The Dillon tribune. [volume] (Dillon, Mont.) 1881-1941, 1883-08-25
Misrenanex.
MOrphiomania.

Morphiomania.
It is full time that the serious DANCE
Of indulging In chloral, morphia, an.
other such drugs should be understood
To q woman of refinement these methods
Of obtaining the desired immunity from
self are repulsive. She resorts to then
reluctantly and by slow degrees: There
was till recently, no other way, but nov
the downward path is made very easy
First the inventor of chloral smoothel
the way, unconsciously but surely. a
woman who would have shuddered witt
genuine horror at the idea OF drinking
too much wine, thinks little OF taking
repeated dos.s Of chloral. Wome,
think so much of the look Of thing
A brandy bottle on their dressing table
would be too horrible. But the small,
iunocent-looking little phial SO constantly
in demand ?-that is thought nothing OF.
And yet the brandy bottle may be the
safer of the two. For the very reason
that it repres -nts more degraded form
Of vice, it is safer than the sma.l
flask which the chemist sends in SO
u6AuIuy WIdPPcA ~ wAAs0 H"PSAS 0I"AS.4
with wax, and labelled POISON A
thousand wonanly instincts and femi-
nine fears drag her back from the
former. The physician whom she trusts
aud ali her dearest friends urge her
toward the latter.
But chloral is an old story now. We
see q woman lolling lauguidly in her
carriage, in her box at tue opera, or
even at her own table, with q filmy,
dazed look in her eyes, an absent man.
ner, aud q halt. unconscious way Of
listening and replying to those about
her. We atonce account for it: 'Chloral. "
We see q man who was once the incar-
nation of life and energy, brisk in bust
ness, intellectual, cultivated. We see
him dulled, nerveless, lis brighter self
effaced, his intellect Pickering like a
dying light, his business faculties dwin-
ding, slovenly in his mind as we'll as
person, inaccurate in statements, and
careless as to linen; and we say
"Chloral. 1t has become an accepted
fact, a recognized doom for a certain
per centage Of our acquaintance. 1t is
an old story. Something fresh was de-
manded, and in response to the demand
Q new vice was invented.
When physicians discovered that pain
could be subdued by inserting under
the skin small pointed instrument
provided with tube containing morphia,
they little thought that they were paving
the way for a now vice. Yet 80 It
was. There are, in our merry England
beings who are as wholly under
the domination of morphia as ever was
Chinese under that Of opium. Women
have yielded by degrees to its fatal fas-
cination, until at last they prick the
skin dozen times day with the tiuy
syringe that has such terrible results.
The operation is almost painless the
effects pleasant. A delicious
languor supervenes. Happy thought,
and bright imasinings fill the mind.
Some see beautiful visions, others feel
only pervadiug sensation Of comfort
and we'll being. On few the effect of
is to excite to some intellectual
effort, If effolt that can lie called which
is pure delight, glorious feeling Of uu.
power, Of uucrirpled exer-
else of the high st faculties. It is as
though the mind had suddenly develop
ell wings. But ut the very height Of the
enclantment tho influence Of morpllia
b., gins 10 subside. The glory fades.
The wings trail, and the feet that are
til, If sorry substitute become weightt d
as with lead. As with the workers, 81
with the dreamers. The visions are
obscured. The sensation Of comfort
gives place to one Of discomfort, irrita.
tion, even pain. The mental vision that
had just now looked through q rosy
mist secs all things AZ through Grape
veil or November fog. Can it lie
won,lt red ut that the dose is renewed.
that the poison is absorbed again and
aguin, that the intervals become shoster
and shorter between the reign Of the
potent drug?
And tho end? The punishment is
terrible indeed. By degrees the MUD
becomes darkened. Hideous hallucina-
lions seize upon il. Self.contrl is lost.
Imhecility overta es the weak. Madness
threatens the strong.
These are the personal consequences.
There are others to he beQueathed to
sons aud daughters and to later genera
lions. These Can be CUES ed at. The
new Vice has not reigned sufficiently
long for the world to have seen them
pxemplifed, but dark array Of posi-.
bill ties suggests itself, but too readily.
The heritage Of insanity, Of inebriety, Of
lmbecility, will in the future be traced
back to those tiny tubes which hold but
, drop or two. ., d to which men once