed contrition and promised to reform ; 
but again he was detected in the act, going away by himself 
from a picnic that he was attending. He stated that the 
attacks were preceded by violent pain in the head, and that 
what he afterwards did was utterly beyond his control. The 
next time he had the premonitory symptoms, he was taken in 
charge by his parents and his hands were tied behind his 
back, on which he at once went off into convulsions; his 
hands being released, he began to masturbate furiously. 
After this, as after the other attacks, he fell into profound 
sleep. The history of the case shows that the act of mas- 
turbation took the place of an attack of epilepsy, being in a 
degree vicarious to it—a safety-valve for the disturbed brain. 
The accompanying symptoms—pain in the head, and sleep, 
peculiar expression in the face, etc.,—make this point quite 
clear. 
A patient under my care at one time became so debil- 
itated in this function, that he would perform, or attempt to 
perform, the sexual act while asleep. In all such cases the 
phenomena are automatic—independent of the volition of 
the individual, and so far forth irresponsible acts. What- 
ever responsibility there may be for such sufferers, belongs 
to the time when the habit was not yet formed. During the 
crisis, these persons are no more responsible than the venus 
fly-trap, and for the reason that they have at the time no 
more volitional power. 
My friend, Dr. Crothers of Hartford, has placed at my 
disposal the following cases illustrative of the automatism of 
inebriates. In these cases, atmospheric influence was evi- 
dently the sole exciting cause of the attack, the sea-air being 
the cause of an attack of inebriety, just as it might be the 
cause of an attack of rheumatism, or of lung-fever 6 
Are Inebriates Automatons ? 
Cases of this kind have, I believe, never before been 
published. These four instances of the dependence of the 
disease inebriety on atmospheric conditions, are of the high- 
est conceivable interest and importance, scientifically and 
practically; and may help to make those who read this at 
once more intelligent in regard to the philosophy of inebriety, 
and more charitable toward those who are its victims. 
Cases in which the sea-air seemed to be the exciting cause of 
Inebriety. 
CASE FIRST. 
George Chase, a college graduate, was a speculator and traveling 
man who drank moderately during college life ; married unhappily at 
twenty-four, and two years later was divorced from his wife. For sev- 
eral years he bought and sold Western farm securities, and drank 
half a dozen times a year to intoxication, then signed the pledge and 
was sober for two years. His rapid accumulation of a fortune by some 
army contracts led him into fast life, which lasted four years, when he 
became reduced both in health and means. Again he signed the pledge, 
and two years later he speculated in summer residences at Newport, 
and unexpectedly drank very hard, breaking up his business. The 
next three years were passed in traveling for an insurance company 
located West, as adjuster—drinking nothing but lager beer, and that at 
long intervals, never intoxicated, and never using anything stronger. 
He married, and went to Long Branch on a wedding tour. The 
second night he drank very hard, and continued to do so for a week, 
then he returned West, reformed, and was very ardent in the temper- 
ance cause. Nine months later he paid a visit to a relative on the sea- 
shore and drank as before, without cause or reason. 
Returning home he reformed again, and two months after was down 
by the sea on business, and complained of painful exhaustion, which 
terminated in cramps and colic. Alcohol was given with relief, but 
intoxication followed. His wife began to observe his relapses at this 
time, and noted that whenever he went down by the sea-shore he drank, 
but when he was back in the interior he always had command of him- 
self. The only explanation he gave was, that “he could not help it,” or, 
that it was owing to some insignificant cause which was not clear to 
others. No man regretted more keenly his position, or relapses, and 
did more to help himself. He never could realize that he drank, only 
when breathing sea-air. Eight instances of intoxication under these 
conditions were noted. 
Finally his wife died, and he became partially paralyzed from an 
injury and grief. He is now temperate, living in the interior, and is a 
Spiritualist. Are hiehriates Automatons ? 
7 
Harrison Granger, born in Ireland. A book-keeper; a man of 
much poetic talent and literary tastes ; a musician, and of excitable dis- 
position. At one time he was a spiritual medium, and gave private 
seances with strong faith in this doctrine. Then he became a radical 
disbeliever in every form of religion; was a leader in several clubs, 
although a temperance man, rarely drinking anything but wine at long 
intervals. He was neuralgic, and after any special excitement and 
exhaustion, would go to bed and rest for a day or more. The first 
drinking came on during an excursion to Coney Island, where he was 
profoundly intoxicated. After this he did not drink much for the next 
two years, but complained of rheumatism and exhaustion ; from the 
failure of the firm he lost his situation, and drank to intoxication for 
several days after. A year of much irregularity followed, with drinking 
and general dissipation, then he reformed and began to work as stenog- 
rapher on a large daily paper. Some months after, he drank very 
unexpectedly while representing his paper as a reporter, in a sail about 
the forts of New York with some distinguished visitors. His conduct 
was such, that he was discharged. Reforming again, another situation 
was soon obtained. Another year went by, with two relapses under 
similar circumstances, particularly in the suddenness of the attack, 
and the unusual adverse occasion. 
