The Cecil Whig., 1883-02-03
Two Months in a Lunatic Asylum.
Experience at spriug Grove-The Effects of Ar
athletics Beautiful Visions and Horrible
Dreams.

VI old itti upon poiSoIi until II vas d hlho
| of nutrimen. Many men and women in
all ranks of society, from the minister in
the pulpit to the shiverng and palsied
ln5ecile in the almshousc in this country,
feed daily upon opium, InoIphia and laud
auum until hey are dominated by an in
tluence and habit beyond their control.
1t is not my purpose to give the alarm
ing statistics Of these victims. but rather
to tell tie true story Of how | contracted
the habit of taking hyperdermic injec-
tions of morphia. its effects upon me, and
its final remarkable cure. am induced
to do this by the fact that physicians give
an;esthetics too freely and injudiciously
and with the nope that it will be a warn
ing to others.
If the habit had been acquired by ME
voluntarily l should hesitate to acknow-
ledge such weakness even anonymously,
for the story | am about to tell is SO gen.
orally known that its hero, or rather VIC
tim, would be generally recognized, but
it was not my tault that morphia doml-
mated me with an iron rule, that | was
poweress to resist for more than four
on me could no more have broken it of
of my own will and effort than | could
have changed my nature.
had for many years been confined for
twelve or fifteen hours daily to a desk i'll
the editorial rooms OF a daily morning
paper, under circumstances that required
constant and uuremittlng strain upon all
my mental faculties. and. whist l am
slender and delicately formed, never
weighing more than 40 pounds, and
standing in my stockings over six feet
tall, have always had vitality that
gave me superiority of endurance over
IN 'st men. 1t became necessary eight
years ago. to secure the success Of a
newspaper enterprise, that | should work
seventeen hours day, or rather part of
the day and all night. In about the third
year of tnis intense application | found
that had frequently to change my posi-
ton in my chair or walk up and down the
floor for few minutes to relieve a pain
i'll the neighborhood of my kidneys. l
worked on, however, with this pain in.
creasing in acuteuess and duration for
about a year longer, when one night it
became 50 violent that | had to go home.
Applications OF hot cloths and the simple
home remedies administered failed to re-
lieve me, when physician was called in
and, finding me in a paroxysm of agony,
gave me hyperdermic injection of NOR
phia. The relief was almost inStantan-
eous; and the sleep that followed. while
profound, bore with it 4 consciousness of
bliss that in contrast to the former suf-
fering vas more delightful than anything
| had ever before experienced, and |
changed Sancho Panza's exclamation of
God bless the man who invented sleep"
to God bless the man who patented hy
perdemic syringe. | thought if pain is
that easily allayed | will never suffer
again. | did not then know what pain
was comparatively. for | had not felt the
terrible reaction of the long continued
use Of morpha. 1t is useless to give the
reader, either lay OF professional, the de-
tails of the development of a kidney dis
ease that became SO acutely painful that
| could neither rest nor sleep unless un-
der the influence of morphia, and which
kept me in bed for more than twelve
months
THE STIMULATING AND soPoRIFIC EF-
FECTS OF MORpHIA.
The effects oi the drug may have been
different upon me from others. do not
intend to nor can describe it scientit-
cally, but suppose its action on me was
peculiar from the fact that my profession
Of all editor made it necessary ior mo to
acquire the faculty of using my mental
powers, not according to linclination, but
in obedience to my will. just as an en-
siueer uses the steam locomotive. In
other words, had beer compelled to
subject my mind to my will. The hy-
perdermic injections of morphia were ad-
ministered to me three or four times
day aud it. short time learned to force
their action, that is to say, | could either
go to sleep and dream or lie awake and
indulge the most vivid imagination
weaving the most fantastic visions that
ever enraptured the poet. | may better
convey the full idea by an Illustration.
l remember the first day discovered
that morphia need not necessarily put
me to sleep. My chamber ironted on the
street and from the position of the bed
could see all the morning persons pass
in on the opposite side of the street
laden with Christmas presents. About
noon morphia was administered hyperder-
mically. and the lower blind OF the Win
dow was closed, but to humor sick
mans whim the upper blind was left
open. 1t had, in the meantime, COM
menced showing, and as l looked out on
the falling snow flakes, wide awake, the
actual women and children that I had
seen in the morning Fastening home be-
gan to take shape and form, until my ex-
cited fancy moulded the snow into living
forms Of beautiful women and dressed
them in flowing garments of the same
"web and woof" of goSsamer lightness
not half coAcealiug, not entirely reveal
ing the perfect symmetry of the ideal
forms. Each snow flake iloated before
my vision. perfect form crowding upon
each other in ETHEREAL beauty, and when
for relief would close my eyes could
see far off Il cemetery in which all these
forms rep"s, d in statuesque regularity.
| saw all this distinctly while was wide
awake. for remember the children tell
ing me of wllot they expected to get for
Christmas. was entirely sensible to all
my surroundings, and | knew the vision
was caused by an excited optic develop
ing into substance what knew was mere
shadow. and yet | could not shut out the
vision and destroy by argument the Ell
joyment OF the beautiful those forms af-
forded me- Many times after that have
looked at church building across the
the street, with the full sunshine of a
summers sun at midday upon it, and it
has changed in an instant to whatever
nv fancy wiled: \ fortress. with draw
brilce, portculls. battlcments and tow
ers with grim artillery protruding from
portfolio or standing tlreateningly ON