the feet, the hands, and the top of the skull almost al- by way of indictment: and this act remained in operaways escape combustion. 5. Although it requires tion till the 10th of October, 1828, at which time, by several fagots to burn a common corpse, incineration the act of the 9 Geo. IV. c. 61, 35, the law for the takes place in these spontaneous combustions without suppression of drunkenness was repealed, without proany effect on the most combustible matters in the viding any punishment for offenders in this respect. neighborhood. In an extraordinary instance of a double Previous to this period, the ecclesiastical courts could combustion operating upon two persons in one room, take cognizance of the offence, and punish it accordneither the apartment nor the furniture was burnt. 6. ingly. As the law stands at present, therefore drunkIt has not been at all proved that the presence of an enness, per se, is not punishable, but acts of violence inflamed body is necessary to develope spontaneous committed under its influence are held to be aggravated human combustions. 7. Water, so far from extinguish- rather than otherwise; nor can the person bring it foring the flame, seems to give it more activity; and when ward as an extenuation of any folly or misdemeanor the flame has disappeared, secret combustion goes on. which he may chance to commit. In proof of this, it 8. Spontaneous combustions are more frequent in may be stated, that a bond signed in a fit of intoxicawinter than in summer. 9. General combustions are tion, holds in law, and is perfectly binding, unless it not susceptible of cure, only partial. 10. Those who can be shown that the person who signed it was incbriundergo spontaneous combustions are the prey of a ated by the collusion or contrivance of those to whom very strong internal heat. 11. The combustion bursts the bond was given. A judge or magistrate found out all at once, and consumes the body in a few hours. drunk upon the bench, is liable to removal from his office; 12. The parts of the body not attacked are struck with and decisions pronounced by him in that state are held mortification. 13. In persons who have been attacked to be null and void. Such persons cannot, while actwith spontaneous combustion, a putrid degeneracy ing ex officio, claim the benefit of the repeal in the takes place which soon leads to gangrene.' ancient law-their offence being in itself an outrage on justice, and, therefore, a misdemeanor. Even in blasphemy, uttered in a state of ebriety, the defence goes for nothing, as is manifest from the following case, given in Maclaurin's Arguments and Decisions, p. 731.

In this singular malady medicine is of no avail. The combustion is kept up by causes apparently beyond the reach of remedy, and in almost every case, life is extinct before the phenomenon is perceived.

CHAPTER XIII.

DRUNKENNESS JUDICIALLY CONSIDERED.

'Nov. 22, 1694. Patrick Kinninmouth, of that Ilk, was brought to trial for blasphemy and adultery. The indictment alleged, he had affirmed Christ was a bastard. And that he had said, 'If any woman had God on one side, and Christ on the other, he would stow [cut] the lugs [ears] out of her head in spite of them both.' He pleaded chiefly that he was drunk or mad when he uttered these expressions, if he did utter them. The court found the libel relevant to infer the pains libelled, i. e. death; and found the defence, that the pannel was furious or distracted in his wits relevant : but repelled the alledgance of fury or distraction arising from drunkenness.'

It thus appears that the laws both of Scotland and England agree in considering drunkenne noalliation of crime, but rather the reverse; and it is well that it is so, seeing that ebriety could be easily counterfeited, and made a cloak for the commission of atrocious offences. By the laws, drunkenness is looked upon as criminal, and this being the case, they could not consistently low one crime to mitigate the penalties due to another.

There is only one case where drunkenness can ever be alleged in mitigation of punishment-that is, where it has induced a state of mind perfectly akin to insanity.' It is, in fact, one of the common causes of that disease. The partition line between intoxication and insanity, may hence become a subject of discussion.

