St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-04-06

| laudanum its habitual use is growing at
rate which if unchecked will in an
other twenty years make it one OF the
most formidable obstacles to the pro-
gress of the nation.
One cannot find resorts for white men
corresponding to the Chinese dens which
l have described; no plainly visible
evidence of the real condition of things
meets the eye of the ordinary observer,
and vet | venture to assert that here in
the metropolis, for every Mougolian ad-
dicted TO this terrible vice there are at
least ten Caucasians who practice it in
Il yet more destructive form.
The causes of the spread of opium
eating are various and constantly Ope-
rative. Curiosity, enhanced by the
glamour with which tradition has sur
rounded the narcotics of the East, imi-
tation of others, the temporary use of
some OEiate as a medicine-all these
bring victims to the destroyer; but
presume that more powerful than all
other influences is our national tendency
and susceptibility to unnatural stimu-
lants. The very people of all peoples
which should utterly shun this fatal
poison, people nervous, feverish, eX-
citable, living fast and tiercely, burning
the candle of existence at both ends,
from Il precOciOus youth to an early
death, too many are irresistibly driven
by tile craving for sedative support to
the cruel sOrcerer who lulls and sOothes
and fatters while he binds them in fet-
tiers of steel.
No other form of human thraldom
seems so dreadful, SO well nigh hopeless,
as that of the opium slave. Its continu
ance is torture, its abandonment agony.
Turn where he may, the doomed victim
sees no prospect but of a brief, value
less existence and a shameful death.
His nervous system shattered, his mind
clOuded with despair, every physical
and mental function deranged, nothing
seems left but to endure the scOurge of
his remOrselesS master to the end. The
picture is dark one, but do not be-
lleve that any pen can make it too
black. The testimony of the victims
themselves cannot be exceeded in horror
by any description.
Such, in brief, is the opium habit
especially in its effect on the American
temperament. Pulpit, press and the med
ical profession have inveighed against
it, of late years, with increased earnest
ness, and yet fresh sacrifices to it are
daily made. But these preventive eff
forts are not the only ones that have
been made. Finding that men cannot
be debarred by warnings from attempt
ing their own destruction, physicians
have sought long and diligently for some
method by which the unfortunate vic
tins, whose eyes become opened to the
horrors of their condition too late to es-
cape by their own unaided efforts, might
be saved from utter ruin. Quite num-
Der of the profession have even made
this search the one study of their lives,
and of these several have claimed sue
cess. So far us my observation goes.
however, but one man has found the
talisman which can disarm the conquer
or and place in the hands of his subjects
that which enables them to cut off his
letters. DR.. 5. B., Collins, of Laporte,
Ind, whose laboratory | visited during
Il recent Western trip and to whose
courtesy [ am indebted for much valu-
able information on the subject, has
certainly cOvered-whether by skill
or good fortune, | cannot say-a specific
antidote to the effects of opium, which
in his hands has probably done more to
undo the mischief that the drug has
wrought in America during the present
decade, than any other single influence
whatever. Nor can there he any doubt
It's to the genuineness and efficacy OF
DIR. Collins treatment. The three thou
sand public avowals from men and wO-
men in all parts of the country whom it
has rescued from bondage, both attest
its value and bear out the assertions
above made as to the prevalence OF the
habit. | myself have heard grateful
personal testimony to this physicians
success, and | therefore feel more than
justified in giving what publicity | can
to the fact that there is hope foI the
many who, without help, must remain
the most wretched beings on the face of
the earth.
| have devoted so much space to this
subject that | find myself obliged to
postpone il record of current events till
my next. RADIX