Remarks on the history and treatment of delirium tremens / by John Ware.

  • Ware, John, 1795-1864.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the history and treatment of delirium tremens / by John Ware. 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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    that the delirium often seems to be merely a waking continuation of that state of mind, which has existed during sleep for several preceding days. Before the paroxysm begins, the patient describes to you his dreams as being of precisely the same character that his waking imaginations afterwards are, when the disease has become established. In fact, it is occa- sionally difficult about the time of the access of the paroxysm, to determine whether he has slept or not, so blended are the states of mind in sleeping and waking, and so insensibly does he pass from the dis- turbed sleep which precedes the disease, to the dis- ease itself. The correcting power of the judgment is not al- ways entirely lost in sleep. We are sometimes able to reason concerning the probability of our fancies. This happens occasionally in Delirium Tremens. A person of very strong mind may sometimes detect the fallacy of his imaginations, and obtain a partial con- trol over them. This lasts but for a moment. I once succeeded in convincing a patient who thought himself away from home in a strange place, that he really was in his own house, by directing his atten- tion strongly to several pictures, which were hanging around his room, and to the peculiarities in its ar- rangement, furniture, &c. He was convinced for the moment, that he was at home, but not that he had been at home. He wondered how he had got back so quick. He soon relapsed into his original state. We often find that events happening about us which