Mature. His next place of refuge was in Germany, where he composed his La Pitie ; and finally, he passed two years in London, chiefly employed in translating Paradise Lost. In 1801, finding that he might return safely to Paris, he did so, carrying with him his immense Poetical Encyclopaedia. He resumed his professorship and his chair at the Academy, but lived in retirement. His later poems were very numerous, but were not fitted to increase his reputation, which rests mainly on his translation of the Georgics and his Jardins. In his later years he became blind. He died on the 1st May 1813.
Delille left behind him little prose. His preface to the transla tion of the Georgics is an able essay, and contains many excellent hints on the art and difficulties of translation. He wrote the article " La Bruyere" in the Biographic Universelle. The following is the list of his poetical works : Les Georgiquesde Virgile, traduites en vers franqais, Paris, 1769, 1782, 1785, 1809 ; Les Jardins, en quatre chants, 1780, new edition, London, 1800, Paris, 1802 ; L Hommes dcs Champs, ou les Georgiques Francises, 1800 ; Poesies Fugitives, 1802; Dithyrambe sur I Immortalite do I Ame, suivi du passage du Saint Gothard, poeme traduit de 1 Anglais de Madame la Duchesse de Devonshire, 1802 ; La Pitti, poeme, en quatre chants, London and Paris, 1803 ; UEneide de Virgile, traduite en vers franqais, 1805; L Imagination, poeme en huit chants, 180b ; Les Trois llegnes de la Nature, 1809 ; La Conversation, 1812. A collection given under the title of Patsies Diverscs, 1801, was disavowed by Delille.
DELIRIUM, a temporary disorder of the mind gene
rally occurring in connection with some form of bodily
disease. It may vary in intensity from slight and occasional
wandering of the mind and incoherence of expression, to
fixed delusions and violent maniacal excitement, and again it
may be associated with more or less of coma or insensibility
(see MENTAL DISEASES). Delirium is apt to occur in most
diseases of an acute nature, such as fevers or inflammatory
affections, in injuries affecting the brain, in blood diseases,
in conditions of exhaustion, and as the result of the action
of certain specific poisons, such as opium, Indian hemp,
belladonna, chloroform, and alcohol. The form of delirium
which is due to the action of the last-named substance is
one of great importance from its comparative frequency,
and is well known by the name of Delirium Tremens.
Delirium Tremens is one of a train of symptoms of what
is termed in medical nomenclature acute alcoholism, or
recent excessive indulgence in alcohol. It must, however,
be observed that this disorder, although arising in this
manner, rarely comes on as the result of a single debauch
in a person unaccustomed to the abuse of stimulants, but
generally occurs in cases where the nervous system has
been already subjected for a length of time to the poison
ous action of alcohol, so that the complaint might be more
properly regarded as acute supervening on chronic alcohol
ism. It is equally to be borne in mind that many habitual
drunkards never suffer from delirium tremens.
It was long supposed, and is indeed still believed by
some, that delirium tremens only comes on. when the supply
of alcohol has been suddenly cut off; but this view is now
generally rejected, and there is abundant evidence to show
that the attack comes on while the patient is still continu
ing to drink. Even in those cases where several days
have elapsed between the cessation from drinking and the
seizure, it will be found that in the interval the premonitory
symptoms of delirium tremens have shown themselves, one
of which is aversion to drink as well as food the attack
being in most instances preceded by marked derangement
of the digestive functions. Occasionally the attack is pre
cipitated in persons predisposed to it by the occurrence of
some acute disease, such as pneumonia, by accidents, such
as burns, also by severe mental strain, and by the depri
vation of food, even where the supply of alcohol is less
than would have been likely to produce it otherwise.
Where, on the other hand, the quantity of alcohol taken
has been very large, the attack is sometimes ushered in
by fits of an epileptiform character. Males are much
more frequently the subjects of delirium tremens than
females.
One of the earliest indications of the approaching attack
of delirium tremens is sleeplessness, any rest the patient
may obtain being troubled by unpleasant or terrifying
dreams. During the day there is observed a certain rest
lessness and irritability of manner, with trembling of the
hands and a thick or tremulous articulation. The skin is
perspiring, the countenance oppressed-looking and flushed,
the pulse rapid and feeble, and there is evidence of con
siderable bodily prostration. These symptoms increase
each day and night for a few days, and then the character
istic delirium is superadded. The patient is in a state of
mental confusion, talks incessantly and incoherently, has
a distressed and agitated or perplexed appearance, and a
vague notion that he is pursued by some one seeking to
injure him. His delusions are usually of transient charac
ter, but he is constantly troubled with visual hallucinations
in the form of disagreeable animals or insects which he
imagines he sees all about him. He looks suspiciously
around him, turns over his pillows, and ransacks his bed
clothes for some fancied object he supposes to be concealed
there. There is constant restlessness, a common form of
delusion being that he is not in his own house, but
imprisoned in some apartment from which he is anxious to
escape to return home. In these circumstances he is over
wishing to get out of bed and out of doors, and, although in
general he may be persuaded to return to bed, he is soon
desiring to get up again. The trembling of the muscles from
which the name of the disease is derived is a prominent but
not invariable symptom. It is most marked in the muscles
of the hands and arms and in the tongue. The character
of the delirium is seldom wild or noisy, but is much more
commonly a combination of busy restlessness and indefinite
fear. When spoken to the patient can answer correctly
enough, but immediately thereafter relapses into his former
condition of incoherence. Occasionally maniacal symp
toms develop themselves, the patient becoming dangerously
violent, and the case thus assuming a much graver aspect
than one of simple delirium tremens.
In most cases the symptoms undergo abatement in from
three to six days, the cessation of the attack being marked
by the occurrence of sound sleep, from which the patient
awakes in his right mind, although in a state of great
physical prostration, and in great measure if not entirely
oblivious of his condition during his illness.
Although generally the termination of an attack of
delirium tremens is in recovery, it occasionally proves fatal
by the supervention of coma and convulsions, or acute
mania, or by exhaustion, more especially when any acute
bodily disease is associated with the attack. In certain
instances delirium tremens is but the beginning of serious
and permanent impairment of intellect, as is not unfre-
quently observed in confirmed drunkards who have suffered
from frequent attacks of this disease.
The treatment of delirium tremens has given rise to
much discussion among medical men, and the result has
been that more rational views now prevail on the subject
than formerly. This change is doubtless in great measure
to be ascribed to the clearer ideas respecting the real nature
and true cause of the malady which extensive and accurate
observation has afforded. The theory once so widely
accepted, that delirium tremens was the result of the too
sudden breaking off from indulgence in alcohol, led to its
treatment by regular and often large doses of stimulants, a
practice fraught with mischievous results, since however
much the delirium appeared to be thus calmed for the time,
the continuous supply of the poison which was the original
source of the disease inflicted serious damage upon the
