A practical essay on the disease generally known under the denomination of delirium tremens, written principally with a view to elucidate its division into distinct stages, and hence to simplify its method of cure / By Andrew Blake.

  • Blake, Andrew.
Date:
1830
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical essay on the disease generally known under the denomination of delirium tremens, written principally with a view to elucidate its division into distinct stages, and hence to simplify its method of cure / By Andrew Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    does the disease in question. Dr. Armstrong’s ap- pellation of the complaint appears to me least liable to criticism, namely, “a peculiar disorder of drunkards ;” but even this is very vague. Per- haps it would be more appropriate to call it Erethismus Ebriositatis*, and to assign it a * Dr. Ryan, in the learned paper already alluded to, after having explained the necessity of calling the attention of the profession to the description and treatment of this disorder, Says, with reference to its appellation, ‘‘ This disease was called Brain Fever, by Drs. Pearson and Armstrong; Deli- rium Tremens, by Dr. Sutton; and Delirium Ebriositatis, by Mr. Blake, to each of which appellations there are many objections. The term Brain Fever is applied to very different diseases, to Typhus, Phrenitis, and Mania, and various other complaints. We are also aware that the disease under notice may exist unaccompanied with tremors, and it may arise from the abuse of various stimuli, as opium and belladonna, &c., as well as from the abuse of ardent and fermented liquors. A much more correct term for the disorder, in my opinion, is Delirium Nervosum.”-—To this term I have to repeat, with all due deference, the objections already stated with regard to the word delirium, that symptom being only peculiar to one of the three stages into which this disease is divided. Ague might as well, as I said before, be called rigor, because it is a prominent symptom in its cold stage. The term Ner- vosum appears to me equally objectionable, even on the same principles as those on which the doctor himself opposes Dr. Pearson’s appellation, as we are aware that every func- tional derangement of the intellectual faculties, such, for ex- ample, as Puerperal Mania, has as good a claim to the term Delirium Nervosum, as the disease generally known by that BZ