coyneJ RICHARD MAURICE BUCKE-A SKETCH 175 



in a paper read at London, on the 10th Septen'iber, 1879. The essay 

 was printed in the London Advertiser, and reprinted twice in England. 

 In the following }lear he enlarged and completed it for publication in 

 pamphlet form, under the title '" Alcohol in Health and Disease." He 

 did not halt half way in his conclusions. He placed alcohol and blood- 

 letting in the same category as obsolete in medical practice. " A time 

 will come,'' he believes, ''' and that perhaps before many generations 

 have passed away, when it will be as rare for a physician or surgeon 

 to prescribe alcohol, as it is now for either of them to prescribe blood- 

 letting, and when a healthy man will no more think of taking alcohol 

 with a view of preserving his health, . or to make him feel better, than 

 he thinks now of going to a surgeon to be bled with a view to the same 

 end." 



17. 



Among the reforms Dr. Bucke initiated at the London xAsylum 

 should be mentioned has adoption, experimentally, in 1888 of the 

 " Intermittent Downward Filtration " system of sewage disposal. Col. 

 "Warring, of New York, was the engineer selected to inaugurate the 

 new method. It proved efficient, economical, and in every way satis- 

 factory. Dr. Bucke published the results far and wide through reports, 

 addresses and printed papers, with a view to its general adoption by 

 cities, towns and villages. 



The sewage field, of about six acres, fertilized by the trenches into 

 which the sewage was scattered day by day by a centrifugal pump, 

 produced abundant crops, the average annual value of which was esti- 

 mated by him in 1897 at $250 an acre. 



ISTo wonder that hi? reputation not only as an alienist, but also as 

 an administrator, grew witb the years. The theorist and the practical 

 man of affairs, the scientist and the business manager, were in him com- 

 bined in a remarkable degree. 



He was fortunate in having the bearty co-operation of a staff of 

 able and loyal assistants. But tbe impression of his initiative, his 

 energy, his mastery of detail, his enthusiastic interest in the institution, 

 was felt in every part of its administration. 



18. 



AValt "Whitman, who visited Bucke in 1880, described his manage- 

 ment of the insane in the following terms: 



" His method is peaceful, uncoercive, quiet, though always firm — • 

 rather persuasive than anything else. Bucke is without brag or bluster. 

 It is beautiful to watch him at his work — to see how he can handle 



