The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-22
THE CURSES OF OPIUM.
The Use of the Deadly Drug Ruins a Beauti-
full Woman, Kills the Man Who Loves
Her, and Crazes Her Father.

attend an urgent CASE AS the carriage drew
up at the door he observed that there was an
awning and carpet extending from the
portal to the curb, and, on reaching the hail.
he found that the house was thronged with
people in evening dress. The messenger,
speaking to a white-haired, mlitary-looking
gentleman, who sat alone before the fireplace,
said:
"Sir Hugh, this is Dr. Fielding" and with
drew.
The gentleman addressed rose from his
chair, and as he stood in the blazing light of
) the sea-coal fire, he seemed man in whose
splendid physical presence the doctor at once
recognized the person of a famous naval
commander, whose deeds of personal proves
in the Pacific and in the China seas had won
for him something more than a national
reputation.
BE seated, Doctor" he said, pointing to
chair. My daughter was to have been mar
ried to-day. ! have sent for you because l
know your reputation for the treatment OF
nervous diseases is very high"
MY professional skill is at your SERVICE"
said the Doctor.
eTour answer is frank and to the point"
returned the Baronet. 1.-THE marriage of
my daughter has not taken place. To-day
she passed from a state of vivacity and hap
piness to one of apparent stupor. All our
efforts to arouse her have proved unavailing.
in order that you may comprehend the en-
tire situation l shall be forced to detail
some of my own and of my family history.
Her mother was native of the East Indies.
| married her after brief courtship, when
/ was flag lieutenant in the East India
squadron, many years ago. She was the
daughter of missionary who had given
over his jealous ambition to convert the
iqathpn of Rurmah and had p0Da in tn trada
In a short time his fortune had reached
an incredible amount. There were rumors
: that the greater part of it had been gathered
'9by transactions in opium. The young lady
herself was beautiful and talented, and
the sole heiress to her fathers enormous
wealth Among the many sutors who came
] was the successful one, and our wedding
was in many respects remarkable affair.
Our only child was born some years later,
and shortly afterward | was ordered to an
arduous service in the Corean waters On its
completion l returned to England, to find
my wife broken in health and the victim of
the most painful complication of disorders.
1t was necessary to allay her pain, and to do
this mOrphia was resorted to. She fingered
on and died. Before her death she told me,
in lucid moment, that she had learned the
use of opium in her childhood, and that
while she had never become slave to it, she
had nevertheless taken it with regularity.
and she had no doubt that her illness had re-
suited from the habit. In this view the
physician who attended her concurred,
Now, sir, my child appears to me to have
been using some drug. l have no reason
to believe that she is a slave to a habit of
taking opium, in any of its horrible forms,
but my heart is burdened with the gravest
apprehensions. Should you discover that
she is the wedding ceremony which other
wise is only postponed, shall never take
place. The bridegroom is the son of my
nearest friend, and | can never permit that
ne shall have the prospect of a life of misery,
such as mine has been; the more so for the
reason that there is no way to insure happi
ness for her."
They passed out through the hall, up the
staircase. encountering the guests who had
been hidden to the marriage feast taking
their departure. Some of them gave looks
of curiosity, but all OF them had a word of
sympathy or pressure of the hand to be-
stow upon the stricken father as he passed by
On rea hing the landing the Baronet stop
ped for a moment to recover his self-posses-
sion, and then, gently, opening a door,
ushered the doctor into the patients cham
Der. The sight that greeted the doctors eye
embraced as its central feature the form of a
young lady clad in a dress of white satin
and lying on a bed. A bridal veil of delicate
lace trailed its luxuriant length over the
back of a chair on which also hung a wreath
Of orange blossoms.
In moment the man Of science saw that
~
mere glance at the swollen eyelids, whose
unnatural yellow color was heightened by the
dark-blue veins that traversed them, showed
that the young lady was not only the victim
of larger portion than she had been accus-
toned to take; but that the custom itself
was of old standing.
well, doctor" asked the Baronet anx-
iously, lis it opiumY'
eve must first save her life," replied the
doctor, evasivey.
Proper remedies were administered so sue
eessfully that in few minutes the victim
vas aroused from the state of coma into
which she had fallen, and brought to her feet.
Then began the heroic treatment. She was
beaten with hands, pricked with sharp points
and subjected to repeated shocks from gal
vanic battery, while her stomach was at
tackled with the most powerful emetics and
all the while she was kept walking up and
down the ROOM despite her peadings TO be
allowed to lie down and close her ewes. 1t
took many hours before the immediate dam
ger passed away. Then the doctor sought
the Baronet at his library, and said without
preface: Your daughter, sir, is a confirmed
opium eater; not only has she used the drug
in that form, but she has taken it sub-cuta-
neously."
This is horrible news" moaned the
father. Cannot this frightful habit be
checked and finally stopped? If you can stop
it, or think you can, relinquish your career
to devote yourself to the task, and l will
give you my whole fortune; nay, ever my
life"
Dr. Fielding shook his head gloomily
mo" he said, science has not done that
Even in Paradise appetite reigned and
ruined"
That night the doctor pored over his
books and finally, as if possessed of some
new impulse, he fastened to his laboratory,
and selecting from its shelves a bottle, care
fully measured out portion of morphia. He
was about 10 conduct an experiment of
which he himself was to be the subject.
1t did not require many months for opium
10 assert its sway. Within year the subject
had become the ruler, and the student was
snthralled probably beyond the power of