Page:The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1876.djvu/92

 S4- Tkkiv — On Cerebral Aixvnita. ation of inebriates, that it is practicable to coinbino the needed intellectual, moral and medical treatment, with the necessary seclusion and restraint. If our system of jurisprudence was so altered that simple voluntary intoxication was recognized as a misdemeanor, sub- jecting the offender to arrest and proper punishment ; and habitual intoxication or confirmed drunkenness a dangerous disability, subjecting the party convicted of the same to legal detention ami discipline in a public asylum or institution estab- lished for that purpose, it would not only result in restoring a large proportion of the victims of inebriation to sobriety and usefulness, but it would do more to create in the public mind, among all classes of society, a correct idea of 'the nature and tendencies of intoxicating drinks, than could be accomplished in any other way. instead of continuing the erroneous belief among the young and laboring classes, that alcoholic drinks are restorative, and in moderate quantities beneficial ; and that a convivial spree now and then is only a harmless indulgence, it would practically and indissolubly connect the use of intox- icants with the idea of physical and mental impairment, social degradation and tinal disability — a result which would be in strict accordance with the truths of science and the interests of humanity.

IN anaemia of the brain that conies on slowly, just as in hyperemia, at first there are usually symptoms of irritation, subsequently those of paralysis. To explain this correspondence, the hypothesis has been advanced that a certain tension of the molecules of the brain is necessary for its normal activity, and that an increase or a decrease of this tension, by too great or too slight a fullness of the vessels, modifies the excitability of the brain in the same way. J have already said