Peter: 
 
For what it’s worth, I have not yet looked at the Jellinek-era scientific literature in a systematic way, but in regard to the issues Marconi raised for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I have done a lot of work with the subject of dipsomania as it was discussed in the Quarterly Journal of Inebriety.  I have found that although inebriety specialists of the era often discussed “dipsomania” or “periodic drink paroxysms” (Crothers used this phrase) in conjunction with inebriety in general, they tended to view dipsomania as a fairly distinct disease category, and they identified the sudden experience of depression as a symptom indicating the onset of its acute manifestations. 
 
As I see it, inebriety specialists writing in the QJOI characterized a consistent pattern of craving and excessive drinking at short intervals (and many experts included daily moderate drinking here) as both a cause and an effect of the nervous system damage that constituted the essence of inebriety.  Individuals could develop habitual drunkenness and/or the habit of moderate drinking as an effect of the Victorian-era neurasthenia epidemic, or of sudden circumstantial damage to the nervous system (a blow to the head or a severe fever), or of hereditary defect (which some linked back to the neurasthenia epidemic).  However, most specialists believed that habitual drunkenness and/or the habit of moderate drinking could also damage the nervous system and consequently develop into inebriety.  Dipsomania was different.  Experts tended to view dipsomania more exclusively as an effect of nervous-system damage or hereditary defect.  They often described how the dipsomaniac never seemed to experience a period of moderate alcohol use. With the exception of the periodic paroxysms, dipsomaniacs generally abstained from drink, and specialists noted that during their long intervals of abstinence between periodic drink attacks, many dipsomaniacs reacted with disgust to the mere thought of tasting alcohol in any form. 
 
I go into these questions further in my dissertation, which is a work in progress.  I’d be happy to discuss these issues in a less public forum with anyone who is interested. 
 
Tim Yates
Ph.D. Candidate in U.S. History
University of California, Davis