ALCOHOLIC POISON.
Alcohol in Delirium Tremens.
Alcohol is the acknowledged cause of delirium
tremens, and yet it has been long considered an
essential remedy in the treatment of the ver
disease it had produced. While this practice
would seem to be most ludicrously absurd, it
has, nevertheless, been wholly consistent with
the theory that alcohol supplies nervous force:
for what condition can be found in which the
evidences of loss of nerve power and tone are
more distinct than in this disease. Practical
however, the use of alcohol in this disease hae
been a most convincing demonstration of the
fact that alcohol does not supply nerve force, for
a great proportion of the patients i
goat patients treated with
The Servi iCl
he most observing physicians have already
abandoned the use of alcohol in delirium tre-
mens as we hope they will soon do in many
other diseases. Here are a few testimonies :——
“I have come to the conclusion that the use
of spirits in the case of delirium tremens does
nothing but injure the patient, and probably
hastens his death. I now, without the slightest
hesitation, mn every case should immediately stop
the spirit, and I find that very few cases of de
rium” tremens that 1 have are fatal”
tal” —
JAMES EpMuNbs, Heh
| “If you follow the old treatment, you will
ose half your cases. If you follow the treatment
ATCOHOLIC MEDICATION. 95
I give you, you will save nearly all. In the hos-
pitals of Edinburg, the expectant treatment 1s
found to save nearly all patients. They used to
lose nearly all”—Pror. PALMER, of Michigan
University.
Dr. Palmer recommended the expectant treat-
ment. He also stated that, in Edinburg, instead
of narcotics the patient is given a class of water
with the assurance that it will make him sleep,
which it usually does.
Alcohol for Mothers.
It has become a notorious fact that the use of
stimulants by women is increasing very rapidly,
and the evil has already acquired alarming pro-
portions. It has doubtless very largely arisen
from the practice of physicians and nurses of rec-
ommending wine and beer to nursing mothers.
The habit thus acquired, is continued.
But the mothers are not the only victims. A
large share of the alcohol finds its way out of
the system in the milk, and in this way delicate
babes are kept in a state of semi-intoxication
from birth until they are weaned. A mother
finds her child nervous and fretful. She takes a
glass of ale an hour or two before nursing the
infant, and is pleased to tind that he becomes
quiet. She little Jreams that his quietude is
only the stupid nareotism of alcohol poisoning ;
yet such is the truth. Kvery one knows that a
dose of castor oil given to a ninsing mother will