Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-11-03
The Effects Of opium-smoklng.

The Effects Of 0pium-Smoklng.
DR.. a. Fl. Kane, who recently con-
tributed to Hasper's Weekly some inter
esting and instructive details Of the
extent and nature of opium-smoking
among Americans, has made public
additional data respecting the subject,
which will go far toward removing GER
tain popular and widespread miscon-
ceptions of the fancied delightful
effects Of the practice. The subject is
one, the physician says. which is but
little understood by the general public,
their ignorance being strikingly mani
tested in the prevalent opinion that the
influence Of the drug is to produce
sleep combined with condition Of
utopian happiness. That the opium
smoker, in his indulgence, fancies him
self wealthy, possessed of great fame
or the companion and associate of the
great is simply pleasant delusion with
no foundation in fact. His dreams
simply reflect the character Of his nor
NAL aspirations and desires, although
these will seem to find brilliant reali-
zation which is only dashed when CON
seriousness returns. Further, it is found
to be rarity that sleep succeeds indul-
gence in the drug, the effect Of the
practice being rather to produce an
insomnia of which the votary will con-
stantly complain. What the smoking
actually promotes in the beginner is a
condition of dreamy wakefulness, dur
ing which he feels entire contentment,
merely fancying himself on amicable
terms with everybody and everything,
and willing, on his part, to carry out to
the letter the kindly precepts of the
golden rule. The future seems to
promise the continuance ofthe content
ment of the present, the sensation be-
ing, in short, that expressed by the dolce
far niente languor Of the Italians.
When the effect of the drug dies away
and the dream fades. the smoker, unless
his indulgence has been excessive, will,
on recovering complete consciousness,
experience a feeling of exhilaration.
and will resume his normal occupation
with vim and eagerness. This pleasant
condition, however, is only incident
upon moderate indulgence and in the
earlier stages of the vicious habit. If
the opium be smoked in excessive guam
titles the smoker may at times fall into
deep sleep, but that slumber will be but
a frightful nightmare, peopled with
disgusting and terrifying visions, par
ticularly if the excess is practiced by a
novice. The mind viii become tempo
rarily unsettled and filed with the
widest delusions, the heart will be
labored in its action, and painful and
profuse nausea and vomiting, succeeded
by extreme prostration. will follow.
The duration of pleasant sensations Of
the early stages of indulgence depends
upon the temperament Of the yotary
and the amount of the drug consumed.
Generally, after few months, these
feelings Of exhilaratiou and contented
languor disappear. and the indulgence
is continued by the unfortunate victim
chiefly to escape the suffering which is
the inevitable result of his folly. 1t is
at this stage that the mental injury of
the practice is felt in an ever-increaslng
disinclination for all mental labor, in
the weakening of the will power, in the
failing memory and the gradual enact
alton of the features, together with an
impairment of the sight and whole
train Of physical ills, Of which dyspep-
sia and gradual paralysis Of some of the
vital organs are but few. DIR. Kane
believes all this, however, to be inn
measurably less of a moral and physical
evil than the effects of chronic alcohol
ism, as the injury is always confined to
the victim himself. The confirmed
opium-smoker never beats his wife nor
destroys property, never shoots friend
or stabs an enemy, nor does he travel in
reeling and disorderly fashion through
the streets, to fall it may be, insensible
in the filth Of the gutter and thence into
the custody Of the law. Constant mar
cotic intoxication is less rapid in its de-
structive effects than alcoholic inebriety,
and in some instances its victims remain
stout and in apparent health, although
they may have smoked the drug for a
period OF from two to ten years.
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