Inebriety and imbecility : a medico-legal study / by T.D. Crtothers.

  • Thomas Davison Crothers
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inebriety and imbecility : a medico-legal study / by T.D. Crtothers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as he could. She is now an inmate of the almshouse in this town, where she has been for nearly five years. This brief sketch of Cronin’s ancestry shows that his father and mother were both inebriates, an uncle and aunt were insane, and a half sister is a drinking, epileptic degen¬ erate. Of the direct stock of his father, John Cronin was the last, and of his mother the worst. In these facts a very clear history can be traced of what is well known as alcoholic insanity of the imbecile and epi¬ leptic class, the prominent symptoms of which are a marked degenerating heredity, usually from an alcoholic insane or idiotic ancestry : or practically from a dying family, where the race stock is exhausted, enfeebled, and approaching ex¬ tinction. Alcoholism in such a family is a symptom of pro¬ gressive degeneration. The drinking is always followed by insane, epileptic, and impulsive conduct. When not drink¬ ing apparent sanity and normal conduct may be the rule, but the strain of alcohol on a defective brain will bring on homi¬ cide, suicide, or epileptic explosions. The use of alcohol is always followed by delirious conditions, delusions, and strange, unusual acts. Failures of memory are common symptoms, and may be total or partial. After a time a progressive palsy of the higher brain functions appears. In most of these hereditary defects this moral palsy and loss of consciousness of right and wrong, of duty and obligation, is an inheritance which the use of alcohol develops. All such cases show this strange indifference and unconsciousness of their acts and the con¬ sequences. The man’s talk and conduct in a criminal act is only a link in the chain ; by itself it may display a cunning, deliberation, mature judgment, and recognition of all the con¬ sequences, and yet when the other links in the history are known, it will be found to be the act of a clearly insane man. The act of shooting Skinner with foolish boasts and gen¬ eral conduct, noted by great coolness and indifference, is a good illustration. What he did and said at this time and the impression he created on the minds of persons about him, is