ALCOHOLIC PARALYSIS.--The immediate and transient effects of an excessive quantity of alcohol upon the human nervous system, whether they are manifested in the form of drunkenness, or of delirium tremens, or of an acute attack of insanity, are well-known. Scarcely less evident are the effects produced upon the nervous system by a less excessive, but a more prolonged, abuse of alcoholic drinks. These effects may be manifested either in a general failure of physical and mental power, or in a form of disease closely resembling progressive paralytic dementia, or in various forms of chronic insanity, or in epilepsy, or in neuralgia, or in paralysis. In the acute form of alcoholic poisoning, no change in the structure of the nervous system has been found, except that the meninges in common with the internal organs and the mucous membranes are the seat of a very decided injection and slight exudation. In the chronic form of alcoholism, a number of pathological changes have been discovered in the nervous system, which, however, vary greatly in different cases. Of late years the paralysis which results from the abuse of alcohol has been accurately described by numerous observers, and the attempt has been made to discover the lesion of the nervous system which is associated with this form of paralysis. Two cases which are reported by Dr. Henry Hun, of Albany, in the _American Journal of Medical Sciences_ for April, 1885, are typical examples of this disease, and contribute to a better understanding of it. Dr. Hun has collected the recorded cases of alcoholic paralysis, and from their study he holds that we are justified in regarding it as a special form of disease with the following symptoms: After a number of cerebral and gastric disturbances due to the alcoholic poisoning, the symptoms of the disease proper commence with neuralgic pains and paræsthesiæ in the legs, which gradually extend to the upper extremities, and which are accompanied at first by hyperæsthesia, later by anæsthesia, and in very severe cases by retardation of conduction of pain. Along with these symptoms appears a muscular weakness, which steadily increases to an extreme degree of paralysis, and is accompanied by rapid atrophy and by great sensitiveness of the muscles to pressure and passive motion. Both the sensory and motor disturbances are symmetrically distributed, and the paralysis attacks especially the extensor muscles. In addition to these motor and sensory symptoms, there is also a decided degree of ataxia. The tendon reflexes are abolished and vaso-motor symptoms, such as ɶdema, congestion, etc., are usually present. Symptoms of mental disturbance are always present in the form of loss of memory and in transient delirium.