Not only does the drunkard draw down upon himself many diseases, both of body and mind, but if, in his intoxication, he commit any crime or misdemeanor, he becomes, like other subjects, amenable to the pains of law. In this respect, indeed, he is worse off than sober persons, for drunkenness, far from palliating, is held to aggravate every offence: the law does not regard it as any extenuation of crime. A drunkard,' says Sir Edward Coke, who is voluntarius demon, bath no privilege thereby; but what hurt or ill soever he doeth, his drunkenness doth aggravate it.' In the case of the King versus Maclauchlin, March, 1737, the plea of drunkenness, set up in mitigation of punishment, was not allowed by the court. Sir George Mackenzie says he never found it sustained, and that in a case of murder it was repelled-Spott versus Douglass, 1667 Sir Matthew Hales, c. 4. is clear against the validity of the defence, and all agree that levis et modica ebrietas non excusat nec minuit delictum.' It is a maxim in legal practice, that those who presume to commit crimes when drunk, must submit to punishment when sober.' This state of the law is not peculiar to modern times. In ancient Greece it was decreed by Pittacus, that he who committed a crime when intoxicated, should receive a double punishment,' viz. one for the crime itself, and the other for the ebriety which prompted him to commit it. The Athe-lieved of this, yet its effects were such as occasionally nians not only punished offences done in drunkenness with increased severity, but, by an enactment of Solon, inebriation in a magistrate was made capital. The Roman law was in some measure, an exception, and admitted ebriety as a plea for any misdeeds committed under its influence: per vinum delapsis capitalis pana remittitur. Notwithstanding this tenderness to offences by drunkards, the Romans, at one period, were inconsistent enough to punish the vice itself with death, if found occurring in a woman. By two acts passed in the reign of James I., drunkenness was punishable with a fine, and, failing payment, with sitting publicly for six hours in the stocks; 4 Jac. I. c. 5, and 21 Jac. I c. 7. By the first of these acts, Justices of the Peace may proceed against drunkards at the Sessions,

William M.Donough was indicted and tried for the murder of his wife, before the supreme court of the State of Massachusetts, in November, 1817. It appeared in testimony, that several years previous he had received a severe injury of the head; that although re

to render him insane. At these periods he complained greatly of his head. The use of spiritous liquors immediately induced a return of the paroxysms, and in one of them, thus induced he murdered his wife. He was with great propriety found guilty. The voluntary use of a stimulus which, he was fully aware, would disorder his mind, fully placed him under the power of the law,'*

In the state of New-York, we have a statue which places the property of habitual drunkards under the care of the chancellor, in the same manner as that of lunatics. The overseer of the poor in each town may, when they discover a person to be an habitual drunkard, apply to the chancellor for the exercise of his power Beck on Medical Jurisprudence.

and jurisdiction. And in certain cases, when the per- | son considers himself aggrieved. it may be investigated by six freeholders, whether he is actually what he is described to be, and their declaration is, prima facie, evidence of the fact.'* [This act was passed March 16, 1821.]

In Rydgway . Darwin, Lord Eldon cites a case where a commission of lunacy was supported against a person, who, when sober, was a very sensible man, but being in a constant state of intoxication, he was incapable of managing his property.'t

CHAPTER XIV.

METHOD OF CURING THE HABIT OF DRUNKENNESS.

nature, and is not to be rapidly changed with impunity, more than other natures. Spurzheim* advances the same opinion. Drunkards,' says he, cannot leave off their bad habits suddenly, without injuring their health." Dr Darwin speaks in like terms of the injurious effects of too sudden a change; and for these, and other rea sons about to be detailed, I am disposed, upon the whole, to coincide with them.

If we consider attentively the system of man, we will be satisfied that it accommodates itself to varions states of action. It will perform a healthy action, of which there is only one state, or a diseased action, of which there are a hundred. The former is uniform, and homogeneous. It may be raised or lowered, according to the state of the circulation, but its nature is ever the same when that changes-when it assumes new characters-it is no longer the action of health, but of disease. The latter may be multiplied to infinity, and varics with a thousand circumstances; such as the organ which is affected, and the substance which is taken. Now, drunkenness in the long run, is one of those diseased actions. The system no longer acts with its original purity: it is operated upon by a fictitious ex

To remove the habit of drunkenness from any one in whom it has been long established, is a task of peculiar difficulty. We have not only to contend against the cravings of the body, but against those of the mind; and in struggling with both, we are, in reality, carrying on a combat with nature herself. The system no long-citement, and, in the course of time, assumes a state er performs its functions in the usual manner; and to restore these functions to their previous tone of action, is more difficult than it would be to give them an action altogether the reverse of nature and of health.

