cxxviii Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



chiefly habitual drunkards) the women in England and Wales were, 

 in 1884, three times as many as the men. In other ranks of life 

 drunkenness (often secret among the cultured and and the wealthy) 

 has also markedly increased. In many other countries, though Eng- 

 land surpasses all other lands in this shocking pre-eminence, there has 

 also been a similar increase. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford,^ does not 

 think that indulgence among women has progressed in America, but 

 this is not in accord with my own experience. For one drunken 

 woman in the United States whom I knew thirty years ago, I know 

 at least twenty ; and of later years women in some parts of America 

 have broken fresh mebriating ground in the cultivation of inordmate 

 consumption of strongly-spirituous preparations of ginger. Apart, 

 however, from the mere number of drunken iwomen, there can be lit- 

 tle doubt that the proportion of intemperate females, who may fairly 

 be regarded as diseased individuals, has largely grown. This is a 

 more serious matter. The inhibitory power of such sufferers has been 

 practically lost, and compulsory seclusion with appropriate treatment 

 is essential to a cure in the majority of cases. T. D. Crothers, of 

 Hartford,'- holds that the women charged in American police-courts 

 with drunkenness and associated offenses are profoundly degenerate 

 in body as well as in mind. The same may truly be said of only 

 about one-sixth of the corresponding class of offenders in England, 

 Englishwomen being, in the main, much more robust than their Amer- 

 ican sisters. Lawson Tait'"' asserts that an intelligent and educated 

 woman never becomes a drunkard but from some deep-rooted and 

 often carefully-concealed cause. The indulgence may be from phys- 

 ical suffering or mental distress, but there is always a reason for it. 

 Scores of his cases of suffering from inflammatory affections of the 

 appendages have been cured of their drunkenness by the same pro- 

 ceedings as have cured their physical misery. 



M. Lancereaux, of Paris,-' holds that in alcoholic delirium the 

 real chance of recovery lies in sleep. He isolates the alcoholic delir- 

 iate in a quiet, dark, and, if necessary, padded room, no physical re- 

 straint being employed. To procure sleep the patient receives i to i}4 

 drachms of chloral hydrate, with }4 grain of hydrochlorate of mor- 

 phine, in an infusion of limes. If sleep does not come on in about ten 



'^ Brit. Med. Jour., December 11, 1892. 



'^ Ibid., December 31, 1892. 



^ Ibid, October 15, 1892. 



^ Bulletin general de therapeiitique, Feb, 15, 1893. 



