DRNKING AND INSANITY.

Waikato Times, Volume II, Issue 82, 7 November 1872, Page 2

DRNKING AND INSANITY.

PUOKK3SOE Sheppard, M.D., of KmVa Col logo, onoot lae medical SuperuiuMvie.tts 01 Uouiey liucc Lunatic to Law puysicfltt. causes C insanity ui a recentintroductory leocUre ak ii..ug's. in ruierenco to tueae oauees; uwsay.,: —i *, 11 VV'iLnout, 'doubt tue uioHt of those ia ' IfciWenug tue' uoritfuiodity of dtatuuoi 10 wiiica 1 uavo oofore l alluded* it i 0 nut .easy, to measure witu pertecu two army me oxteut of. .t.ua ovil as a casual pueuomeuou. J&v<jry aauiuoual year oi etpenouoo con.lr.us me in my oaiiei tuat it ut fining our ma J houses wiux its suojeeu. i eaunut tell you Dy it now many uoules are Oronen up —uuwr many liearuaro broken down. It is a gigantic evil perturient oKgiguntic misery, committing >w terrible aavoc not omy upon tue nrst, 4 but upan tue tuird and fourtu generation of tiiem tuat mite me.' iTct it is to oe noticed taat even uero an element of great uncertainty is introduced. A reuo «vned x< reach psycnologiSt, M. Aloreau, says—'' Druiineuuesa u regarded as one of tue moat frequent causes uf insan.ty. .But it is equally certaui tnat druokenuess, or rater txe taste for drum, m as often, ana even mure frequently, a lirst symptom (tue eiiect, taereof, and not tue cause) of disease.' And tuis taste, ue auirins, uas been Hereditarily transmitted from tue parents to the oifspring, just as tne same features, and gait, and colour of iiaa - and complexion. 1 receive pauenis at tae Bicutre (tue same autnor wrote;, in wuom £ can trace back tae origin of tueir malady to uotaing else but tue uaOituai intoxication of tueir. parents.' lapse words actually express my own experience at Uolney ilatoh Asylum. Ksquirol long since gave utterance also to sometning tue same truth waen ae wrote — 4 if the abuse of ulco.iohe liquors is an eil'ect of mental depravity, ot' educational vices, and the force qtf bad example, men souietanes give way to it by reason of a morbid nnpulsewmcii tucy have not tlie power of resisting.'

" Anotnor French psychologist (Morel) also observed : —' It is not necessary Lo create a monomania of which the chief characteristic is au irresistible tendency to fermented liquors. That tendency is most frequently only tiie symptom oli a principal disease, especially when it ia suddenly developed' m persons wuo previously had givea 110 evidence of such a propensity. , "Dv Anstie, who has made alcholisnv a epocial study, is clearly of opinion taat of all depressing agencies it lias ' the most decided power to impress the nervous centres of a progenitor with a neurotic type, which will necessarily bo transmitted under varied forms and with increasing faLality to his descendants. , " A large-hearted essayist and divine of our own day (Canon Kmgsley) has also written: 'I am ono of those who cannot on scientific grounds consider drunkenness as a cause of evil, but as an eil'eot. Of course it is a cause —a cause of endless crime and misery j but J am convinced that to euro you muat inquire, not what it causes, but wnat causes it.' " You see, then, that this subject, in its etiological bearing, is invested with very much uncertainty. Toe immediate eil'ects of drink are sufficiently obvious, but its ulterior effects are intricate and farreaching; while the ancestral antecedents of the intemperate may create lor them many excuses and entitle them to much sympathy. This subject presents a wide and open Held for research and investigation, and I commend it specialty to your attention." Dr Sheppard gives the following case to illustrate the difficulty of initiating early treatment :•— " W. L.,aged twenty-nine, married, a coetermonger, was admitted into the asylum on December 2!L. Duration of existing attack stacd to be two weeks. Supposed cause—cold, and through a fit?. The facts observed by the medical man, and made folic subject of his certificate, are thus put: —'Cannot answerquestions rationally; believes dogs are under Im bed ; talks nonsense. . It i 3 added the case is quite recenf,, and not complicated with any form of paralysis. Observe tliat the patient had been in the workiiouto two weeks, and, being unmanageable, he was, at tho end of that period, sent to the asylum, tho duration of his disease being dated from the lir.st day of his work! 10use experience. Immediately after VV T . L.'s admission I diagnosed the case as one of general paralysis of not less than six months' duration, and expressed a belief t iat iie iial probably had one of the epileptiform seizures so frequent in this disoa.se ; that the insanity was not caused ' through a fit,' but, that a fit was one of its results, showing t e fatal s'age to which the malady had advanced. I had litile doubt, also, that the man was of internperaioh.ibits. My diagnosis was based upon the existence of the following symptoms: —The patient appeared dazed and confuted, with difficulty only apprehending tie nature of anything said to him; his ga;t w;.a srnewhat unsteady, from a want of co-ord nating mjtor power; he had a blank, expression ess face: his articulation was ' t'nek' and indistinct; there was unequal dilation of his pup.ls; there had been a fit.

" Now, remember, the case was admitted into the asylum on December 23. Five days later his wifo visited him. From her I extracted with difficully the following facts:—' W. L. is a good husband; never keeps me short of money, and is not a drunkard. He is a fruit hawker, and has always enjoyed good health until three weeks ago, when he had a fit. . On a pressure, however, she admitted that he was in the habit of coming home most nights muddled and confused ; that for the last six months he had not been himself; he had spoken of the sums of money he had made each day by the sale of his fruits—sometimes as much as £s—when she knew he could not possibly have made more than ss. His memory had become defective; he had seemed indifferent to what was going on at home, and had talked largely about his prospects. Gradually this state of things became more marked, until the occurrence of the convulsions. Now, obserre the inaccuracies which have been imDorted, and tabulated here. The cause of the di-eue , •--~<i as a fit; the fit was a symptom, a coinis register. tu,< » cause, which was clearly inplication, and not l-~ *. oontinuoue and eystetemperance, of that quiet bui . ~h ef. } matic kind which amounts to perpetua. . Again, the disease was manifestly of six menu ..autt not of two weeks' duration-"