Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-09-25
SLAVES TO 8IORPHTNE.

How They Acquire the Habit-Fhe Din
Guilty Of its Cure.
Pittsburgh Dispatch.
Cant you do something for me2' said
a tall, lank IIishman yesterday, as he en-
tered a COnnellytOWn store, addressing
his appeal to a number of the patrons
who were standing around. 81 had my
arm amputated in the hospital, after haV-
ing it crushed in q cOal-pit, and can't
work" His request was freely respond
ed to by those present, and on noticing
that the alms-asker was trembling from
head to foot as If with ague, one of the
gentlemen, who took a greater interest
than the rest, inquired the cause of the
affection. After hesitating short time
with an absent stare IN his blOOdshOt
eyes, the man replied in a trembling
voice, being frequently interrupted by a
spaSmOdlc tremOr passing over his whole
body, and especially noticeable about
the stump of his amputated limb: "Well,
/ will tell you. When / was lying in the
hospital, 1 was kept under the influence
of Opiates so long that / can't get along
without them now. i took a dose, each
of which lasts four hours, this morning
at s O'Clock, and have been in this ner-
vOus condition ever since noon. must
90 and get another, and / shall be a diff
terent person altogether. Yes, I musu
place, stopping now and then until one
of the nervous chills had passed away.
a reporter who had been a witness to
the scene, followed him at a distance,
and seeing him enter a drugstore at the
next corner, hurried there to see how
the victim of the opium habit would pro-
coed. When he entered the drugshOp,
he heard the cripple beseeching the gem
tleman in charge to give him morphine
nil nd hair4rv rafrrglfI Of
his not having a prescription, his evi
dent anguish was painful to witness.
take pity on me" he cried, "Or l'll die.
feel it coming, But all his sufferings
could not persuade the drug clerk to
break the law, and he was finally COM
PEELED to depart discOnsOlately.
After he had gone the druggist told
the reporter of a similar case out in Law
renceVllle. the victim in this case being
a young girl. She was under treatment
for a painful ailment for some time, and
to alleviate her suferings Opiates were
used. When she became better she had
contracted a strong taste for laudanum,
and, according to the informant, the hab-
it over her that in three or four days
time she used eight ounces; that is, half
a pint of the drug.
A prominent physician in the Law
renceVille district was seen, and when
questioned on the subject said:
cit is a fact that frequently patients
acquire the opium habit from the use of
opiates during their illness. These drugs
are used tO-alleviate, pain and are very
efficient for that purpose so efficient, in
fact, that a prominent medical authority
of New YORK calls morphine the divine
medicine But, US the examples you
relate go to show, the divine medicine
may have some diaboiical effects. The
drug is also used against insomnia, and
while persons are under its influence
they are supremacy happy. When the
influence dies on them as they say, the
effect is about the same as the big head
after a long debauch, only in a higher
degree. Some of the victims of the hab-
it inject the morphine hypodermically,
while others take it In the shape of pills.
There is an old lady patient of mine,
who is afflicted with an incurable disease,
and takes grain every day. I would
not try to break her Of the habit, because
she will die anyway, and while she is
under the influence she is without pain,
which she otherwise would not be. In
incurable cases, 1 think morphine is a
boon, but in others a curse, and the vic
TINS die slow and horrible death. On
account of this way of acquiring it, it is a
sad fact that the habit is strongly on the
increase"