Drunkenness, its nature and cure, or, Asylums for inebriates : an address delivered before the Ohio State Medical Society at its annual session, June 1859 / by M.B. Wright.

  • Wright, M. B. (Marmaduke Burr), 1803-1879.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Drunkenness, its nature and cure, or, Asylums for inebriates : an address delivered before the Ohio State Medical Society at its annual session, June 1859 / by M.B. Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    morbid state. It may be said further, that we know nothing of that fatal scourge, cholera, except by its symptoms, dissections of thousands upon thous- ands of bodies having revealed nothing satisfactory respecting its pathology. From the mind of the maniac, every ray of calm thought may have been excluded during a long and dreary life, and still the brain may have been carefully examined after death, without any thing unnatural having been visible. Strychnine, in very large doses, leaves no other trace of its action than death. At times, however, the stomach of the drunkard has been inflamed, softened, and thickened; his brain has been disorganized, its blood vessels have been attenuated, and its cavities filled with serum. The inquiry may be presented here, Is the drinking the cause or the effect of morbid changes ? We are inclined to think they are mutually cause and effect. Take a man whose nervous system is in a condition demanding narcotic stimulants, and who obeys this demand. The thirst and the indulgence follow each other in rapid succession. The stomach, which has seemingly maintained the integrity of its functions, becomes sensitive to pressure; it digests food imperfectly, and frequently ejects its contents. Still the gnawing desire for drink is in no way alleviated. Time rolls on, and epilepsy prostrates the man in the dust, with intellect enfeebled, and with his limbs less strong and elastic. The pitiable, yet unpitied victim, indulges in still greater excess. He meets a companion on the highway, to whom, in a spirit of kindness, he extends his bottle. They drink, wishing each other good luck and good health. They quarrel, and, in a scuffle, the owner of the bottle falls. He is taken to his home ; he lies on his bed, and in a few hours dies. His brain is examined, and found to be unnat- ural in structure; an artery has been ruptured, and a large clot of blood is compressing the brain. This is no fancy sketch. The disease in this man's brain increased in proportion to the amount he drank, and the demand for drink wa?* regulated by the increase of disease. The cause and the effect, alternated with each other, they strengthened each other in their pro- gress, and, without coercion, they would not be separated. In 1845 I delivered an address on Drunkenness and Insanity, in which I endeavored to draw the features of each, and to exhibit their close resemblance. They were placed on parallel lines, and no change of climate, or variableness of temperature—no modification of cir- 2