The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-08-12
The EIypodcrmic Syringe.
The NypOdcrmic Nyr1hGc:
MORPHINE UNDER THE SKIN-EXPsRENCE OF
AyICTlM OF THE NEEDLE NOSED SYRINGE.
LErorn the Indiana nnliS Ncws.l

MORPHINE UNDER THE ShlN-EAfSli EMIL or
AyICTlM OF THE NEEDLE SoSED SYRINGE.
From the indianapolis News.J
elbow did | ever cure myself OF the
opium habit? p said n man little more
than thirty years Of age to Ne'rS reporter
this morning. First. I'll tell you row |
cot into the way Of using the drug. L
didn't use opium itself, mind YOU, but NOR,
phine. the active principles OF opium.
took il hypodcrmically, under Inc sklh-
that is, morphine in solution was in!ecteo
into my arm. You never had imam
ma,ory rheumatism, perhaps: Wen, -, /
have, and when 4 man has that nell
lump at anything for relief. rive
wears AGO | began the use OF NOR
Dhinc by suh-cutaneous injection. /
never used the little pccdlc-nosed syringe
myself. but the soothing fluid was always
injected by my physician. At first 1t was
gwen me two or three times week under
the skin OF my arm, but it was no great
while until the syringe came to be used that
often each day, and became slave to the
drug. | was gloomy. deSpondent. worth
less. except when under the influence Of the
opiate, and when charged with it was quite
as worthless. rs the rosy visions that follow
cd its Use were accompanied by a languor
and lStlessness that made me utterly averse
to all exeriion. My right arm (ior that mat
ter my left arm also) has been so closely
punc,ured with holes from the syringe
noint that YOU couldn't lay a quarter down
on nv arm anywhere without touching
two or three sore places, for the morphine
| inf1amed the flesh wherever inclSion was
made.
"Women who use morphine hypoder-
mically have the fluid injected under the
knec-cap. This is for the reason that they
do not like to diSfgure their arms. Two
months ago / determined to go TO Hot
Springs. Arkansas, to see If couldn't boil
the morphine out OF my system, and un-
dcrtake some treatment that would cure me
of the habit. I was slave to morphine. 1t
had completely encrvated me, and ruined
me for everything. Cured Of rheumatism,
7 had acquired in its stead the opium dis
ease, opophagy, DR.. Charles E. Wright
calls it. which was infinitely worse. When
| left this city to 90 10 Hot Springs my ply
sician advised me to take solution OF NOR
phine along with me and a hypodermca
syringe. l did so, but resolved not to use
| it until the last extremity. DO you KNOW
that the craving for liquor is not to be com.
pared with the inSatiate desire that NOR.
| phine-user has for his nepeDthe? On the
cars, on my way TO the springs, suffered
terribly, resolved not to use the opiate, but
as I neared my destination my sufferlngs In
creased. People on the cars who saw my
writings Ger my limbs became contorted
and my teeth grated together) thought me
mudman. Finally I could hold out nc
longer. With great difficulty I barred my
arm, and with unsteady hand iobbed the
syringe into it. I struck vein, or an
artery, don't know which. The blood
spurted across the car, three or four women
| tainted, and several men rushed forward,
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 col
umn went an electric-lke current that
seemed to burn rs it ran. In five minutes
| | felt myself acain-that Is, my old NOR
phine self, but | once more resolved TO rid
myself OF the bondage even ii my life went
| out in the effort. When / got to the springs
/ put my hypodcrmic solution and the in
strument aside and began taking the baths.
don'tknow whether they did me any good
or not. l don't know anything that occur
red during The next ten days, except
that / suffered a thousand deaths. ! had
every pain and ache that almanac ever told
of. Morphine is drug that the entire sys-
tenn grows 10 ana aSSlmliateS win. III you
deprive yourself of it after it has become
necessary to you, you suffer the tortures OF
the damned. had but one thought in my
mind in all those terrible days-to free my.
self from the drug. did it, and thank God
for it. Do you see my hair, how gray it is :
Not one man in thousand, Eve been told
could do what have done. Several physi
clans to whom / have told my experience
look Oh me in wonder. They say my nerve i!
unequalled. That may be. l only know
500, 900 wouldn't hire me TO undertake TIT
experience OF those ten days again."