Inebriates rarely ever appeal to physicians for help, unless intoxicated, or in the remorseful period, when recovering from the toxic effects. The moderate drinker never considers the need of medical help. The periodic drinker may seek advice on the eve of an outbreak, but never after, until the storm is over, and he is suffering from the effects of the excess.
The friends of patients frequently ask physicians about these conditions, and sometimes bring the patient with them, who is always skeptical of the need of help. As a rule, physicians look on inebriety as a moral condition of half vice, with mental indolence and feeble will.
The first impression is to alarm the patient and to try to impress on him a fear and horror of his condition, and in this way to rouse up an antagonism to the drink impulse, or the quack method may be tried, of