The Treatment of Delirium Tremens

It is our purpose in this paper to present certain data on the history, etiology and pathology of delirium tremens and to call attention to a method of treatment which in our hands has given good results. In any discussion of delirium tremens it would hardly be possible to disregard entirely the larger problem of chronic alcoholism, of which delirium tremens is only a special phase or, one might say, a dramatic incident. However, if we refer at times to the problem of chronic alcoholism, it will not be in the attempt to contribute to its understanding but only better to clarify the various aspects of delirium tremens. By way of introduction, it would seem helpful to explain just what we mean by the term chronic alcoholism; that is, at just what point in the scale does the user of alcohol cease to be a normal or heavy drinker and