The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-03

A Jersey Youngster in a Perpetual State of
Intoxication-A Puzzler to Doctors.

Jersey Youngster in a Perpetual State Of
Intoxication-A Puzzler to Doctors.
New York World
The infant son of wel-known citizen OF
Westneid N j.. though but just large enough
TO Walk and talk, appears and acts like an in.
toxlcated person. A local physician in converse
ton with World reporter, gave O history of the
case. 1t seems that the parents were very ex-
empiary young people, and began their married
life without cloud to dim their future. No
one IN the town had better habits than the
young husband, but some months after his mar
riage ne lapsed little from the path of strict
temperance.
One winter evening the man went from his
home ostensibiy ''to watch with sick member
of the village lodge" He really visited Sam
Goschalk's tavern The trusting wife discovered
at o'clock that her husband had forgotten to
purchase meat for breakfast, and she went 10
the market A stormy wind was blowing and
the snow was falling, but as she passed the no.
tel the sound of mans voice In song came to
their ears. She listened but moment There
was no mistaking her husbands voice and,
scarcely knowing what she did, she looked in at
the bar-room window and saw her husband there
in state of beastly intoxication.
Some time after this little episode son was
born to the parents-a ine healthy infant, bright
and comely. Several months later, when tho
child began to walk and talk they took him to
the physician The little one could not walk
without staggering in the most unseemly and
ludicrous manner, and could not lisp baby words
IL j
doctor, averring that If he had seen such symp-
toms In an adult he should have pronounced
them due to lntoxication and nothing else. with
little difficulty obtained an account of the unfor-
tunate maternal impression that provoked the
peculiar maady with which the child is afflicted.
No line of medical treatment could be of use in
such case, and reluctantly the physician gave
up the infant boy to endure his strangely mserA
able life
"There is nothing like catalepsy about the
hQ plain ed io has n.
Ter child in town. AS near as l can explain it,
the child has muscles and nerves in that condi-
ton of action which it's father showed when the
mothers impression OF his intoxication was re-
ceived There are no fits or commissions though
q tremor is always present In spite of this fact
there is no mental weakness. There is no CO.
ordination In the movements of the lower limbs
and the hands are almost as bad off. His gait is
heavy and insecure, regular drunken reel or
stagger. AS to his speech, il is not only incO.
herent and ram bling, but he has all of the phe-
nomeDa of eXhilaration excitement charac-
terstic of the earlier stages of intoxicaton. His
ideas seem to flow rapidly and all of the senses
are wonderfully acute, but there.are the muscu-
lar tremblines and the actual shambling gait Of
the drunkard.n
as recovery to be hoped for9" the reporter
asked.
"No,n the doctor answered, 1T is a hopeless
case impossible to cure. That boy, if he lives,
will have the continued appearance of drunken
ness and it cannot be helped, He is drunk,
naturally drunk, and, though he may become
great scholar, he will never outgrow his
malady."
The parents of the unfortunate child are very
sensitive about his condition. and DO not permit
visits from strangers 1t has, however, been ar
ranged that the parents shalltake him before a
specialist in nervous diseases, that there may DO
localization of the malady, If possible. It is @
very rare case, and among its features is the odd
fact that alcohol in any form and in any quan1
tity, acts on the child like poison.