Later, family death certificates would name meningitis, Economo's disease, presenile dementia, leukoencephalitis, alcoholic encephalopathy and ictus.

He was comatose, and his medical notes state that the "impression upon admission was acute alcoholic encephalopathy damage to the brain by alcohol, for which the patient was treated without response".

Although initially attributed to a brain tumor, in season 2, episode 2 the town doctor mentions alcoholic encephalopathy as the cause of the Reverend's ailments and also calls it "wet brain."

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome (also called wet brain, Korsakoff's psychosis, alcoholic encephalopathy, Wernicke's disease, and encephalopathy - alcoholic) is a manifestation of thiamine (vitamin B) deficiency, or beriberi.