The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-02-17
Opium Eating.
RAPID IScRKAsE OF rHE DEADLY HABTT ~ a NEW
ENGLAND TowS.

Most people know ths, the opium habit is in
creasing throughout the country. but few are aware
Of its alarming growth IN New England. In Proyi-
denee the city druggists report . more or less rapid
increase in the number OF their opium customers,
and physicians find that female patients cannot be
affected By less than four times al ordinary dose Of
morphine.
Many ACQUIRE the opium habit during illness,
when il is taken to relieve pain; others, during
great mental dependency; others, from an Inherited
craving for it. and others still while trying 10 leave
of drinking liquor. Its use ID not q Characteristic
Of any one class. The contracted pupil OF the eye,
the sallow countensnce, the placid expression, the
dreamy distant look, which denote the opium eater,
are found in the workshop and the factory, as well
as in the counting room or the boudoir. Wealthy
opium eaters buy the drug through . trusted agent
whose tongue is sealed BY his pay; the poor usually
buy their covertly, in the evening, usually saying
that it is for some one else.
Some try 10 conceal their purchase Of the drug by
buying in different stores, until almost the Unole
city has been gone over; others appear as regularly
at the anne place, Saturday evening, as the even
ing comes. The wish to conceal the habit is uni
versal. and it is never taken, as liquors are drank,
10 a crowd and with ~merry-making. A grain OF
opium, or an eighth as much Of morphine, Is 8 dose
for q beginner, but the desire and ability TO take it
grow SO rapidly that FIVE and even ten grains Of
morphine are taken in q day, perhaps IN three
doses.
An opium eater in Providence q few months ago
ate 125 grains of opium in twenty-four hours. and q
woman drinks a coffee cup full Of laudanum without
harm. There are q large number Of men whose
weekly purchase of opium indicates that they use
about twenty-five grains q day. A novel method Of
taking opium is by the use Of the hypodermic syringe
a tiny instrument with q needle point, which ID
stuck through the skin, and through which the
liquid is conveyed directly into the blood. The
effect when administered in this way is much more
immediate than when taken in the usual way as q
powder or in little pellets. Physicians addicted to
| the habit land there is a surprising number OF
them) usually adopt the bypodermic method, and
one doctor is known whose body is in spots Scared
like the traces of smallpox from the marks OF his
morphine syringe.
The high cost is one hindrance to its use. Really
poor people cannot afford to extensively use an
article which costs $3.50 to $3.50 an ounce. Never
will do anything to get opium that the most inveter-
ate drunkard would do to get rum. Opium eating
is, if possible, more seductive than liquor drinking,
and the confirmed opium eater can have scarcely O
hope of escape from its power; the victim is in
misery whenever he is not under the influence OF the
drug. =.
It is said that there is one opium eater In Provl-
dence who has fully counted the cost He began tc
eat opium when about t~hirty-fve years old, anc
finding, a few years later, the habit firmly fastened
upon him, determined that he could not live, at the
longest, more than thirty years. He was then taking
half a grain a day. He figured out the amoun
that he would require in thirty years, allowing al
increase of q quarter of q grain q year. de ther
made a deposit Of money sufficient to supply hin
with his regular allowance during all those years
and now goes about continually under its influence
viewing life and the world in which he moves a
il he saw them from the large end of an opera glass
- Providence Journal