Year: 1870

ates or dipsomaniacs, there are, unfortu-
nately, a number in the world, both men
and women. The word dipsomaniac,
though in popular use, does not correct
ly express what is meant to be understood.
1t is derived from the Greek words signi-
flying ''to thirst" and madness" Klepto


mania signifies mania for theft, and dip
somania should signify mania for thirst


which is obviously the reverse of what is
intended In no sense do these persons
drink because they are thirsty; as the ma
tive remarked, 81 do not drink for drinkee !;
| drink for drunkee" A more appropriate
name for them would be that of Baccho-
maniacs since what they strenulously de
sire and restlessly seek is the sense of in
toxication in its various stages, and to Sc
cure this they will swallow almost any,
thing-laudanum spirits Of wine, tincture
Of hemp, ETC., provided it is capable of
producing that condition; they crave for
the excitement, the pleasure, which they
feel in it, and, above all, for the train of
happy thought which it sets up.


These unfortunates may be roughly di-
vided into two classes. First, we have the
habitual tipplers. These begin early in the
morning. A man commences with brandy
and soda-water or pale ale; a woman with
wine, chloric ether, lavender drops, &c,
and they continue at this kind of game all
day In the morning they experience tre-
NOR, depression, and wretched sensation
of sinking and exhaustion; they revive to-
ward night, are never quite sober, and, be-
fore they GO to bed, they are commonly
only one remove from being helplessly
drunk Toward the latter part of their
lives they become a prey to various painful
diseases, chiefly affecting the liver, kid
neys and stomach. Sometimes hypochon-
driasis of a very confirmed character de-
clares itself; at other times they are at


tackled by delirSuDa trenae1as or brain disease.
Suicide, or attempts at suicide, during the
excessive depression which ensues after the
first-named malady are not uncommon
The second kind are those individuals with
whom the desire for intoxication is less a
habit or propensity than a madness
and mania. They are not steady, con-
slant tipplers; they have intervals, long or
Short OF sobriety, and during these periods
they are siten the most amiable, friendly
and agreeable of mortals-at least we have
known such. Presently their time comes


and either from some sorrow or worry or
anxiety or often without any apparent
cause at all, they become silent, solitary and
n cody for few days or hours, and then
they betake themselves to haunts which
welcomed them before, and indulge in
frightftll and incessant drunkenness for
periods varying from five days to three
weeks. These persons are, as rule, ex-
tremely abstinent in their sober intervals,
and very guarded as to drinking anything
of an intoxicating nature in general society.
Occasionally they are reformed, or reform
themselves. and we have known several
who under these conditions have lived to a
good old age and enjoyed fair health
But when it is otherwise, their
become shorter and shorter; they
suffer more in the reaction after
each debauch, and are less able to
struggle against their rcraving for stimulants.
The effect of this is often to make them
shun society, and when this is so the
downward career is very rapid. At last
they lose all discrimination, and will drink
anything anywhere, at any time, or at any
ones expense, if it only promises them
the pleasure of intoxication Ultimately
| they die in a ditch or work house or a
hospital, if they are poor--in a lunatic
ASYLUM if they are better off, or perhaps in
a prison. Sometimes a man will Jump out
of the window and break his neck in a
| state of deliriuno trenaefs, and some reason
ers may say, "And so best" AS a rule,
the greater crimes-murder, bloodshed, and
violence-are not committed by these per-


sons; they are too much absorbed in their
own sensations to pay attention to any


thing else; and, to use common express


sion, they are nobody's enemy but their


own.-PdH lhaH (London) Gazette.