Approximative statistics of cases of insanity, from the abuse of intoxicating drink - The illusions and hallucinations to which inebriates are subject - Cases - Nature of the hallucinations - They may be attended with very serious results - Delirium tremens includes different diseases - Drunkenness - Its connection with drunken alienation - Recapitulation.

The effect of alcoholic liquors upon man is too well known to be dwelt upon. We will simply enter into some details concerning the mental derangement which is frequently the result of their use.

In the asylums for lunatics belonging to the middle classes of society, one-tenth, says M. Royer Collard,* become insane from excess of alcoholic or vinous drinks. The proportion of men to women is as four to one.

Dr. Bayle attributes to this cause one-third of the mental maladies to which he has directed his attention.†

There is one important observation to be made, which is, that in some individuals the taste for drink does not exhibit itself until after the appearance of insanity, just as a critical age develops in very estimable women an inclination for drink.

In the houses devoted to insane paupers, this influence is still more remarkable. Out of 1679 lunatics, admitted into Bicetre from 1808 to 1813, adds Dr. Ramon, formerly physician of that hospital, there were 126 insane from excess of drink. Out of 264 women in the Salpetriere, the lunacy of 26 only, according to M. Esquirol, could be attributed to the abuse of wine.

* De l'usage et de l'abus des boissons fermentees et distillees (Prize Essay); Paris, 1838.

† Bayle, Traite des Maladies da Cerveau, et de ses Membranes, Paris, 1826. - Leveille, Folie des Ivrognes, 1830, 1 vol. in 8vo. - Sandras, Maladies Nerveusea.

The functional derangement produced in lunatics by excess of drinking, assumes diverse forms. We shall only treat here of the disturbance of the sensibilities which are manifested by illusions of the senses and hallucinations. The afflicted see objects double; everything reels around them; they see shadows and spectres; hear an uproar of voices, or unusual sounds; they are convinced that their food tastes of poison; they inhale fetid odors.

Roesch applies the term ebrieuse to the hallucinations of delirium tremens. He says that the sufferer believes his room, his bed, his clothes, to be full of flies, birds, mice, rats, or other animals, which he uses all means to drive away.*

M. Marcel, in his excellent pamphlet on this subject observes, that the great majority of these hallucinations have the effect of producing a painful moral impression. Many of these lunatics are convinced that they are pursued; they see people armed with knives and sticks; they hear threatening voices. Some of the persons present are transformed into devils, or assume other dreadful shapes. Hallucinations of sight and hearing combined are the most common.†

M. Viardot, author of a translation of Nouvelles Musses, by M. Gogol, says that the Zapororogue Cossacks, who use alcoholic liquors immoderately, are very subject to delirium tremens. They are then assailed by diabolical visions. He cites the case of an individual, who, seeing enormous scorpions stretching their claws out to seize him, died in convulsions on the third day, convinced that he was in their power.‡

These painful hallucinations have been noticed by physicians of all nations. We read, in the American Journal of Insanity, of animals of different kinds, which the sufferer imagines enter his chamber and glide into the bed or crawl on the coverlet, making menacing gestures or frightful grimaces.§

We have noticed the existence of these false sensations in the first edition of this book.

* Ch. Roesch, De l'abus des boissons spiritueuses, etc. (Annal. d'Hyg., xx. p. 337, et seq.)

† Marcel, De la Folie causee par l'abus des boissons alcoholiques, these, Paris, 1847.

‡ Revue des Deux Mondes.

§ Annal. Med.-Psych., Juillet, 1850, p. 466.

Amongst the numerous facts of this kind that are every year exhibited in my establishment, and which belong almost exclusively to the class of wine-venders, I will relate the following: -