The first step to be adopted, is the discontinuance of all liquors or substances which have the power of intoxicating. The only question is-should they be dropped at once, or by degrees? Dr Trotter, in his Essay on Drunkenness, has entered into a long train of argument, to prove that, in all cases, they ought to be given up instanter. He contends, that, being in themselves injurious, their sudden discontinuance cannot possibly be attended with harm. But his reasonings on this point, though ingenious, are not conclusive. A dark unwholesome dungeon is a bad thing, but it has been remarked, that those who have been long confined to such a place, have become sick if suddenly exposed to the light and pure air, on recovering their liberty: had this been done by degrees, no evil effects would have ensued. A removal from an unhealthy climate (to which years had habituated a man) to a healthy one, has sometimes been attended with similar consequences. Even old ulcers cannot always be quickly healed up with safety. Inebriation becomes, as it were, a second Beck on Medical Jurisprudence. Collinson on Lunacy.

The laws against intoxication are enforced with great rig our in Sweden. Whoever is seen drunk, is fined, for the first offence, three dollars; for the second, six, for the third and fourth, a still larger sum, and is also deprived of the right of voting at elections, and of being appointed a representative. He is, besides, publicly exposed in the parish church on the following Sunday. If the same individual is found committing the same offence a fifth time, he is shut up in a house of correction,

and condemned to six months' hard labour; and if he is again guilty, of a twelvemonths' punishment of a similar description. If the offence has been committed in public, such as at a fair, an auction, &c., the fine is doubled; and if the offender has made his appearance in a church, the punishment is still more severe. Whoever is convicted of having induced another to intoxicate himself, is fined three dollars, which sum is doubled if the person is a minor. An ecclesiastic who falls into this offence loses his benefice: if it is a layman who occupies any considerable post, his functions are suspended, and perhaps he is dismissed. Drunkenness is never admitted as an excuse for any crime; and

quite foreign to its original constitution-an action which, however unhealthy, becomes, ultimately, in some measure, natural. When we use opium for a long time, we cannot immediately get rid of it, because it has given rise to a false action in the system-which would suffer a sudden disorder if deprived of its accustomed stimulus. To illustrate this, it may be mentioned, that when Abbas the Great published an edict to prohibit the use of coquenar, (the juice of boiled poppies,) on account of its dismal effects on the constitution, a great mortality followed, which was only stopped at last by restoring the use of the prohibited beverage. Disease, under such circumstances, triumphs over health, and has established so strong a hold upon the body, that it is dislodged with difficulty by its lawful possessor.

When we wish to get rid of opium, or any other narcotic to which we are accustomed, we must do so by degrees, and let the healthy action gradually expel the diseased one. Place spirits or wine in the situation of opium, and the results will be the same. For these reasons, I am inclined to think, that, in many cases at least, it would be improper and dangerous to remove intoxicating liquors all at once from the drunkard. Such a proceeding seems at variance with the established actions of the human body, and as injudicious as unphilosophical.

I do not, however, mean to say, that there are no cases in which it would be necessary to drop liquors all at once. When much bodily vigour remains-when the morning cravings for the bottle are not irresistible, nor the appetite altogether broken, the person should give over his bad habits instantly. This is a state of incipient drunkenness. He has not yet acquired the constitution of a confirmed sot, and the sooner he ceases the better. The immediate abandonment of drinking may also, in general, take place when there is any organic disease, such as enlarged liver, drop sy, or schirrus stomach. Under these circumstances, the sacrifice is much less than at a previous period, as the frame has, in a great measure, lost its power of withstanding liquors, and the relish for them is also consi

whoever dies when drunk is buried ignominiously, and deprived derably lessened. But even then, the sudden depriva

of the prayers of the church. It is forbidden to give and more explicitly to sell, any spirituous liquors to students, workmen, servants, apprentices, and private soldiers. Whoever is observ. ed drunk in the streets, or making a noise in a tavern, is sure to be taken to prison and detained till sober, without, however, bcing on that account exempted from the fines. Half of these fines goes to the informers, (who are generally police officers,) the other half to the poor. If the delinquent has no money, he is kept in prison until some one pays for him, or until he has worked out his enlargement. Twice a-year these ordinances are read aloud from the pulpit by the clergy; and every tavernkeeper is bound under the penalty of a heavy fine, to have a copy of them hung up in the principal rooms of his house.'Schubert's Travels in Sweden.

