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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    in whom it may be said to have existed in a chronic and intermitting form, or in whom at least there is so strong a predisposition to a delirium of this character, that very slight causes are sufficient to excite it. In persons sick with acute diseases, who suffer in the course of them from Delirium Tremens, it makes its attack, not commonly on the access of the original complaint, but after it has continued some days, and frequently when it has apparently begun to subside. Hence its commencement will be, in most cases, at a considerable period after the use of liquor has been suspended ; since in acute diseases the propensity for it is either lost, or so much diminished, as to lead the patient to relinquish it of his own accord, or to make him at least ready to do so when directed by a phy¬ sician. It is common in such a case for the occur¬ rence of the delirium to be attributed to the suspen¬ sion of the accustomed stimulus, and from this cir¬ cumstance perhaps the general belief has arisen. Although Delirium Tremens occurs in various states of the constitution, and in various diseases, and is to be looked upon as a possible event in almost all cases of indisposition among drunkards, yet there is a remarkable similarity in the phenomena pre¬ sented by the affection, and in the course of symp¬ toms through which it passes, whatever may have been the original state of constitution or disease from which it has proceeded. Its approach is often indi¬ cated by the existence of certain symptoms from the