CASE SECOND. 
He went to England, and drank very hard coming and going, but 
was from his own statement sober when on land. On his return he 
went into business in Harrisburg, Pa. During the next five years he 
was not intoxicated, although drinking wine occasionally; he was suc- 
cessful in business, married and lived happily. The same periods of 
exhaustion and mental gloom, or low spirits, would come on every few 
weeks. He went as a member of an important committee to examine 
into the accounts of a failing firm at Charleston, S. C. The second day, 
he rushed away and drank-to intoxication, and was unfit for any further 
business. The next year he came to New York, and spent the night 
on Staten Island, drinking early in the morning to intoxication. After 
this he became an ardent temperance reformer, lectured and worked 
hard for two years more ; then drank again under similar circumstances, 
always near the sea-shore. Was under treatment at an asylum for four 
months ; after this went to New York city and relapsed ; returned to 
the asylum, remained six months ; went West and was sober for eighteen 
months, until he went to Boston, where he drank again. At present he 
is in the interior, comparatively healthy, and temperate. He can give 
no rational reason for drinking, believes it is a wicked spirit, or occult 
influence, is superstitious about the sea-shore, has delusions of suicide 
while looking at the waves, is much broken down in mind and body, 
and is suffering from acute rheumatism. 8 
Are Inebriates Automatons ? 
CASE THIRD. 
H •, a Methodist clergyman, aged thirty-four. Mother suffered 
from epilepsy many years before death, one sister hysterical, a brother 
afflicted with asthma ; during childhood he had St. Vitus dance, and 
was operated on for strabismus ; was a nervous, passionate man, subject 
to great changes of disposition and mental activity ; had dyspepsia and 
was treated for it successfully by the use of bitters. He was impulsively 
fond of certain dishes, and manifested much childishness to procure 
them. He was a radical temperance man, positive and fanatical in his 
expression of opinion. He attended a sea-shore camp-meeting, and 
was noted for extravagant enthusiasm, and abject prostration that 
lasted for a week after the meeting closed. The next year he was even 
more excited, and to the grief of his friends he was found intoxicated 
after the meeting closed, and a bottle of whiskey secreted in his satchel. 
The next year he was a spectator at a sea-shore meeting, and drank 
very hard again. This time he deplored it deeply, and went back to the 
interior only to labor more earnestly in the temperance cause. The 
same year he was again at the sea-shore and drank as before, only pro- 
curing the liquor more secretively. He was transferred to a Western 
conference, and for five years was an active temperance man. He 
suffered from dyspepsia and melancholia at times, and was more 
excitable in his manner and actions. His wife dying, he came East 
for a rest, and went to Long Branch. The second day after reaching 
this place he drank to intoxication, and kept it up for a week, when the 
landlord turned him away as a nuisance. His particular delusion was 
prayer for drinking men, going into the bar-room and urging men not 
to drink, and praying for them, while he was almost oblivious of his 
condition. He returned to the West, and for three years more was 
temperate and worked as usual. He came to New York and went with 
a friend to Coney Island, and drank hard. He described his drinking 
as an impulse that he could not resist, coming over him like a pressure 
which was unbearable, demanding stimulants as a preventive of death. 
A friend went with him to the sea-shore, as an experiment, and found 
that after a few hours he became restless, excited, would break out in 
perspiration, or have a nervous chill; drink large quantities of ice- 
water, seem to lose all pride or consciousness of his condition. On 
going a few miles back from the coast, this paroxysm left him, and he 
was grateful that he had escaped. This man is now in the interior 
and fully conscious of his danger, and has not ventured near the sea for 
three years, except once last year, in company with some watchful 
friends, spending half a day at Ocean Grove, with the same agitation 
and alarm, and sudden going away and passing off of these symptoms. Are Inebriates Automatons ? 
9 
CASE FOURTH. 
