Norman Kerr

Norman Kerr
FLS
Born(1834-05-17)17 May 1834
Glasgow, Scotland
Died30 May 1899(1899-05-30) (aged 65)
Hastings, England
EducationUniversity of Glasgow (M.D. and C.M., 1861)
Occupation(s)Physician, activist
Known forTemperance activism

Norman Shanks Kerr FLS (17 May 1834 – 30 May 1899) was a Scottish physician and social reformer who is remembered for his work in the British temperance movement. He originated the Total Abstinence Society and was founder and first president of the Society for the Study and Cure of Inebriety which was founded in 1884.[1][2][3]

In his writings he insisted on regarding inebriety as a disease and not a vice: "a disease of the nervous system allied to insanity", an "abnormal condition, in which morbid cravings and impulses to intoxication are apt to be developed in such force as to overpower the moral resistance and control."

I have not attempted to dogmatize on disputed points as to whether inebriety is a sin, a vice, a crime, or a disease. In my humble judgment, it is sometimes all four, but oftener a disease than anything else, and even when anything else, generally a disease as well. (Inaugural address, 1884).

His influential textbook on "Inebriety or Narcomania" was first published in 1888 and went through three editions. In the first edition he coined the term "narcomania" to refer to the disease of inebriety.[4][5] Note that while 'inebriate' originally described a person intoxicated with alcohol, it later came to include other intoxicating drugs, especially narcotics, such as opium, chlorodyne, ether, chloral, chloroform or cocaine.

He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1873 and was also a member of the Obstetrical and Medical Societies of London, the Harveian Society and British Medical Association, being elected to the General Council for the Metropolitan branch.

  1. ^ Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. Jack S. Blocker, David M. Fahey, Ian R. Tyrrell. ABC-CLIO. 2003. p. 350. ISBN 9781576078334.
  2. ^ Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement Vol 3, pages 60–61 edited by Sidney Lee (1901)
  3. ^ "Norman Kerr, M.D.Glas., F.L.S.". The British Medical Journal. Vol. 1, no. 2006. 10 June 1899. p. 1442. JSTOR 20260914.
  4. ^ Kerr, Norman (1888). Inebriety: its Etiology, Pathology, Treatment and Jurisprudence. London: H. K. Lewis.
  5. ^ Kerr, Norman (1891). "How to deal with inebriates". Bericht des III. Internationalen Congresses gegen den Missbrauch Geistiger Getränke, in Christiania vom 3. bis 5. September 1890, herausgegeben vom Organisationscomite [Report of the III. International Congress against the Abuse of Alcoholic Beverages, in Christiania from 3 to 5 September 1890, published by the organizing committee]. Christiania: Det Mallinske Boktrykkeri. p. 152.