The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1883-08-18
The Seductive ChIoral.

Everybody is familiar with the abuse
of opium in its various forms. from the
fashionable victim who is slave to the
hypodermic needle to the degraded out
cast seeking forgetfulness in the Chinese
opium ''iointn OF hasheesh or Indian
hemp, little is heard, the victims of this
drug being comparatively few in this
country, though its use is common
enough in India and the East generally.
But there is another drug for some time
after its discovery, some fifteen years
ago, considered comparatively harm,
less, and which is just beginning to re,
ceive the attention its baleful effects
merit. This is hydrate of choral. A
well-known physician of New York
City, in speaking on this subject, said:
"Chloral hydrate stands first in the
list of hypnotics, and to overcome pure
and simple sleeplessness is without a
rival. When it first came into use much
was expected which experience has
failed to verify. 1t is not to any extent
an anodyne; it is simply the best hyp-
motto known, and the most deadly, The
opium habit is easily acquired; indeed,
to some temperaments its cautious me-
dicinal use is perilous, from the readi-
ness with which the drug is resorted to
in every trifiing illness and the fatal
habit formed. But it needs no bitter
season of pain and suffering to become
habituated TO the use of choral So
softly, so gently, so gradually does its
subtle, fatal chain bind its victim that
he only realizes its power when too late
to break the bonds which bind him.
Choral is resorted to for an ordinary
attack of insomnia, and perhaps small
doses are taken for few DAYS, the re-
suit being q sound, refreshing sleep
with none Of the evil results
common to other narcotics. The
period of sleeplessness past, which may
be the result of overwork, business
anxiety, or nervous prostration, the
drug is abandoned and all goes we'll for
time. Sooner or later sleeplessness
returns, choral is resorted to, kept up
for longer time and taken in larger
doses. 1t is again abandoned for n
longer time, only to resume its sway,
and so slowly and surely the habit is
formed that renders sleep impossible
without choral, which, like all narcot-
les, must be increased in quantity as the
system becomes habituated to its poi
sonous effects. The larger class of vic
Tins of the choral habit are men who
lead sedentary lives and who from
temperament and the nature of their
work are peculiarly liable to suffer from
sleeplessness. One of the most notable
examples of the baneful effects Of the
choral habitwas Dante Gabriel Rosetti,
who, during the latter years of his life,
was accustomed to take enormous doses,
reaching total of nearly 1870 grains
daily. For many years he took choral
regularly, at first in small quantities,
but gradually increased the dose until
his power of resistance was gone. His
life was darkened by power he fought
against in vain. His latter days were
spent in solitude. He became a recluse
and hypoehondriac, filled with
groundless fears for himself, cherishing
unfounded suspicious against his best
friends and admirers. DIR. Maudsley,
the great English alienist, stigmatized
chloral as " crystalized hell, y and con-
dennis its use, even in disease, except
to tide over some pressing emergency,
and there is certainly an increasing
reluctance on the part of physicians
TO prescribe choral except in excep-
tional cases. Unlike opium, there are,
as a rule, no unpleasant effects, no
reaction following the use of choral
1t simply produces perfect sleep, or the
best possible imitation of dreamless
rest, with no headache or sickness as a
reminder that the slumber has been
purchased and the debt must be paid
] for. 1t is paid later on, and the interest
demanded is health, hope, and ofteE
life ITSELF