The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-08-17
THE VICTIMS OF MORPHINE.
a HABIT WHICH IS Running MANY
HAPPY HOMES.


concerning the Chinese opium dens in
Mott street, but little is known of the
prevalence of the opium habit in all its
forms and of intemperance among
women of wealth and fashion. 1t is
the popular opinion that the chief vic
tins among women of these habits are
actresses. opera singers, and other
public characters, but that is not so.
The spread of these two great evils,
intemperance and the opium habit,
among the women of the better classes,
women who are the wives of mer-
chants, politicians and literary men,
women of education, refinement and
even of religious training, is some
thing alarming, and this statement
any prominent physician will confirm.
Several well-knOwn ladies of this
city have lately interested themselves
in the matter of the reformation and
cure of the unfortunate victims of
these habits. A number of reforma-
tories had been staJlished for men,
and there are several charitable inStl-
buttons for women, but these ladies
believed that there was demand for
an establishment for women belonging
to wealthy families, and whose friends
would never send them to a charitable
institution, OF indeed to any place
where they would be supposed to be
under treatment for these habits.
With the aid of the late William E.
Dodge, therefore. these ladies estab-
lished in Fast Fifty-seventh street a
home for women of this class. That
there is a necessity for such institu-
lions as this is proven by the fact that
it is filled with patients, most of whom
are supposed by the society which they
have lett to be away either for treat
ment for some nervous disease or else
sojourning in foreign land.
A reporter of the Void call on
the physician in charge of the home,
and male inquiries as to the cause of
the preva ence of these habits among
women, and as to the methods EN-
ployed to effect cure.
Il would rather attend twenty men
than one woman in this Class of cases"
said the doctor. las nearly all women
who are afflicted with these habits are
hysterica', hard to control, and are al
most always troub'el with some other
disease, which must be cured before
she can reform. There are two classes
of women who become habitGated to
the use of liquor or narcotics. First,
there are the poor under class, who are
driven to intemperance by poverty,
sorrow or abuse. Then there is the
c'ass of women who be'ong to what is
called the best society. They are sur
rounded by all the Injuries which
wealth can buy and all the safeguards
which polite society car throw around
them. They contract passion for
drink generally in social frivolities.
They begin with drinking beer and
end in drinking enormous quaint ties
of alcoholic beverages. l have had
one patient who contracted the habit
at boarding-schco where a number of
the young ladies out of mischief used
to surreptitiously smuggle in beer.
Many of my patients clam that they
were at first prescribed the liquor by
their physicians. This is undoubtedly
true in many instances, but the state
ments of the victims of these habits
cannot always be relied upon. Most
of those who contract the opium habit
claim that they first learned the prop
critics of the drug from having had it
prescribed by their ply leans"
Would you, then, advise physicians
to abandon the use of narcotcs?"
"By no means. Opium is one of
Gods greatest gifts to man. / would,
however, advise physicians to use
more care in prescribing. Almost
every physician has many cases of in
temperance among his femalepatients.
Some of the cases in my private prac-
tice were peculiarly pitiful. Their re-
cital in all their particulars would be
horrible. 1t was only a few weeks
ago that two ladies' walking along an
avenue in this city picked up young
woman, richly dressed and of refined
appearance. She was intoxicated.
Learning her address, they conveyed
her 20 her home. She belonged to a
wealthy family in this city. She has
since been reclaimed.
"In opium cases the drug is gener-
ally at first taken TO relieve pain and
then as soon as its properties are
learned the habit generally fastens
its hold upon the woman. There are
three forms of the opium habit. 1t
may be smoked or taken through the
mouth or hypodernica ~ introduced.
The latter is the most common form.
The woman, perhaps, Sc her doctor
first use the syringe; then she gets
one herself and begins its use. She
soon discovers, however, that the dose
of one-eighth to one-quarter of grain
administered by the physician no
longer satisfies her, and she increases
the quantity. This is gradual, of
course. but soon the amount taken
daily would be sufficient to kill a
strong. healthy man. From five to
eight grains of morphine is fatal dose
for one unaccustomed to its use. The
habit must be continued with the ut
most regularity. Some take it but
once dav. others several times day,
but the habit must he continued as it
has been begun. The patient after