ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an article entitled "‘Inebriety or Narcomania" which was published in the South African Medical Journal in July 1896. The article examines if inebriety is to be regarded as a mental disease rather than a crime, what treatment are we to substitute for the present punitive method. In America and most of the English Colonies legislation with regard to narcomania is far ahead of England. In the principal American States, in almost all the Canadian provinces, in Australia and in New Zealand, any confirmed inebriate or taker of narcotic drugs can either present himself voluntarily for admission into a home or can be compulsorily secluded in such a home by the order of a magistrate on proper evidence. The article calls for steps to be taken by South Africa by following the good example set by other countries.
