The psychology of alcoholism / by George B. Cutten.

  • George Barton Cutten
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The psychology of alcoholism / by George B. Cutten. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    moderate drinkers, and the risk of death is much greater in surgical operations. ‘The direct relation of alcohol to disease can be seen in the words of Dr. Alexander Lambert, when he said, “Of the 24,300 patients in Bellevue Hospital (New York) in 1900, over one-quarter went through the alcoholic wards.” Indirectly we know the very close relation which alcohol bears to fatal cases of consumption, pneu- monia, and many other diseases. It has been found that out of every one hundred alcholics attacked by pneumonia seventy die, while out of every one hundred non-alcoholics so attacked only twenty-three die. In addition to these facts already mentioned, the great prevalence of crime and insanity as a result of alcohol-drinking has contributed to the awakening. On account of the awakening concerning alcohol, of which we have just been speaking, and the interest in the subject as a result of this, it was thought that a treatise on the relation between alcohol and the mental states would be beneficial, especially as nothing. of this kind has come to the notice of the writer, and no author has treated the subject except in an incidental way. In this work only the more permanent mental effects have been treated, and hence only the effects of a continued use of alcohol. In using the title Zhe Psychology of Alcoholism, we mean it to be an account of the mental changes brought about by the continuous and excessive use of alcohol, and an attempted explanation of the changes. Added ‘to this, in the latter part of the book will be found two chapters on the effect of the mind upon this condition as far as cure is concerned. In treat- ing the mental effects it is necessary to approach through the physical and examine the effect upon the brain. To this Chapter II. is devoted. The whole of this chapter may not be perfectly clear to the lay mind, but an attempt has been made to put it in form so that it might be comprehensible. It is difficult to find terms which will convey the idea without using technital ones. Chapters III, IV., V., VI., and VII.
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