Note 27 — Chapter IX · METHOD OF CURING THE FIT OF DRUNKENNESS.

In speaking of the treatment, it is necessary to guard against confounding other affections with drunkenness:—“There is a species of delirium that often attends the accession of typhus fever, from contagion, that I have known to be mistaken for ebriety. Among seamen and soldiers, whose habits of intoxication are common, it will sometimes require nice discernment to decide; for the vacant stare in the countenance, the look of idiotism, incoherent speech, faltering voice, and tottering walk, are so alike in both cases, that the naval and military surgeon ought at all times to be very cautious how he gives up a man to punishment, under these suspicious appearances. Nay, the circumstance of his having come from a tavern, with even the effluvium of liquor about him, are signs not always to be trusted; for these haunts of seamen and soldiers are often the sources of infection.”—Trotter.