The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-05-18
Terrible Consequences OF the Abuse of
Narcotics. -.r|y ....

According to the London Lancet, the
vast abuse of narcotics in modern sOcl-
ETY. is becoming serious evil. There
is no denying the fact that in countries
where no administrative control OF
chemists shops exists, as in England
and America, the public has too easy
access to such drugs. The report of the
medical officer to the Privy Council on
the use of laudanum in the industrial
districts of England, for the purpose OF
keeping infants quiet, startled its read
ers some years ago. 1t is not long since
a poetical weekly cOtempOrary boldly
contended that choral was to be found
in the work-boxes and baskets of nearly
every lady in the West End, to calm
her nerves" Cloral-punch had become
an institution" in the drinking saloons
of New York scarcely year after its
introduction to medical practice. Now
we hear from sober, orderly, and pa
ternally ruled Germany, that there is
such thing as mOrphia disease spread
ing among its population. The easy
application of simultaneous injections,
left to the patients themselves or their
attendants by indulgent practitioners,
has proved so tempting to persons at
ficted with bodily or mental pain that
they have taken to habitually practie-
ing them, and, of course, as in the case
of the continued and uncontrolled in
ternal use of opium, alcohol, or ehloral,
the effect soon becoming weaker, the
dose has been increased, and, in some
cases related by the physician of the
private maison de sante in Berlin in the
| Kin. WochenSchyTf, reaching the
amount of from twelve to sixteen grains
per diem. The symptoms seemed to
be very mach like those of opium-eating.
One lady took morphia injections, after
she had become acquainted with their Ell
fectin an attack of gladstone collie during
the French war, when the anxiety about
her male relations in the field weighed
too heavily on her mind to stand the
mental stress. After she had practlced
the soothing operation four years her
face showed grayish-leaden hue, the
pupils became the size of pins head.
! Violent shiverings after the type of ter
tan fever; hyperesthesia and neural
gia, dislike for meat diet, great weak
ness, inability to pursue any continued
occupation, existed, with unimpaired
intellect and memory in the well edu-
Gated and clever patient. She was
cured in the space of four weeks by
gradual deprivation of the drug. If
patients subject to this kind of disease
become aware of their state, they are
apt to change it into alcoholism. The
wife of medical man who saw IN a
book on Materia Medica that alcohol
was considered an antidOte for nOrphla,
became a confirmed drunkard. The
author observed four similar cases. In
two other cases the patients committed
suicide, and two died from marasmus.
These last four had refused medical
treatment. The task of the physician
seems to be always a very difficult one,
as it is impossible to wean these patients
from their habits unless they are treat
ed like prisoners, searched before adj
mission to the hospital or sick-room, put
under the guard of attendants mac
cessible to bribery, and cut them of
from all communication with the outer
4 world before the critical time has pass
ed. The most highly educated and
otherwise 10. respectable will tell any
amount of lies und perjure themselves
to procure the accustomed poison! Like
dipsomania and opium eating, the NOR
phia disease degrades the moral char
I acter.