Delirium tremens : its nature and treatment / by Charles S. Tripler.

  • Tripler, Chas. S. (Charles Stuart), 1806-1866.
Date:
[1857?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Delirium tremens : its nature and treatment / by Charles S. Tripler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    able solution of the uncertain effects of opium in my hands, in cases, where I supposed the patient to be prepared for, or to require it. Two distinct conditions, appear to me to obtain in this disease—the one combined with irritation of the cere- bral meninges—probably inflammatory or approaching thereto —a condition in which sleep is impossible; the other, without the meningeal complication—irritation from nervous exhaus- tion, similar to that resulting from fatigue, and the like—a condition with which sleep is incompatible. I distinguish these conditions as the Antimony, and the Opium Types. Either may be much aggravated, by a mistake in diagnosis, and consequently a valuable plan of treatment incur unmer- ited obloquy from a fault in its application. After I had recognized this difference in pathological con- dition and had seen that the disease might supervene upon a protracted debauch as well as upon a sudden withdrawal of stimulus, the question arose as to whether the difference in apparent cause would furnish a clue to the diagnosis, and of itself would occasion the difference of condition. I think not. I mean in the habitually intemperate. I am persuaded both pathological conditions are met with from both causes. How- ever, others think differently. Thus, Copland divides the disease into <;lst, Delirium with Tremor and Excited vascular action in the membranes of the Brain; 2d, Delirium with Tremor from exhausted Nervous Power. The first species he says forms the connecting link between that which is purely nervous and that depending upon inflammatory action of the membranes and peripheries of the encephalon. That it may run into, or form a slight grade, or modification of inflam- mation of these parts, in some cases, I will not dispute; but that it is always inflammatory, is opposed by the fact that it will often subside spontaneously, in a short time after its cause has ceased to act. The Delirium Ebriosum of Darwoin and some other writers, or the delirious affection which is immediately consequent upon intoxication, is an example of this; it sometimes subsiding in a few hours, or in a day or