Litefttfy Notices. cxxix 



minutes, from yi to ^3 grain of morphine is injected hypodermatic- 

 ally. After the alcoholic disturbance has subsided, strychnine or nux 

 vomica is given, followed by hydro-therapeutic measures. If there 

 should be gastric complication an antacid such as sodium bicarbonate 

 is administered. The heroic doses of these narcotics, with the cardiac 

 depression apt lo follow their exhibition, call for deliberation in their 

 administration to aged and infirm inebriates, and I prefer as a hyp- 

 notic a simple febrifuge frequently repeated, such as liq. ammon. acet. 

 Sleep, thus quietly and safely induced, has proved much more cura- 

 tive than the sleep for which I formerly resorted to narcotics. 



M. J. Arnaud, of Marseilles, ^ describes various forms of alcoholic 

 paralysis. There are attenuated alcoholic paralyses, evidenced by 

 tremors on awaking from a drunken sleep. The inebriate has re- 

 course to alcohol to dissipate for the moment these tremblings, a re- 

 petition of which injurious habit tends to induce a graver form of par- 

 esis. The matutinal tremors are permanent though highly-curable 

 forms, with but slight local loss of power. Then there are paralyses 

 affecting the extensors of the upper and lower limbs,' still very amen- 

 able to treatment. Contrary to general experience, the author finds 

 the upper limbs not less disturbed than the lower, and, indeed, the 

 disease is frequently confined to the former. In addition to these 

 fleeting paralyses, there is a group of permanent chronic paralyses 

 which may be classified as progressive and non-progressive. Both 

 lorms creep on slowly, with prodromata of some weeks' or months' 

 persistence. The progressive is the most intense and fatal variety, 

 and is ofien complicated with agonizing pain, insomnia, maniacal par- 

 oxysms, and other highly-intensified symptoms. M. J. Arnaud cites 

 the case of a female domestic, aged 27, who suffered from the gravest 

 form of alcoholic paresis complicated with albuminuria, and yet made 

 a complete recovery. The explanation of this unexpected recovery, 

 advanced by the author, is that the lesions were peripheral, the axis- 

 cylinder remaining intact or nearly so, while there was wanting that 

 degeneration so frequently found in the more acute and aggravated 

 forms. Dr. Lardier, of Rambervillers,^ states that the children of al- 

 coholic inebriates present from their birth a particular degeneration. 

 Alcoholism does not cease with the individual, but continues in the 

 progeny in various degrees, and forms, from a slighi tendency to 

 drinking to complete physical degeneration. In the Vosges he has 



^ Gazette dcs hopttatix, March 2, 1893. 



'^ Bulletin medical des Vosges, '^a.^avia.ry, 1893. 



