“The eruption did not itch. It lasted during the time of taking the drug, and subsided after it was discontinued. There was also, at times, a use of valerian, in quantities unknown.”
Dr. Roswell Park, of Chicago, Ill., writes me of a young man “who established the chloral habit after a series of business reverses. He was nervous and excitable. I have no idea as to what amount he took. He finally developed a suicidal tendency, jumped from a fourth-story window, sustained a compound comminuted fracture of the elbow, and other injuries, and finally died, about the tenth day, from acute mania and exhaustion.”
Dr. James Bunting[63] had a patient who took large doses of chloral daily, with the effect of perverting the morals and producing a tendency to suicide.
Dr. Thos. Bond[64] relates the case of a friend, a young medical man, who died of acute mania, produced by continued and excessive use of chloral.
The memory, especially for words, is greatly impaired. I have seen one case of this kind, and one such was reported to me by a medical gentleman in Boston, who forgot to sign his name to his very interesting letter.
The patient whom I saw not only had an impaired memory for words, but would use one word for another, as “slippers” for “hat,” or “pen” for “coat.” He had been using the drug for nearly six years, and, although profoundly affected by it, would, at times, be decidedly better than at others.
Dr. G. W. Davis, of Chico, California, writes me of the case of a lady who had been using the drug for some time. She first took it for facial neuralgia. She takes from forty to sixty grains daily. Her present health is fair. “She complains, however, of a fullness about the head, confusion of ideas, and loss of memory.”
Drs. Norton Folsom, of Boston, and J. W. Parsons,[65] of Portsmouth, N. H., relate cases where the habitual use of this drug produced childishness, fretfulness, muscular tremor, and, in Dr. Parsons’ case, seemed to aggravate an existing attack of melancholia.
Dr. James Perrigo,[65] of Montreal, relates the case of an old lady, sixty years of age, who took chloral, forty-five grains at bedtime, and fifteen grains during the day. She was partially insane, but whether from the chloral or not, I have been unable to learn.
Maudsley[65] uses it but rarely in insanity. “Sometimes in melancholia. Rarely in mania, and then only when subacute.” Similar testimony was obtained from Drs. Maudsley, Clouston and Lindsay, by the Committee of the London Clinical Society.