gradual process, to undermine the fabric of his health and destroy the property of his family." Curiously enough the word alcohol is of Arabic origin and was employed originally to describe a powder used in applications to the eyebrows for cosmetic purposes. It was subsequently used for centuries as referring to a fine powder of any kind, as is shown by the writings of Paracelsus and others. The chemical composition of alcohol was not known until 1808, when it was described by Lavoisier. On the other hand, Salvatori in 1817 and Hufeland in 1818 referred to dipsomania as a disorder due to alcoholism. Esquirol, Trélat and other early writers included it in the "partial" insanities. Morel described it as an impulsive form of "délire émotif" and looked upon it as an hereditary condition. It has been classified with the periodical insanities and even as a form of melancholia. Magnan saw in it an episode of the insanity of degeneracy. Magnus Huss was responsible for the introduction of the term "chronic alcoholism" as descriptive of a pathological condition in 1852. It is said that Caelius Aurelianus protested against the use of intoxicants in the treatment of the insane. Notwithstanding this early reference to a question of such importance, and the inauguration of the great temperance crusade which began in 1808, it has been shown by Tuke[214] that alcoholic beverages were issued in a routine way to patients and employees of the British asylums for the insane less than forty years ago. "Thirty superintendents hold that they have observed very beneficial results from the course pursued. The improvement usually refers not only to the patients, but to the discipline of the asylum." The cost of beer supplied to the inmates at the Glamorgan Asylum at one time was reported to be as high as two hundred and sixty pounds per year (Tuke). Beer was not discontinued as a regular article of diet for patients at the Derby Asylum until 1884. In 1844 Flemming[215] in his classification of psychoses mentioned the following forms of alcoholic insanity:— Ferocitas et morositas ebriosorum, anoësia e potu, anoësia semisomnis, delirium tremens, and mania à potu. Clouston[216] described acute and chronic forms—mania à potu, dipsomania, alcoholic dementia and degeneration. Krafft-Ebing[217] speaks of hallucinations of the inebriate, delirium tremens, alcoholic melancholia, mania gravis potatorum, hallucinatory insanity, alcoholic paranoia, alcoholic paralysis and epilepsy. Delirium tremens he ascribes either to repeated excesses (à potu nimio), abstinence (à potu intermisso), insufficient nourishment, violent emotions, pneumonia and other acute diseases, loss of sleep, injuries such as fractures, etc. By hallucination of the inebriate (sensuum fallacia ebriosa) he refers to the transitory hallucinations of the constant drinker. Meyer[218] has described an alcoholic constitution "as shown by the lachrymose, prevaricating, jealous deterioration of the drinker."