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.

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    1. Acute Alcoholic Mania. — In these cases of alcoholism the symptoms of drunkenness, instead of merely following the more usual form of quarrelsome- ness or savage conduct, develop into furious mania, and as a frequent consequence the patient requires admission into an asylum. It is unnecessary to enter into a detailed description of this condition ; it suffices to say that the whole brain is in a turmoil, and completely paralysed as regards all its normal powers of action and understanding. The patients are usually men in the prime of life, and the outbreak often follows a single recognised excess in the use of alcohol. Recovery is a slow process, in fact, a long time may elapse before a brain so violently disordered regains its equilibrium. Frequently on again resorting to alcohol these cases have a relapse, and require re-admission to an asylum, thus again becoming a misery to themselves and an expense to the State or their friends. Dr. Mott has shown that— A large proportion of the recoverable cases admitted to the London County Asylums consists of pure drink cases, and of these 50 per cent are discharged within three weeks to six months of admission. They often return again in a short time, and some cases, termed recurrent mania and recurrent melancholia, are discharged and re-admitted many times, thus fictitiously raising the recovery rate. Many of these people would not come to the asylum were they not subject to the temptation of drink, for which they have an inborn or acquired intolerance.1 1 Alcohol and Insanity, by F. W. Mott, M.D., F.R.S.