Delirium tremens : its diagnosis, causes, and treatment.

  • Wolff, Julius.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Delirium tremens : its diagnosis, causes, and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Rum Fever, from its being produced by spiritus sacchari, or rum.‘ I. M. Staughton* has pre- ferred denominating it, a madness produced by excessive drinking, or habitual inebriety. Joseph Frank,® and Carl Speranza,^ of Parma, considered it an inflammation of the brain, productive of trembling (encephalitis tremefaciens). Blake designated it Delirium ebriositatis which term, however, he afterwards abandoned, as not free , from objection, and proposed to call it “ Erethis- mus ebriositatis.” 5 Thomas Sutton, physician to the Kent Dispensary, first termed it ^'Delirium Tremens and to him the merit is due of havinjr first separated it from phrenitis, and proposed a more correct treatment. As regards the different appellations, that of Pearson, or Fehris cerehralis, might be a suitable name, if it were more generally known: it should, however, be remembered, that, in most cases of Delirium Tremens, there is no fever. The name of Vinomania must be considered inapplicable, as this signifies rather a desire or passion for wine, which is not present in the disease. Staiighton’s appellation would be more appropriate, were it not * New Eng. Jour, of Med., Vol. ix., p. 60. ® The Philadelphia Journ. of Med. & Phys. Science, Vol. iii.| No. 2. ® Prax. Med. Univ. Prac., Vol.i., part ii., p. 239- * Anno Clinico Medico, 1823-24, p. 12. Essay on Del. Tremens, p. 3.