The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-09-11
VOLUME XII.

|
hand, DIR. Little, of Singapore, is @
opinion that the native population @
that island would be in danger of be
coming extinct from the use of opiates
were it not constantly recruited by i'm
migration. 1t is however, evident tha
the question can only be satisfactoril
answered by knowing the real extent t
which opium-eating prevails among til
different Eestern populations, AID O
| this no reliable statistics can be oh
tanned.
There is a similar want OF de finite in
formation in respect to the Unite,
Kingdom. Attention was PARTIAL,
drawn to the subject so long ago a
1874, by an inquiry that was made int,
the state of large towns in Lancashire
and since that tine there is every rea
son to believe that the evil has Target,
augmented. The increase in the guam
titles of the raw material imported
would alone be sufficient to render thi
probable; for, while in 1852 the i'm
| portation amounted to ia, 600 pounds
it had grown to $50, 900 pounds in 1872
| No doubt a large portion of this enor
| nous quantity is employed in the man
ufacture of morphia or other alkaloids
and IS either exported or employed fol-
| legitimate medicinal purpose but it il
difficult to account for an increase il
twenty years of 200 per cent, except OF
the supposition that the drug is more
largely used as narcotic than is gener
ally believed. The facility with which
this form of vice can be concealed rem.
ders direct evidence ON the subject
difficult to obtain but such evidence
as can be procured tends to prove that
tkn oh &c
have recently been informed by the
medical attendant to the workhouse in
one of our larger cities, that week
rarely passes without q case of opium
eating coming to his knowledge among
those who seek admission TO the work
house and that he has known women,
when suffering from the depression con-
sequent upon their enforced abstinence,
even go down on their knees to beg that
he would administer to them an opiate.
Again, there is reason to believe that
opium is favorite stimulant with many
underfed and overworked artisans and
laborers /; and from inquiries made by
parochial officials, clergymen, and 9th
ers, this would appear to be especially
the case in agricultural districts. In
the fenny districts of Lincolnshire, @
belief being prevalent that opium acts
as preservative against the effects of a
damp climate, many of the inhabitants
have in this way become addicted to its
use.
Another and even more reprehensible
form of the opium evil among the lower
classes is to be found in the practice OF
administering soothing mixtures to
young children for the p jrpose of keep
ing them quiet. In one instance, a
mother, because her child was unwell,
has been known to place a piece of
crude opium in its mouth to suck, tine
death of the child being naturally the
consequence ; and though cases of sach
gross and culpable ignorance as this are
no doubt rare, it is certain that the ad-
ministration of soothing sirups and COR
dials is too commonly resorted to. In
large manufacturing towns, where
mothers are often employed in factories
during the day, their infants are fire.
quently placed for the time in the care
of nurses; and these women seldom
feel any conjunction in administering
an opinte to a child who is troublesome.
It cannot be too widely known how
greatly such a practice tends not only
to the direct increase of infant mortal
ty, but also to the permanent injury of
the constitution, by inducing convul-
sions and other similar nervous diseases.
Opium in one of its forms enters
largely into the composition of many of
the pain-k killers and patent medicines
so freely advertised for domestic use in
the present day, and for this reason the
greatest care is needed in having re-
course to any them. Taken, perhaps,
in the first instance, to alleviate the tor
ments of neuralgia or toothache, what
proves to be a remedy soon becomes
source of qualification, which the
wretchedness that follows on abstinence
renders increasingly difficult to lay
aside. The same must be said of mar
cotics, sucl1as bromide of potassium and
hydrate of chloral, frequently resorted
to as a remedy for sleeplessness the
system quickly becomes habituated to
their use, and they can then be re-
linquished only at the cost of much
suffering. Indeed, the last mentioned
of these two drugs obtains over the
mind a power which may be compared
to that of opium, and is. moreover, liza
BILE to occasion the disease know as
chloralism, by which the system ulti-
mately becomes complete wreck.
Turning again to the narcotics of
savage or but semi civilized races, we
find a species of fungus employed by
the natives of Kamtchatka and the adj
joining provinces of Siberia. 1t grows
in parts of Kamtchatka, and
is there generally prepared for use in
several ways. The inhabitants either
and hang it in strings to dry in the open
air, or leave it to ripen and dry
in the ground, when it possesses
sized specimens, covered with warty
excrescences and deeply colored, are
also considered more valuable II an
the emooth pale ones. Sometimes it is
eaten in soups and sauces, or is taken
mixed with the juice of the whortleberry;
but the more usual method is to swal- |
low it whole, rolled into the form of a
pill, and single large-sized toadstool
thus taken is sufficient to cause the mar
cotic effects during whole day. These |
bear a very close resemblance to those |
Of ordinary intoxication, and, like them,
often end in complete insensibility.
Whatever may be the natural tempera-
ment of the individual shows itself with |
distinctness. A man who is |
fond Cf music or of talking will be con-
stantly singing or chattering; and Sc
crets often thus slip out, the disclosure
OF which is the source of much subse-
quent trouble. In this form of narcot. |
ism, too, the power of estimating the |
size OF objects is temporarily destroyed,
80 that man wishing to step across a |
straw or a small twig will raise his foot |
as though about to step across the trunk |
Of tree.
The Siberian fungus is not the only |
in which this last popularity is |
found. Similar erroneous impressions |
are caused by the Indian hemp, which,
though it is used in southwestern Asia,
and indeed in the Brazils as we'll, is
more properly the narcotic of the AZ
rican continent, where it is known to
the native races from the Mediterranean
to the Cape of Good Hope. 1t is.the
same plant that is grown in Europe for
the sake of its valuable fibre; for, though
probably indigenous to India, it is able,
like the potato and the tobacco plant, to
adapt itself to a great variety of eli
mates, and is grown even in the north |
of Russia. Its narcotic Yirtues demand |