A discourse on intemperance : delivered at Cincinnati, March 1, 1828, before the Agricultural society of Hamilton county, and subsequently pronounced, by request, to a popular audience / By Daniel Drake.

  • Drake, Daniel, 1785-1852.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A discourse on intemperance : delivered at Cincinnati, March 1, 1828, before the Agricultural society of Hamilton county, and subsequently pronounced, by request, to a popular audience / By Daniel Drake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    No. III. DELIRIUM TREMENS. The delirium from intemperance is of two kinds,—that which is present in a fit of intoxication, and ceases in a few hours; and that which afflicts habitual drunkards, occurring without any immediate previous stimulation, continuing at least for a number of days, and approaching, in its charac- teristics, to insanity. On the symptoms and nature of the latter affection, I propose to say something,—not for the use of the profession, but as information to the people at large. This variety of mental alienation has received several names; of which mania a potu, and mania e temu'entia, referring to the cause which produces it, delirium tremens, from the tremors to which drunkards are liable, and the brain fever of drunkenness, are the principal. I shall em- ploy the epithet, delirium tremens. Until within the last forty or fifty years, this affection was confounded with mania, or madness, from other causes. Since that time, it has attracted the attention of physicians; several of whom have written upon it. In its symptoms, it bears a close resemblance both to mania, and to delirium In general it is characterized by great enervation of mind, connected with extraordinary apprehension of danger. In other forms of mental alienation there is appiehension also; but, I think, in all of them, it is more definite and constant in its object, than in delirium tremens. The hysteric is afraid of immediate death. The hypochondriac apprehends that he labors under a permanent malady, which must at last prove fatal, or believes himself in circumstances more unfavorable, than they appear to his friends. The mono-