Handbook of insanity for practitioners and students / by Theodore Kirchhoff.

  • Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of insanity for practitioners and students / by Theodore Kirchhoff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    106/420 (page 96)
    sometimes as a desire for spices or strong coffee or tea. Allied to this is the desire for alcoholic drinks. One who is depressed or suffering from mild melancholia takes stimulants in order to cheer up; the excited in- dividual endeavors to conceal his internal uncertainty by alcoholic excitement. There are also cases in which the morbid desire appears as true inebriety, especially when it occurs in paroxysms with comparatively free intervals. The impulse to drink arises from an acutely painful feeling, and an exhilarating action of the al- cohol is not attained as in healthy individuals. The inebriate is not fastidious in his selection of stimulants. In a few cases they drink only water in enormous amounts if alcohol cannot be obtained. The drunken fit lasts a few days, even weeks. The chronic symp- toms of alcoholism give rise to variability of the im- pulsive attacks, with a rise and fall of all the symptoms. The patient attempts to relieve disagreeable sensations by intoxication. For days and nights he lives in bar-rooms, unmindful of his reputation and family. As a rule, the condition is suddenly checked. The patient grows quiet, exhausted, has no further desire for drink, and gradually returns to his previous condition. Some experience a decided antipathy to alcohol during the interparoxysmal periods. A certain number of inebriates, however, are also habitual drinkers. A tendency, however slow, to mental weakness is unmistakable. Disorders of the sexual impulse will now be considered. Many of them are signs, not causes of mental disturbance. In healthy individuals the sexual passion varies greatly in intensity, so that it becomes difficult to decide at what stage morbid excess begins. It is to be considered morbid when the sight of the nude in art produces lascivious ideas. In many insane individuals, especially females, the primary psychosis often receives a special coloring from the addition of a morbidly increased sexual desire. This is shown by the expression of the face, the constant talk concerning marriage or pregnancy, or the desire for a