DRUNKENNESS.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 432, 10 April 1875, Page 2

DRUNKENNESS.

Some extraordinary instances of the insatiate desire, or rather morbid impulse, to drink are mentioned in a paper on " The Insanity of Inebriety," by Dr George Burr, published on the " New York Pyscholosjical nnd Medico-Legal Journal " of December, 1874. Dr Bush records a case in which he says, in reference to an habitual drunkard in Philadelphia, who, when strongly urged by one of bia friends to leave off drinking, replied, " Were a keg of rum in one corn I]'1 ]' of a room, and were a cannon c »nstantly discharging ball a between me and it, 1 could not refrain irom passing before that cannon in order to get at tho rum." One of the caseß described by M'Neish in his " Anatomy of Drunkenness," as quoted by Dr Ray, also illustrates this feature. A fiiend of tho subject of it painted to him "the di& ti esses of his family, the loss of his business and character, and the ruin of his health," to which he replied, " My good fiiend, your remarks are just; they are indeed too true : but I can no longer resist temptation. It a bottle of brandy stood at one hand, and the pit of hell yawned at the other, and I were convinced that I should be pitched in as sure ,as I took one glass, I could not refrain." The late Professor R. D. Mussey, of Cincinatti, relates another case : " A few years ago a tippler was put into an rtlmshouse in this State. Within a few days he Iwd devised vinous expedients to procure rum, but failed. At length, however, he hit upon one which w.is successful. He went into the wood-yard of the establishment, placed one hand upon the block, and with un axe in the other struck it off at sinsle blow. With the stump raised and streaming, he ran into the house and cried, ' Get me some rum ! my hand is off.' In the confusion and bustle of the occasion a bowl of rum was brought, into which he plungpd the bleeding member of his body ; then raising tho bowl to his month, drank freely, and exultingly exclaimed, * Now, lam satisfied.' " Dr J. E. lurner relates a case of a gentleman who, while under a treatment for inebriety, during four weeks secretly drunk the alcohol from six jars containing morbid spooimens. On asking him why he had committed this loathsome act, he replied, ' Sir, it as impossible for me to control this diseased appetite as U is for me to control the pulsation of my heart."