Then, again, addiction, hypodermically, is likely to prevail largely in medical circles, inasmuch as the very nature of this method requires a more or less intimate knowledge of morphia and the hypodermic syringe, which the average layman does not possess. I proclaim it as my sincere belief that any physician afflicted with neurotic disease of marked severity, and who has in his possession a hypodermic syringe and Magendie's solution, is bound to become, sooner or later, if he tampers at all with the potent and fascinating alleviative, an opium habitu6. The first dose is taken, and mark the transformation. This overmastering palliative creates such a confident, serene, and devilmay-care assurance that one does not for once think of the final result. The sweetness of such harmony can never give way to monotony.
Volition is suspended.
You may not think of it when the pain for which it was taken subsides. But when distress supervenes, you go at once for the only balm that abounds in Gilead, and every additional dose is but another thread, however invisible, of which the web is made that binds us fast as fate. Another special factor is the peculiar power that opium possesses to give strength, bring sleep, and relieve portendings incident to the anxious hours, the weary days, and wakeful nights, such as the experience of every busy practitioner so often involves. Scarcely a physician presents himself for our care who does not assert that, time after time, he has made an attempt in this direction, only to find that the demands of his calling proved fatal to his success. Still another cause is the spirit of inquisitive research which occasionally permits a professional man to allow his zeal in the pursuit of knowledge to outrun his discretion.