Insanity and intemperance : a paper read before the Psychological Section of the British Medical Association at the Annual Meeting in London, August, 1873 / by D. Yellowlees.

  • Yellowlees, D. (David)
Date:
1874
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insanity and intemperance : a paper read before the Psychological Section of the British Medical Association at the Annual Meeting in London, August, 1873 / by D. Yellowlees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    except as blackguardism—so dif&cult, indeed, that one who has never seen this form of insanity may be pardoned for doubting its existence; but no such sceptics are ever found among those whose friends or relatives have been its victims. I believe the mere habit of ratemperance in the individual rarely produces this condition, but that it is usually a result and development of the baneful heritage entailed on their de- scendants by intemperate progenitors ; the vice of one genera- tion becoming the weakness of the next, liable to be evoked at any time by the parental vice, and then bringing a double curse. The inherited tendency to intemperance may itself prompt to the habits which develope the disease; or these habits may be easily acquired in social life, the patient thoughtlessly tempting his fate; or, again, the inherited weakness may be evoked by brain-disturbance from quite other causes, such as injury, sun- stroke, or moral shock. But, however excited, the existence of this predisposition to intemperance or nervous disorder seems the chief and essential fact in connexion with dipsomania. The limits of this paper allow only a word or two as to its treatment. The absolute withdrawal of alcohol, except in the very rare cases where physical prostration forbids it, and the seclusion of the patient from all temptation and opportunity to indulge his habits, is of course the first and imperative step; the next, restoration of tone, physical and moral; and, lastly, confirmation by time of the amendment thus secured. Unfor- tunately, while it is easy thus to prescribe the treatment, properly to carry it out is a most difficult and trying task.
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