E •, an inventor and practical mechanic, of healthy parentage, 
who during early life developed a precocious talent for invention, which 
did not increase after maturity. He was a fine musician and spent 
much time collecting rare instruments. At twenty-five he suffered from 
partial sun-stroke, from which he recovered slowly; neuralgia and the 
usual entailments of nerve derangement followed. At twenty-eight he 
had invented a machine from which large incomes were received. He 
changed his living, to one of more luxury and indulgence. He was 
temperate in drinking, but frequently used food to excess. He was 
married and lived very happily. About this time he suffered from 
some form of fever, which was thought to originate in exhaustion from 
over-work. He went to San Francisco, to rest and for change. With 
some friends, a small hotel on the coast was selected as a residence. 
He seemed in perfect health and spirits, when all unexpectedly to his 
friends and wife he drank to intoxication. He gave as a reason, that 
the liquor was so agreeable. The next day he drank again, and so on 
for four days, when his family became alarmed and he was taken to 
Sacramento. Here he recovered. The tour was continued for six 
months, during which he manifested no disposition to drink, but became 
radical in his temperance views. The next year, business reverses 
depressed him and he went to Newport to rest with some strong 
temperance friends. A few hours after he arrived his manner was 
noticed to change; an unusual reserve came over him, he sought to get 
away by himself, complained of a severe head-ache ; a few hours later he 
drank to intoxication and kept it up for three days, until his friends took 
him away, when the old desire for alcohol ceased. During the next 
year he was treated by several specialists of nervous diseases for spinal 
anaemia, etc. His fortunes improved, and he went over to Europe, 
drinking all the way over very hard, and abstaining rigidly on the Conti- 
nent, but using alcohol excessively when he came to the sea-shore and 
on the return voyage. His health was much broken, and he retired 
from business, living a quiet, secluded life for a year or more, then he 
began to invent machinery for perpetual motion, and manifested a 
childish credulity and general failure of his mental powers. Two years 
after, he went to the ocean to test some machinery that would get its 
motive power from the waves, when he drank again and had an attack 
of delirium tremens. He was sent home, and slowly recovered 
again. Six months after, he went back and drank again to intoxication. 
His wife and friends now realized for the first time that he drank always 
at the sea-shore, and have avoided all exposure to that cause. He is 
now temperate and suffers from neuralgia and anaemia with weakened 
mind, and gives evidence of premature old age. 10 
Are Inebriates Automatons ? 
In the above cases the features worthy of note are these : 
i. The simple contact with the salt air provoked inebriety 
with the accompanying symptoms of headache and various 
depression. 
There is clear evidence from these records that the sea- 
air, on the shore or at sea, without any ol the attendant fac- 
tors, as drinking, or conviviality, or the sight of drinking, 
excited the uncontrollable desire for alcohol. 
2. Relief in these cases could only be obtained by leaving 
the sea-side and going into the interior. Awaj' from the sea, 
all other conditions being the same, not only the inebriety, 
but all the preliminary and accompanying symptoms, as head- 
ache, depression, debility, and nervousness, passed off without 
any effort or treatment. 
The analogy to hay-fever, neuralgia, sick-headache, and 
chorea, is obvious. The best and most striking analogy is 
found in hay-fever. Those who are familiar with that dis- 
ease are aware that it may be brought on or relieved almost 
instantly by any change of atmosphere; a sea-breeze will at 
once relieve it; a land-breeze will as quickly excite it; going 
up a mountain or into the woods it gradually disappears ; 
returning to civilization it gradually reappears ; the attacks, 
like those of inebriety, are sometimes preceded or accompa- 
nied by headache, nervousness, and depression of an indefin- 
able character. 
3. Science thus confirms more and more the instinctive 
teachings of morality. Resist the beginnings of evil.* 
*The “ Jumpers,” or “Jumping Frenchmen."—During the past year I 
have been investigating a manifestation of the Involuntary Life of the most novel 
and interesting character. It is found among the French Canadians, and is 
there known under the expressions, “ Jumpers,” or “ Jumping Frenchmen.” It 
appears, according to my researches, that a certain proportion of that people— 
mingled French and Indian blood—have acquired the permanent habit, which 
they cannot control, of jumping, or striking out with their hands, when com- 
manded to do so, suddenly and authoritatively, by any one who chances to be 
near them. The habit appears to have been acquired, in the first instance, by 
tickling one another, in the winter camps where they cut lumber in the Maine 
woods. They are a somewhat degraded race of beings ; have few resources, 
very little intellect, and no mental discipline; cannot, usually, read or write, 
and, in their camps, while away the long winter evenings by playing upon each 
other’s ticklishness until some of them get into a state of abnormal suscepti- Are Inebriates Automatons'? 
