“It was during the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the problem of chronic alcohol dependence in modern society and its consequent medical effects emerged. The topic of drunkenness figures prominently in the thinking and writing of social reformers, politicians, theorists, medical practitioners, and psychiatrists. Eventually, by the mid-nineteenth century, ‘alcoholism’ was named as the disease of habitual drunkenness. Possibly the most important book to predict this was Trotter’s Essay, written in 1804. Through case studies based on wide experience, he detailed the manifestations of alcoholism, ventured therapeutic recommendations, and squarely termed drunkenness a disease – indeed, a mental disease.” (Routledge, Edt. Roy Porter, 1988)

Thomas Trotter (1760 – 1832), Scottish naval physician, was a leading medical reformer in the Royal Navy, also known as an ardent critic of the slave trade.

Trotter was a champion of vaccinations for naval medical staff and a key figure in the development of modern theories of alcohol addiction. His groundbreaking “Essay on Drunkenness” from 1804, in which he describes habitual alcohol consumption as a “disease of the mind”, is the first ever book-length consideration of the phenomenon of alcohol dependence and its treatment.