Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-08-09
ALCOHOL VS.. OPIUM.
Enormous Increase I'm the I-iPorfa-
ton Of the Poisonous Drug-WOmen
the Principal Consumers-Interest.
ing Statistics.

Enormous Increase I'm the I-iPorfa-
ton Of the Poisonous Drug-Women
the Principal Consumers-Interes
ing Statistics
Chicago Tribune.
Until 1910 our importation of opium did
not exceed the proper medicinal demand
for the drug. We used in that year about
24,OO0 pounds of it. In 1870 we imported
154,S41 pounds; in 1872, over 100000.
The Chinese demand for opium prepared
for smoking accounts for about one-eighth
of this. Three-eighths are absorbed in
neutrality-suspicious. which are too
often recklessly written, as we shall show
hereafter. This leaves fifty per cent, or
about l25, 000p pounds of poison. unaccount-
ed for. The books of wholesale drug houses
in The East show heavy sales of opium TO
the country dealers The habit of opium
eating seems 10 prevail chiefly among
women. The fact may explain the great
percentage of farmers wives in lunatic asy-
lumS. The author of "The Opium Habit
estimates that there are $4,000 or 100000
habitual opium eaters inthe country. There
are somewhat precise returns, however.
only from the State of statistics-MaSSa-
chusettS. The apOthecarieS in the smaller
NOhLS VI Alf- OAilN4ullhtdllu ItDOIL
alarming state of things. We subiOin a
few notes furnished by different druggists TO
the Board of Health:
Those addicted 70 opium are all females.
Several nervous women take opium here.
think the use of opium has slightly increased,
mostly among females.
There are probably half dozen opium eat
ers here, all females but one.
One Opium-eater in tOwn-a woman.
The use of opium has greatly increased, espe-
cially among women.
The causes of this alarming habit of
selfpOisOning are several. The taste is
often implanted in early infancy by the use
of the drugged syriIps which foolish moth
ers give TO their restless babies. The Mas
sachusetts Board of Health endorses the
author Of "Opium and the Opium Ape
titen in his statement that ''the basis Of
what is known as WinsloT's Soothing
Syrup is mOrphia; a recent analysis OF
a sample of this medicine gave one
grain of the alkalOid to an ounce of
the syrup; the dose for an infant, as di-
rected, being four or five times that usually
regarded as safe Another cause is the |
raShness Of physicians in prescribing the
drug. Out of fifty apOthecaries, fourteen |
mention this rs a great reason for the |
growth Of the habit. The Opiate treatment |
Of neuralgia is very common and very mis- |
chievOus. This disease, by the way, first |
led DeQuincey to use the deadly drug. /
The third great cause is the denial of the /
natural craving for alcohol. Man, baked /
Of one stimulant, takes another. at is a
significant fact that both in England /
and in this country the total absti-
hence movement was almost immedi-
lteiy followed by an increased con-
sumption of opium The English i'm
DOrtatiOn doubled within five years Of the
outbreak Of the movement. When teeto-
alism gained ground in America, our i'm
DOrtatiOn-although the price of opium
had just increased fifty per cent-roSe in
he proportion of 3.5 to l. Slille, in his
9 Therapeutics and Maieria Medica,- saws:
The habit Of opium chewing has become
Tery prevalent in the British Islands,
specially since the use of alcoholic drinks
las been to so great an extent abandoned"
MorehOuse, in his "HistOry of Inebriating
Liquors" declares that the MahOmetans
began TO use opium when wine was for
hidden them. In Turkey, increased de-
nand for wine, Of late years, has been ac-
By diminished demand for
plum. In hot COUNTRIES, opium and SINH
ar substances are very generally used in
lace Of alcoholic Stimulants. These in
tances establish a probability that opium
md alcohol conflict with each other. The
lse OF one is apt to involve the disuse of
he other. \ number Of Massachusetts
pOthecarieS take this view. One Boston
lTuggiSt says: Have but one customer.
nd that noted temperance lecturer"
The prevalence of the habit among
women is probably explained by the I'M
lappineSs of most Of them. the mental stag
lation, the liability to nervous depression,
md, in the country, tie secluSicn and the
Tinding physical work. Moreover, women
re excluded by public opinion from the
'eer hall and the dram shop, and they are
cry subServient TO that opinion. Their
timulants must be secret. Opium, in its
ariOus forms Of laudanum, paregoric, and
ulphate Of mOrphia, can be taken readily
n private and without interruption of
uiy.
The relation between alcohol and opium |
of special importance. If our prohibit
DRY and semi-prohibitory laws are not only
ringing with them the usual evils of sunni
Iary legislation, but are drivingthousandS !
{ people TO the Jlsc Of poison that Is far !
-orse than alcohol, we need to know it.
ASH legislation may fatally affect morals.
he English taste for fiery liquors. taste
hat We have inherited-is attributed by [
lany thinkers TO the heavy tariff imposed
pom French light wines in 1903. This
radically shut the latter out ofthemarket.
nd drove the English to the use of the
eavy wines Of Portugal. The taste once
aimed grew upon them.