11 
bility that compels them to obey, automatically and instantly, any sudden order, 
as, to strike, or to catch, or to jump, or even to vomit; they are at the mercy of 
their companions, and are frequently so much annoyed that they have to leave 
the camp where they are employed. The more they are played upon the worse 
they become; for the habit grows with exercise. This condition is not an epi- 
demic, but a fixed and permanent state; and, so far forth, is different from the 
phenomena so often witnessed in revivals. It is, in fact, as I have elsewhere 
stated, a liability to be entranced on slight excitation ; differing from the allied 
trance to which all of us are liable only in this, that it follows a very much 
milder irritation. When these “Jumpers” are excited to jump or strike, or to 
perform any of their peculiar automatic acts, they present the appearance of 
entranced individuals; their faces turn pale, their eyes are fixed and glassy, 
and sometimes their limbs tremble. One of these Jumpers is a waiter, and 
when told suddenly to “ drop it,” he at once drops whatever he may have in his 
hand, though it may be on the head of one of the guests, or on the floor. 
Another has so susceptible a stomach that he at once throws up his meals when 
any one but “gags” or makes the motions of vomiting in his presence ; thus he 
has grown thin, and at one time, was almost starved. One Jumper, when told 
to “strike,” struck against a red-hot stove and burned himself. Accidents of 
this kind are quite frequent in their camps. One man, standing on the shore of 
a pond with a five-dollar gold piece in his hand, was told to “ throw it; ” he 
threw the money—a large sum for him—into the water. Another was standing 
near a kettle of fish; he was told to “jump,” and he jumped into the kettle. 
When one of these Jumpers is addressed sharply and quickly in any language 
with which he is not familiar, he, at once and automatically, responds in that 
language. Thus, in numberless ways, they are abnormally susceptible to stim- 
uli which, in the same degree, would have little or no effect on others. 
In its relation to the present subject,—inebriety,—these extraordinary phe- 
nomena are of interest as illustrating the power and extent of the involuntary 
life, showing how varied and complex and subtle are the manifestations of this 
side of human physiology. These Jumpers, in the acts here referred to, are ab- 
solute automatons; utterly without volition or responsibility. Whatever respon- 
sibility there may be in these cases, belongs to the time when the habit began 
to be formed,—their first playing and trifling with themselves and others in the 
loneliness of their winter camp-life; they are no more to be blamed for their 
acts than are patients afflicted with St. Vitus’ dance, or hysteria, or epilepsy, or 
with any form of insanity. The treatment, if any is used, should consist in 
removing the victims from the temptations of camp-life ; they should be isolated, 
or, at least, kept away from those who are similarly afflicted, or who would take 
pleasure in playing upon, and thereby increasing, their weakness ; at the same 
time, everything that educates and develops their higher cerebral centers will 
be of service. Indeed, it has already been noticed that they grow worse by 
aggregation, and better by isolation. Their habit is a real and serious affliction 
to these people ; a source of anxiety and positive torment; they would rejoice 
to be delivered from it. 
On the other side of the world, among the Malays, in the Island of Java, 
according to the London Medical Record, phenomena precisely similar to those 
exhibited by the “Jumping Frenchman,” are seen. A woman carrying a child 
land seeing one even pretend to drop any article may at once drop that child. 
iMany other interesting illustrations are given. Are Inebriates Automatons f 
12 
Very recently, also, my attention has been directed to some allied phenomena 
connected with a religious revival now in progress in a certain town in Vermont. 
The victims of this excitement roll on the floor or ground in most absurd and 
undignified attitudes; whence they are called “Holy Rollers.” Unlike the 
Jumpers, however, these Rollers are not in a permanent liability to their dis- 
order ; when the excitement is over, they will spontaneously recover. Just at 
present, in the height of the public enthusiasm, they are, on this subject, pure 
automatons. In the same line are the cases of starving girls, hysteria, and hys- 
terical trance, like that of Mollie Fancher of Brooklyn, which is now exciting 
so much enthusiasm. I have studied a number of similar and allied cases, and 
I never share the popular prejudice against them. They are without volition, 
practically irresponsible, and to be blamed—if blamed at all—for the beginnings, 
not the endings of their disease. Like inebriates, they are to be treated by taking 
them from their home and friends and giving them a radically new environment.