tion of the accustomed stimulus has been known to produce dangerous exhaustion; and it has been found necessary to give it again, though in more moderate quantities. Those drunkards who have no particular disease, unless a tremor and loss of appetite be so de nominated, require to be deprived of the bottle by de grees. Their system would be apt to fall into a state of torpor if it were suddenly taken away, and vanous mental diseases, such as melancholy, madness, and de* View of the Elementary Principles of Education.

lirium tremens, might even be the result. With such persons, however, it must be acknowledged that there is very great difficulty in getting their potations diminished. Few have fortitude to submit to any reduction. There is, as the period of the accustomed indulgence arrives, an oppression and faintness at the præcordia, which human nature can scarcely endure, together with a gnawing desire, infinitely more insatiable than the longings of a pregnant woman,

cular fibre becoming, like the hands of a labouring man hardened and blunted in its sensibilities. Such are the effects brought on by a frequent use of inebriating agents, but an excessive use in every case gives rise to weakness. This the system can only escape by a proper interval being allowed to elapse between our indulgences. But if dose be heaped on dose, before it has time to rally from former exhaustion, it becomes more and more debilitated; the blood ceases to circulate To prove the intensity of the desire for the bottle, with its wonted force; the secretions get defective, and the difficulty, often insurmountable, of overcoming and the tone of the living fibre daily enfeebled. A deit, I extract the following interesting and highly char- bauch fevers the system, and no man can stand a peracteristic anecdote from a recent publication: A petual succession of fevers without injuring himself, and gentleman of very amiable dispositions, and justly popu- at last destroying life. lar, contracted habits of intemperance: his friends argued, implored, remonstrated; at last he put an end to all importunity in this manner :-To a friend who was addressing him in the following strain-Dear Sir George, your family are in the utmost distress on account of this unfortunate habit; they perceive that business is neglected; your moral influence is gone; your health is ruined; and, depend upon it, the coats of your stomach will soon give way, and then a change will come too late.' The poor victim, deeply convinced of the hopelessness of his case, replied thus:-My good friend, your remarks are just; they are, indeed, too true; but I can no longer resist temptation: if a bottle of brandy stood at one hand, and the pit of hell yawned at the other, and if I were convinced I would be pushed in as sure as I took one glass, I could not refrain. You are very kind. I ought to be grateful for so many kind good friends, but you may spare your selves the trouble of trying to reform me the thing is impossible.''

The observation of almost every man must have furnished him with cases not less striking than the above. I could relate many such which have occurred in my own practice, but shall at present content myself with one. I was lately consulted by a young gentleman of fortune from the north of England. He was aged twenty-six, and was one of the most lamentable instances of the resistless tyranny of this wretched habit that can possibly be immagined. Every morning, before breakfast, he drank a bottle of brandy another he consumed between breakfast and dinner; and a third shortly before going to bed. Independently of this, he indulged in wine and whatever liquor came within his reach. Even during the hours usually appropriated to sleep, the same system was pursued-brandy being placed at the bed side for his use in the night-time. To this destructive vice he had been addicted since his sixteenth year and it had gone on increasing from day to day, till it had acquired its then alarming and almost incredible magnitude. In vain did he try to resist the insidious poison. With the perfect consciousness that he was rapidly destroying himself, and with every desire to struggle against the insatiable cravings of his diseased appetite, he found it utterly impossible to of fer the slightest opposition to them. Intolerable sickness, faintings, and tremors, followed every attempt to abandon his potations; and had they been taken suddenly away from him, it cannot be doubted that delirium tremens and death would have been the result.

Drunkenness, in the long run changes its character. The sensations of the confirmed tippler, when intoxicated, are nothing, in point of pleasure, to those of the habitually temperate man, in the same condition. We drink at first for the serenity which is diffused over the mind, and not from any positive love we bear to the liquor. But, in the course of time, the influence of the latter, in producing gay images, is deadened. It is then chiefly a mere animal fondness for drink which actuates us. We like the taste of it, as a child likes sweetmeats; and the stomach, for a series of years, has been so accumstomed to an unnatural stimulus, that it cannot perform its functions properly without it. In such a case, it may readily be believed that liquor could not be suddenly removed with safety.

