In this article I hope to be able to demolish a number of false assumptions that are to be found in textbooks on Criminal Law. These are the assumption that intoxication (whether voluntary or involuntary) is a ‘defence’; the assumption that, when D raises in evidence that he was intoxicated, special rules come into play; and the assumption that there is a difference between the legal effect of voluntary and involuntary intoxication. Whereas these assumptions may have been justified in the nineteenth century or even a few years ago, it will be shown that recent cases have tended more and more to assimilate the rules on intoxication to the general law, so that by now the differences have virtually vanished. If this is so, it might even be possible to eliminate a chapter from future editions of Criminal Law textbooks, and to save students a very troublesome week of study.