Remarks on the history and treatment of delirium tremens / [John Ware].

  • Ware, John, 1795-1864
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the history and treatment of delirium tremens / [John Ware]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    quick voice, as if making answer to some one who has addressed him from without, or from behind ; or he will start up hastily from his seat or from the bed, and run to another part of the room, or to look be¬ neath the bed, as if in pursuit of something. These impressions are, during the early part, of the day, eva¬ nescent ; but in the latter part the delirium returns, and becomes constant. It increases in violence till about the middle of the night, and then diminishes towards the morning. On the morning of the second day the delirium is still complete, and is not altered in its character ; but the patient is milder and more tractable than during the night. He is as fully possessed of the strange imaginations which have entered into his mind ; but he is more easily influenced by his friends, and is more amenable to authority. The second night is generally worse than the first, and there is less abate¬ ment of the disease in the ensuing or third morning, and in the early part of the day; still there is some alleviation of symptoms, like that of the day before. The third day is passed much in the same way as the second ; but if the disease is to have a favorable termination, the delirium of the third night is less violent than that of the preceding, and the paroxysm terminates in sleep, sometimes in the course of the evening or first part of the night, but most commonly not until the latter part of the night or in the morning. When the disease is about to terminate unfavorably, the delirium continues undi¬ minished until the fatal event takes place.