Loosening the Grip: A Handbook of Alcohol Information

by Jean Kinney

Early Treatment Efforts Around the 1830s, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, small groups were forming to reform “intemperate persons” by hospitalizing them, instead of sending them to jail or the workhouse. The new groups, started by the medical superintendent of Worcester, Massachusetts, Dr. Samuel Woodward, and Dr. Eli Todd, did not see inebriates in the same class with criminals, the indigent, or the insane. Between 1841 and 1874, 11 nonprofit hospitals and houses were set up. In 1876, The Journal of Inebriety started publication to advance these reformers’ views and findings. These efforts were taking place against the background of the temperance movement.