On alcoholism, the various forms of alcoholic delirium and their treatment / by V.Magnan ; translated by W. S. Greenfield.

  • Valentin Magnan
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On alcoholism, the various forms of alcoholic delirium and their treatment / by V.Magnan ; translated by W. S. Greenfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    more open, but ho spends bad nights, disturbed by liallucinations. In tbo daytime ho still liears disagreeable words occasionally; he believes in tlio reality of everything ho has seen and heard. “You won’t make me believe that it was not true; the physi- cians have been bribed against me.” neadachc and heaviness of the head at times ; cramps in the limbs; persistent trembling of the hands. IVIay. Ho is calmer, but often just as ho is going to sleep he hears tumultuous voices in the distance threatening him ; he sees jets of flame flit before him like shooting stars. Sometimes he is no sooner asleep than he wakes up in a start, quite frightened, it seems to him that he is just about to be shot, it takes a consider- able time to remove his fears and his sleep continues disturbed all night. In the daytime he occasionally thinks that people are mocking him, and alluding by words of double meaning to everything that has happened to him. He remains gloomy and reticent, becomes irritable and is ready to fly into a passion on the least opposition. The frontal headache persists, accompanied by hissing and hum- ming noises in the ears and by numbness in the limbs. June—July. There is but little change ; the same pre-occupa- tion of mind; ideas of persecution and delirious interpretation of whatever occurs about him ; illusions and sometimes hallucina- tions in whose reality he thoroughly believes; “ I shall get rid of these notions,” says he, “ when I am dead.” His sleep is slightly disturbed by nightmare. He still occasionally sees flames and sparks, and hears threatening voices. At times he has headache, humming noises in the ears, and cramp in the calves of the legs. The hands still shew some degree of trembling. Hereditary influence made itself felt in the case of J in the most evident manner; he was a predis]Dosed patient in whom the toxic action of alcohol shewed itself in two ways: 1st. By producing the peculiar delirium of alco- hol. 2nd. By acting as an excitant on a prepared ground and by thus favouring the outburst of a delirium which might not have been produced in