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

  • Valentin Magnan
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

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.

    94/288 (page 74)
    ])Ofiranco oi delirium under tlio influence of absintlie, ■\ve find also in man, tliougli not with the same ab- ruptness as it iiflects animals, yet occurring suHi- ciently rapidly tor the alcohol combined witli tliealj- sintho in the liqueur not to have had time to excite motor disturbances ; this fact is well sliewn, clini- cally, by the cases observed by M. Motet, especially his first case, mentioned at page 28. But the most important characters, and those which establish a radical dijQference between the action of absintlie and of alcohol, are furnished by the disturbances which take place with respect to the motor func- tions. The muscular shocks which a weak dose of ab- sinthe excites in animals, and even the vertigo, might pass unnoticed in a man saturated with ab- sinthe and alcohol at the same time, the latter agent giving rise to a trembling which may mask the muscular shocks, and to attacks of giddiness which are somewhat analogous to those of vertigo ; but, nevertheless, these symjitoms will not escape observation on attentive examination. (Cases x., xi., xii.) If the intoxication becomes complete, there ap- pear unmistakeable symptoms, visible to everyone, I speak of the attack of epilepsy. The attack of epilepsy is not, as many physicians think, the highest expression of the disturbance of motor functions in alcoholics, it is not the most ex- treme degree of that general tremulousness which is seen in deliriuM tveniensj but it is a symptom of a dif- ferent order which is superadded to the other motor phenomena. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to note the circumstances under which the attacks arc produced. 'Sometimes they sur-