ABSTRACT
Most writers quote heredity as the principal cause of drinking and drunkenness. Alcoholic inebriety, alcoholism, and drunkenness are convertible terms, meaning the same pathological condition. The drunkard requires alcohol for the same general reason. The cells have habituated themselves to the presence of alcohol as a stimulus and food supply, and they perform their general and special functions of reproduction and nutrition under this false stimulus or poison. The next feature of the pathology of drunkenness for explanation is the periodicity, or rhythm of the habit of drinking. The duration of drunkenness is, however, very long in most cases, and incurable without treatment; but in a large percentage of cases the disease is self-limited. If a drunkard happens to have a tumor of the brain, the drunkenness can be cured; but this has no effect upon the brain tumor. The chapter considers the question of drunkenness as a disease, and its curability solved.
