The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-08-22
THE INCREASE OF OPIUM DRUNK.
ENNESS in THE UNITED STATES.

dreamed. According to the writer, the
vicious use of opium is the aus of the
decrease of the moral dignity of the
people, and under the silent influence of
a little bits Of gum the nation will be
virtually a nation of inebriates in less
than ninety years.
The facts before us are startling
enough without this summary deduction.
The number of persons who habitually
take opium in this country are now es-
timated all the way from 100000 down.
Suppose there be 100000 orless, still, the
great question must be whether they are
increasing or diminishing. If increas-
ing at the compound ratio Of ten per
cent. per annum, it would double the
vice in less than eight years, so that in
one generation nearlya wholepopulation
of 10000 900 would be victims Of opium.
The facts are these:
The opium importation in the United
States is increasing at the rate of 33@3 per
cent. per annum, and of this the statist-
les tell us but an incOnsiderable portion
is applied to medical use. We are evil
IDENTIFY, according to this record, a drug
ged nation, Keeling down the years of
progress in the bloom of national youth,
and ready, in a short time, to tumble
into the gutter of shame and death.
Where would one suppose the princi-
pal opium eaters are to be found? The
victims of alcohol are generally taken
from the lowest haunts, and among the
lowest people. But opium is more royal
in its choice. Clergymen, ladies, men OF
genius, the most gifted college classes
at Harvard, Yale, Bowdoin, Amherst,
and other noted institutions of learning,
furnish the principal quota. Wherever,
from accelerated action of nervous en-
ergy, there follows a reaction of ex-
haustion, opium seems to be the favorite
remedy in this class.
Those whose business necessitates
knowledge of this unhappy truth, are
flush OF facts of the most startling i'm
port. The druggists tell us these people
OF culture and refinement are their best
customers-physicians tell us they are
their most constant patients.
Alcoholic intoxicatiOn disgusts. It
is beastly, violent, degrading. Ancient
Greece made a derisive spectacle Of
drunken slaves, that it's youth, measur,
ing the depths of degradation into which
i~ntOxication could plunge a man, might
represented sober. But, unfortunately
opium drunkenness, in men of mind
and genius, only lifts them for the time
being into higher regions Of thought
1t is q magnificent rhapsody in which
their mental vision seems purged will
euphrasy and sees unutterable glories
Coleridge De Quincy, our American
Ludlow, and many others equally gifted
and equally slaves to the deadly habit
were never 20 eloquent, so inspired by
genius, so full of a stately phantasy al
when under the mastery of the ~accurseC
drug.
To be sure, the illusory moment over
there came the reaction of quiverins
nerves, PROSTATE intellect and witherei
form. Death drew nearer by severa
PAGES at each indulgence. But still 70,
the sake of the beautiful dreams which
to these men of intellect and magma
ton, were a keen delight, not even il
their last days could they resolve t,
forego the S of the destroyer.
A celebrated physician, seated at
breakfast table in one of our large no
tells, once said TO us in a low voice:
"Do you know that out of a hundre,
people sitting at this table, at least fit,
are habitual opium inebriates9 Idon'
know any of them personally; but opium
writes certain characters on its victim
which are not easily mistaken by an,
one who knows the mark of the beast.
The smallest and most insignificant
places in the United tates-places whicl
the science and improvement of the Ag
pass by without stopping, cannot CLAIM
exemption from its vice. Opium eater
are everywhere, and though being Meth
er physician OF druggist, we cannot la
our hands on them yet, we do not doub
they are to be found here in Opelousas
in due proportion to it's population.
The growth of thisevil habit has mad
the medical speciality of the Narcolo
gist-a physician whose sole business
the treatment of patients suffering fro1
the baleful and ruinous narcotism c
opium. An opium Doctor in a certai
small Western place, after a very fe,
years practice with an antidote of b
own invention, has now a correspond
, ence which requires three or four secre
} taries, busy all the time. Is not TIN
very significant of the growth of til
diseaseq
These Narcologists treat not only I'll
diseased body, poisoned by the druI
but the diseased will which has bee
physically altered. It is a fact Of Il
highest interest in physiology, that b,
yond any drug or physical agent wha
soever, the will is capable of healing Il
r physical disorder, eharacterizing a ca
] of chronic opium poison.
But how to strengthen and medicii
I this will, now feeble from repeatt
e shocks, is the physicians first questio
That is the secret Of the ~successf
r discoveries at the head of whom stan,
DIR. S. B. Collins, of La Porte, Ind, Il
g editor Of "Theriaki," a magazine d
voted to the interest of the slaves