Classics of the Alcohol Literature
The Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol published several early writings on alcoholism with comments by prominent scholars of the field from 1941 to 1946. Collected in a single, currently hard-to-find volume entitled Classics of the Alcohol Literature, it is the primary source of many seminal articles related to Alcohol Studies.
According to the introduction to the reprints:
There are some “firsts” in the alcohol literature which are known to many students of alcoholism only by a few sentences handed down from one textbook to another. A few early descriptions of the complications of chronic alcoholism, first attempts at experimental solutions, first allusions to seemingly modern theories, may be read even today with definite profit. If nothing else, their perusal will show how little or how much we have progressed in certain fields of research in alcoholism.
In order to facilitate access to these writings, of which, in some instances, only one copy exists in this country, the quarterly journal of studies on alcohol, beginning with this issue, will reprint a selection of the most interesting “firsts.” Brief papers will be reprinted in extenso, while larger ones will be culled for their most pertinent parts. The various selections will be annotated by authorities in the relevant field. Should interest warrant, the reprints will later be gathered into a small volume.
Source: Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 2, No. 1, June, 1941
See original Table of Contents
IMMANUEL KANT on Drinking. (By E. M. Jellinek) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 1, No. 4, 1941
THOMAS SUTTON. Tract on Delirium Tremens. (Introductory Remarks on Dr. Thomas Sutton’s Description of Delirium Tremens. By Herman Wortis, M.D.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 2, No. 1, June 1941.
SEBASTIAN FRANCK. On the Horrible Vice of Drunkenness, etc. (A Document of the Reformation Period on Inebriety. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 2, No. 2, September 1941.
THOMAS TROTTER. Essay, Medical, Philosophical and Chemical on Drunkenness. (An Early Medical View of Alcohol Addiction and its Treatment. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 2, No. 3, December 1941.
PIERRE-AIMÉ LAIR. On the Combustion of the Human Body, Produced by the Long and Immoderate Use of Spirituous Liquors. (Scientific Views on the Spontaneous Combustion of Inebriates. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 2, No. 4, March 1942.
SENECA. Epistle LXXXIII: On Drunkenness. (Introduction by E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 3, No. 2, September 1942.
ERASMUS DARWIN. Of Drunkenness. (Erasmus Darwin on the Physiology of Alcohol. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 3, No. 3, December 1942.
ST. BASIL THE GREAT. On How it is Seemly to Abstain from Drunkenness. Translated from the Russian by Vera Efron. (Old Russian Church views on Inebriety. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 3, No. 4, March 1943.
MAGNUS HUSS. Alcoholismus Chronicus. (By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 4, No. 1, June 1943.
BENJAMIN RUSH. An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind with an Account of the Means of Preventing and of the Remedies for Curing Them. (The First American Medical Work on the Effects of Alcohol. By Mark Keller.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 4, No. 2, September 1943.
THOMAS NASH. The Observations of the Elizabethan Writer Thomas Nash on Drunkenness. (By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 4, No. 3, December 1943.
U. S. ARMY AND NAVY. Early Medical and Official Views on Rationsof Spirits in the Army and Navy of the United States. (By Mark Keller.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 4, No. 4, March 1944.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. The Evils of Drunkenness as Sketched by George Cruikshank. With Reproductions of his Etchings The Bottle and TheDrunkard’s Children; 16 plates. (By Mark Keller.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 5, No. 3, September 1943.
OBSOPOEUS. Art of Drinking. Translated from the Latin by Helen F. Simpson. (A Specimen of the Sixteenth-Century German Drink Literature. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 5, No. 4, March 1943.
JOHN SKELTON. Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng. (A Sixteenth-Century English Alewife and Her Customers. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1945.
DER FREUDENLEERE. Wiener Mervrat. (A German Poem of the Thirteenth Century. Comments and Prose Translation by E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 6, No. 4, March 1946.
MONTAIGNE. Of Drunkenness. (Montaigne’s Essay on Drunkenness. By E. M. Jellinek.) Reprint from QJSA Vol. 7, No. 2, September 1946.