Alcohol and the human body : an introduction to the study of the subject / by Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. Sturge.

  • Horsley, Sir Victor Alexander Haden, 1857-1916.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Alcohol and the human body : an introduction to the study of the subject / by Sir Victor Horsley and Mary D. Sturge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    196/460 (page 150)
    temperament, is expansive, quarrelsome, melancholic, or maudlin, and which may sometimes, as in insanity owning no cause, go through these stages in succession in the same individual; lastly, a state of stupidity or stupor, which might be called, and is, essentially a temporary dementia. 1 Cases of alcoholic insanity pure and simple may be divided into three main groups :— 1. Acute alcoholic mania. 2. Delirium tremens. 3. Chronic alcoholic dementia (including alcoholic delusional insanity). Each of these three groups constitutes a definite clinical picture. In the first two, the alcohol acts as a powerful irritant to the brain cells of the motor centres, and the result shows itself in muscular excite- ment and violent uncontrolled movements, which often go on for days, and may even recpuire the use of a padded room. This wild delirium is characterised by hallucinations both of hearing and of sight. The patient hears voices, which seem so clear and audible, that they often incite him to definite action, destructive or otherwise. The illusions of sight are frequently so extreme that the figures of well-known friends are not recognised, but are often thought to represent fiends ; while a simple shadow under a bed may arouse an in- sane suspicion which it is impossible for the attendants to dispel. All such delusions of suspicion render the patient a source of serious danger to others. 1 Henry Maudesley, M.D., Pathology of Mind.