On the use and abuse of alcoholic liquors, in health and disease / by William B. Carpenter.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the use and abuse of alcoholic liquors, in health and disease / by William B. Carpenter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    70/320
    form of tlie malady. The patient is incessantly under the most overwhelming desire for stimulants. He will disregard every impediment^ sacrifice com- fort and reputation^ withstand the claims of atfec- tioUj consign his family to misery and disgrace_, and deny himself the common necessaries of life to gratify his insane propensity. In the mornings morose and fretful^ disgusted with himself^ and dis- satisfied with all around him_, weak and tremulous, incapable of any exertion either of mind or body, his first feeling is a desire for stimulants, with every fresh dose of which he recovers a certain degree of vigour both of body and mind, till he feels compa- ratively comfortable. A few hours pass without the craving being so strong; but it soon retmms, and the patient drinks till intoxication is produced. Then succeed the restless sleep, the suffering, the comparative tranquillity, the excitement, and the state of insensibility; and, unless absolutely secluded from all means of gratifying the propensity, the patient continues the same course till he dies, or ])ecomes imbecile. This is that fearful state por- trayed by Charles Lamb, in which reason revisits the mind only dming the transient period of inci- pient intoxication. It niTist be remarked, that in all these forms of the disease tlic patient is perfectly incapable of self- control; that he is impelled by an irresistible im- pulse to gratify his propensity; that while the paroxysm is on him, he is regardless of his health.