The habit will sometimes be checked by operating skilfully upon the mind. If the person has a feeling heart, much may be done by representing to him the state of misery into which he will plunge himself, his family, and his friends. Some men by a strong effort, have given up liquors at once, in consequence of such representations.

Some drunkards have attempted to cure themselves by the assumption of voluntary oaths. They go before a magistrate, and swear that, for a certain period, they shall not taste liquors of any kind; and it is but just to state, that these oaths are sometimes strictly enough kept They are, however, much oftener broken-the physical cravings for the bottle prevailing over whatever religious obligation may have been entered into. Such a proceeding is as absurd as it is immoral, and never answer the purpose of effecting any thing like a radical cure; for, although the person abides by his solemn engagement, it is only to resume his old habits more inveterately than ever, the moment it expires.

Home

Many men become drunkards from family broils. They find no comfort at home, and gladly seek for it out of doors. In such cases, it will be almost impossible to break the habit. The domestic sympathies and affections, which oppose a barrier to dissipation, and wean away the mind from the bottle, have here no room to act. When the mother of a family becomes addicted to liquor, the case is very afflicting. instead of being the seat of comfort and order, becomes a species of Pandemonium: the social circle is broken up, and all its happiness destroyed. In this case there is no remedy but the removal of the drunkard. A feeling of perversity has been known to effect a cure among the fair sex. A man of Philadelphia, who was There are many persons that cannot be called drunk- afflicted with a drunken wife, put a cask of rum in her ards, who, nevertheless, indulge pretty freely in the way, in the charitable hope that she would drink herbottle, though after reasonable intervals. Such persons self to death. She suspected the scheme, and, from, usually possess abundance of health, and resist intoxi- a mere principle of contradiction, abstained in all time cation powerfully. Here the stomach and system in coming, from any sort of indulgence in the bottle. I general lose their irritability, in the same way as in con- may mention another American anecdote of a person firmed topors, but this is more from torpor than from reclaimed from drunkenness, by means not less singular. weakness. The springs of life become less delicate; A man in Maryland, notoriously addicted to this vice, the pivots on which they move get, as were, clogged, hearing an uproar in his kitchen one evening, felt the and, though existence goes on with vigour, it is not curiosity to step without noise to the door, to know the bounding and elastic vigour of perfect health. This what was the matter, when he beheld his servants inproceeds, not from debility but from torpor; the mus-dulging in the most unbounded roar of laughter at a

can suddenly discontinue this ancient habit without a certain degree of risk; the idea is opposed to all that we know of the bodily and mental functions.

In attempting to cure the habit of drunkenness, opium may sometimes be used with advantage. By giving it in moderate quantities, the liquor which the person is in the habit of taking, may be diminished to a considerable extent, and he may thus be enabled to leave them off altogether. There is only one risk, and it is this that he may become as confirmed a votary of opium as he was before of strong liquors. Of two evils, however, we should always choose the least and it is certain that however perniciously opium may act upon the system, its moral effects and its power of injuring reputation are decidedly less formidable than those of the ordinary intoxicating agents.

The following anecdote has been communicated to me by the late Mr Alexander Balfour, (author of "Contemplation,' Weeds and Wildflowers,' and other ingenious works,) and exhibts a mode of curing dramdrinking equally novel and effective:

About the middle of last century, in a provincial town on the east coast of Scotland, where smuggling was common, it was the practice for two respectable merchants to gratify themselves with a social glass of good Hollands, for which purpose they regularly adjourned at a certain hour, to a neighboring gin-shop. It happened one morning that something prevented one of them from calling on his neighbor at the usual time. Many a wistful and longing look was cast for the friend so unaccountably absent, but he came not. His disappointed companion would not go to the dram-shop alone; but he afterwards acknowledged that the want of his accustomed cordial rendered him uneasy the whole day. However, this feeling induced him to reflect on the bad habit he was acquiring, and the consequences which were likely to follow. He therefore resolved to discontinue dram-drinking entirely, but found it difficult to put his resolution into practice, until, after some deliberation, he hit upon the following expedient:-Filling a bottle with excellent Hollands, he lodged it in his back-shop, and the first morning taking his dram, he replaced it with simple water. morning he took a second dram, replacing it with water; and in this manner he went on, replacing the fluid subtracted from the bottle with water, till at last the mixture became insipid and ultimately nauseous, which had such an effect upon his palate, that he was completely cured of his bad habit, and continued to live in exemplary soberness till his death, which happened in extreme old age.

