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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    poisoning the contents of the skull are markedly hyperzemic, the pia very full of blood and the sinuses and plexus gorged.! 3. Pathological Growth—The brain as a whole is affected by cirrhosis. The meninges, especially the pia-mater and the arachnoid, are much thickened ;? but whether this is due to an atrophy of the brain or to other causes, as, for instance, the hindering of the lymph flow and the disturbance of the blood supply, or both, is a matter of controversy. The whole mass of the brain is shrunken,® the atrophy and wasting of the convolutions causing them to be narrow, flattened, and distinctly separated by sulci* The relation of cause and effect, however, between this atrophy of the brain and the excessive growth of connective tissue is uncertain. In some cases are found a thickening of the three different meninges, together with an increase in the size of the pacchionian bodies,® and excess of sub-arachnoid fluid. Further signs of chronic menin- gitis often accompany the above changes, such as the adhesion of the pia-mater to the underlying cortex. The dura-mater, too, may be abnormally Aas to the cranium, the arachnoid extraordinarily opaque,’ and the pia- -arachnoid thickened with ten- dencies to cedema. When the connective tissue intrudes, the shape of the cells is changed by the crowding which ensues, thus lessening the functional capacity of the neurons. This crowding by intrusion, and the compression by the thickening of the envelopes, interfere with the blood supply, causing mal-nutrition and functional incapacity. Another sign of disintegration by alcohol UA. W. Blyth, Podsons: Their Effects and Detection, p. 119. 2 W. B. Lewis, Zext-book of Mental Diseases, p. 590. * W. R. Gowers, Diseases of the Nervous System, p. 983. H. D. Rolleston, ‘‘Alcoholism,” 4A System of Medicine, Allbutt, vol. iii. p. 862. 4N. Kerr, ‘‘ Alcoholism and Drug Habits,” Twentieth Century Practice of Medicine, vol. iii. p. 41. 5 N. Kerr, 22d. p. 42. ° R. Quain, Dictionary of Medicine, p. 28. HH. D. Rolleston, ui vol. iii. p. $62. 7 W. R. Gowers, zdzd. p. 983.
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