Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1879-08-28
THE HYPoDERMIc SYRINGE
MORPHINE UNDER THE SKIN.
Experience Of Victim Of the Needle
Nosed Syringe.

IVeaOS reporter this morning.
First, I'll tell you how l got into
the way of using the drug. didn't
use opium itself, mind you, but NOR
phine, the active principles of opium.
took it hypodermicallY, under the
skin-that is, morphine in aolution
was injected into my arm. You never
had inAammatory rheumatism, per-
haps? Well, I have, and when a
man has that he'll jump at anything
for'relief. Five years ago I began
the use Of morphine by sub-cutaneeus
injection. I never used the little
needle-nose'' syringe myself, but the
soothing fluid was always injected by
my physician. At first it was given
me two or three times a week under
the skin of my arm, but &c was no
great while until the syringe came to
be used that often each day, and I
became slave to the drug. I was
gloomy, respondent, worthless. except
when under the inAuenceNof the
opiate, and when charged with it was
quite,as worthless, as e.rosy visions
that followed its use were acconpa-
MED by-a languor and listlessness that
made me utterly averse to all exer-
tion. My right arm (for that matter
my left arm also) has been 80 closely
punctured with holes from thesyringe-
point that you couldn't lay quarter
down on my arm anywhere without
touching two or thFsSss s~s1.a----.-e.a-
the morphine inaamed the flesh
wherever incision wac made.
Women who use morphine hypo-
dermically have the fluid injected
under the knee-cap. This is for the
reason iaat they do not like to dis
figure their arms. Two months ago
1 determined to go to Hot Springs,
Arkansas, to see if I couldn't boil
the morphine out of my System, and
undertake some treatment that would
cure me of the habit. I was slave
to morphine. Ithad completely enerv-
ed me, and ruined me for everything,
Cured of rheumatism, I had acquired
in its stead the opium disease, opio-
phagy. DR.. Charles E. Wright calls
1t, which was infinitely worse. When
I left here for the Hot Springs my
ii5aHa 81 hSaBHiH5 saE{afa ne e take seiu
a hypodermical syringe. I did 80,
but resolved not to use it until the
last extremity. Do you know that
the craving for Liquor is not to be
compared with the insatiate desire
that moIphine-user has for his nep-
enthe? On the cars, on my way to
the springs, suffered terribly, | re-
solved not to use the opiate, but as
neared my destination my sufferings
increased. People on the cars VIII"
saw my writhing (for my limbs be-
came contorted and my teeth grated
together) thought me a madman.
Finally I could hold out no longer.
With great difficulty I bal ed my arm.
and with unsteady hand iobbed the
syringe into it. 1 stuck vein, or an
artery, I don't know which. The
blood spurted across the car, three or
four women tainted, and several men
rushed forward, thinking it suicide.
You have no idea of the shock that
went through me as the fluid entered
the vein. Flash after flash of scar
ing, binding light shot across my
eyes, and from, my heels to the top Of
my spinal column went an electric
like current that seemed to burn as it
ran. In FIVE minutes felt myself
again-that is, my old morphine self
but once more es,lved to rid my
self of the bondage even if my life
went out in the effort. When 1 got
to the springs I put my hypodermic
solution and the instrument aside and
began taking baths. don't know
if they did me any good or not. i
don't know anything that occurred
during the next ten days, except that
I suffered thousand deaths. had
every pain and ache that almanac
ever told Of. Morphine is drugtbat
the entire system grows to and as.
similates with. If you deprive your
self of it after it has become necessa-
to you, you suffer the tortures of the
damned. I had but one thought in
my mind in all those terrible days
to free myself from the drug. | did
it, and thank God for it. Do you
see my hair, how gray it is? Not
one man in thousand, I've been
told, could do what l have do. Sey-
eral physicians to whom I have told
my experience look on me in wonder.
They say my nerve is unequalled.
That may be, I only know $50, 900
\ n l. A.,