126 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



wholly irresponsible while the paroxysm lasts. These 

 two forms of the disease are totally distinct, the 

 paroxysmal seldom running into the habitual, or the 

 reverse. Indeed, they seem to attack persons of 

 altogether different temperaments, the toper being in 

 most instances a slow, obtuse, lethargic person both 

 in mind and body, with but little power of will, while 

 the true dipsomaniac is generally of quick excitable 

 nature, active and impulsive, and not infrequently, 

 before his disease has gone too far, of superior intel- 

 lectual ability. In both cases, however, if life be pro- 

 longed the end is the same ; for while the dipsomaniac 

 is specially liable to sudden death from violence, 

 suicide, delirium tremens, &c., and the toper to disease 

 of such organs as the kidney, heart, liver, and brain, 

 yet if they be ru|t so cut off each will arrive at the 

 same terminus, vSSfcrcadual weakening of the mental 

 faculties terminating in complete dementia. In some 

 cases epilepsy, or some form of delusional insanity with 

 attacks of maniacal excitement, may precede the final 

 dementia, but dementia is the end.* 



The distinction between these two forms of the dis- 

 ease is also marked in the progeny. The offspring of 

 the habitual drunkard generally inherits such degenera- 

 tive conditions as idiocy, scrofula, deaf-mutism, the 

 tendency to phthisis, and sometimes epilepsy, while 

 that of the dipsomaniac is liable to the more active 



* According to the returns of the Commissioners in Lunacy, 

 drunkenness is responsible for over 13 per cent, of all the insanity 

 coming under their notice during the ten years 1879-1888 inclusive, 

 20 per cent, of the males and 7 per cent, of the females. 