Next

Pos

Dr Kain, an American physician, recommends tartar emetic for the cure of habitual drunkenness. sessing,' he observes, 'no positive taste itself, it communicates a disgusting quality to those fluids in which it is dissolved. I have often seen persons who, from taking a medicine in the form of antimonial wine, could never afterwards drink wine. Nothing, therefore, seems better calculated to form our indication of breaking up the association, in the patient's feelings, between his disease and the relief to be obtained from stimulating liquors. These liquors, with the addition of a very small quantity of emetic tartar, instead of relieving, increase the sensation of loathing of food, and quickly produce in the patient an indomitable repugnance to the vehicle of its administration. My method of prescribing it, has varied accordingly to the habits, age, and constitution of the patient. I give it only in alterative slightly nauseating doses. A convenient preparation of the medicine is eight grains dissolved in four ounces of boiling water-half an ounce of the solution to be put into half-pint, pint, or quart of the patient's favorite liquor, and to be taken daily in divided portions If severe vomiting and purging ensue, I should direct laudanum to allay the irritation, and diminish the dose. In every patient it should be varied

according to its effects. In one instance, in a patient who lived ten miles from me, severe vomiting was produced, more, I think, from excessive drinking, than the use of the remedy. He recovered from it, however, without any bad effects. In some cases, the change suddenly produced in the patient's habits, has brought on considerable lassitude and debility, which were of but short duration. In a majority of cases, no other effect has been perceptible than slight nausea, some diarrhoea, and a gradual, but very uniform, distaste to the menstruum.'*

ness.

Having tried tartar emetic in several instances, I can bear testimony to its good effects in habitual drunkenThe active ingredient in Chambers's celebrated nostrum for the cure of ebriety, was this medicine. Tartar emetic, however, must always be used with caution, and never except under the eye of a medical man, as the worst consequences might ensue from the indiscreet employment of so active an agent.

It seems probable that, in plethoric subjects the habit of drunkenness might be attacked with some success by the application of leeches, cold applications and blisters to the head, accompanied by purgatives and nauseating doses of tartar emetic. Dr Caldwell of Lexington, conceives drunkenness to be entirely a discase of the brain, especially of the animal compartments of this viscus, and more especially of that portion called by phenologists the organ of alimentiveness, on which the appetite for food and drink is supposed mainly to depend. Should his views be correct, the above treatment seems eligible, at least in drunkards of a full habit of body, and in such cases it is certainly worthy of a full trial. I refer the reader to Dr Caldwell's Essay, in which both the above doctrine and the practice founded upon it are very ably discussed. It is, indeed, one of the ablest papers which has hitherto appeared upon the subject of drunkenness.†

It very often happens, after a long course of dissipation, and that the stomach loses its tone, and rejects almost every thing that is swallowed. The remedy, in this case, is opium, which should be given in the solid form in preference to any other. Small quantities of negus are also beneficial; and the carbonate of ammonia, combined with some aromatic, is frequently attended with the best effects. When there is much prostration of strength, wine should always be given. In such a case, the entire removal of the long-accustomed stimulus would be attended with the worst effects. This must be done gradually.

Enervated drunkards will reap much benefit by removing to the country, if their usual residence is in town. The free air and exercise renovate their enfeebled frames; new scenes are presented to occupy their attention; and, the mind being withdrawn from former scenes, the chain of past associations is broken in two.

Warm and cold bathing will occasionally be useful, according to circumstances. Bitters are not to be recommended, especially if employed under the medium of spirits. When there is much debility, chalybeates will prove serviceable. A visit to places where there are mineral springs is of use, not only from the waters, but from the agrecable society to be met with at such quarters. The great art of breaking the habit consists in managing the drunkard with kindness and address. This managment must, of course, be modified by the events which present themselves, and which will vary in different cases.

Persons residing in tropical climates ought, more than others, to avoid intoxicating liquors. It is too much the practice in the West Indies to allay thirst by copious draughts of rum punch. In the East Indies, the natives, with great propriety, principally use rice

*American Journal of the Medical Sciences, No. IV.

† See Transylvinia Journal of Medicine and the Associate Sciences, for July, August, and September, 1832.