The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-14
FATAL WORK OF QUININE.
That Drug Pronounced More Dangerous than
0pium-WOmen of Fashion Victims.
New York Sunday Mercury.

lilt IlOsb eIeStilb fcSiuelctS Oh hdutSOn dNtuttc
moved slowly down the thoroughfare of fashion,
skirted Madison square on the east and south,
and crept with decorous pace down Broadway.
1t IS long journey to Greenwood; and, in many
particulars, Il tedious one for all save the per
son principally concerned. The deceased was a
man who ought still to have been in the merid-
| ian of his strength. Only forty-one years old,
| and in opulent circumstances, no troubles of
| business had permaturey Slapped his nervous
and vital energies. He died of no specifable
disease; but for the last two years, as promi
nent physician expressed it, had been like
a man failing of old age-feeble, decrepit
| nervous, incapable of enduring strain
| in short an old man in all save years. And
now my friend said the doctor as he walked
down the avenue with the Mercury reporter,
| You have seen the end of at least one case of a
! habit more common by far than the habit of
morphia, more dangerous, not less rapid and
lnsldlous in its ravages. and quite as difficult to
| break. speak now of the quinine habit"
| emphasized the doctor. you seem surprised:
but tell you frankly that to -dav. in this city,
the habit of taking quinine in stimulant doses is
as common as that Of nlorphia; and within the
last year, has Slapped constitutions,
| brought more victims to the grave either by
suicide or natural failure of the vital powers.
| and destroyed more brilliant prospects than all
| its congeners put togetber-the alcohol habit
4
| natural failure premeditatedly, because it
| has been my observation that drug
| in the mateIia medica, narcotic or stimulant
| operates so rapidly i'll the production of suicidal
| predispostion. L could mention at least six sui
| cides that have come under my notice during
| the last year, which were traceable to nothing
else 10 the friend and relatives of the dead they
| were nexplicabe. Only month ago friend
| of mine was found dead in bed with a napkin
pressed closely to his nostrils with the stffened
| hand and that faint peculiar sickening smell
| that all physicians are so familiar with pervad-
ing the room. But thirty five years Of age, in
| good business, with splendid income and an
amiabe and pretty wife whom he devotedly
loved, what was the cause What inexplicable
reason had he for lying down deliberately to in
| hale vapor that he knew was death! For two
years he had been addicted to the use Of quinine
in regular doses as n stimulant; and it is Pc
culiar feature of that drug that, while it serves
the purpose brilliantly for few months
| "a year or more SOmetimes-the day inevitably
comes when it produces nervous depression
| that is intolerable, perfectly maddening and des
| perate When the crisis arrives in the newt
able progress of constitutional undermining, it is
totally Intellectual to enlarge the dose. The VIC
tim may sleep, but gets no comfort from slumber.
| CHASTITY, terrible, unnatural and morbid dreams
vitiate the rest that sleep brings the healthy.
| have had strong men who were victims to the
| habit tell me that they dared not sleep. They
wander about over weird and terri bic landscapes;
know they are asleep and dreaming; would give
| their lives almost to awaken, but cannot. Pretty
| soon after these symptoms appear. either the
| predispostion to suicide develops itself, some
| times with the sudden leap of the tiger from the
| jungle, or the nervous and physical energies
rapidly give way, and death from exhaustion fol-
lows in few months. When this stage has
come it seems to be in vain to try to break
the habit, and it would be in vain perhaps, if it
were broken, for the very foundations of life
have already been Slapped, and the end is speedy
| and certain in any event. In the course of the
last twelve months l have seen no less than
| twenty-one cases of the quinine habit in which
the stage of vital failure had already set in. In
seven, with untold suffering, mental and physi-
| cal, the habit was finally conquered; but two
! died within three months and the other FIVE are
practically done with life. They will never be
men again. The other fourteen, after struggling
! horoically for while, gave up the contest,
| hausted. and frankly confessed that they would
rather die of quinine than of the effort to get rid
| of it.
"Did it never occur to you to inquire why it
is that the consumption of quinine has increased
/ 50 tremendously during the last five years! Did
! you suppose it was because doctors prescribed it
| in such immense Quantities for malarial com
plants? Not at all Ask any professional drug
| gist who his quinne customers are, sick or well
| people, and | guarantee he will tell you that
| he sells sixty grains over the counter to every
! five compounded behind the prescription screen.
! Quinine has three properties, you know. In
small doses it is tonic, in medium doses stimu-
liant, in large Doses potently sedative Once
contracted, for the first six OF eight months the
habit is very seductive, rendering the intellect
clear and brilliant, the nerves steady and tense,
the wit quick and vivacious, the spirits equable
| and vivid. But presently it begins
to be followed by another effect
an intense, desperate, unreasoning,
! quickly excited and ungovernable irritability
| of temper; murderous mood as dangerous in
is outbreaks as epilepsy. The victim flies mad
at word, disagreeable or pleasant, and were
the weapon at hand the instant, would cut or
| shoot as quickly mailman. There are hal
| lucinatons and decisions, generally auditory,
| mos nrltJp q m
noises within his own head, and a sudden sound
striking upon the drum of the ear produces a
quick and agonizing pain in the back of the head.
| He now resorts to larger doses, and for n little
while they prove efiicacious. But this period
| never lasts more than a few months and then
the habitue is vs-a-vis with condition of affairs
that is than death. He suffers on drags
| out life little longer in enfeeolement and men
tai torture then dies, either by suicide or asthe
MIA. Among women of fashion the habit is
very prevalent, and let me tell you there is
such thing quinine drunkenness. La
| dies prefer it to morphia, because its effects
! are not physically noticeable until the collapse
comes 1t brightens the eyes without contract
| ing or dilating the pupil. The complexion be-
| comes lucid, beautiful, with faint pink suffus
ion and an abnormal freedom from spots and
| pimples. 1t lends a softness gloss, apparent
| NERVOUSNESS and beauty to the hair that no
cosmetic can accomplish. In short, adds i'm
! measurably to the powers of fascination, by the
gentle agreeable, vivacious intoxication it i'm
parts to the whole being. My impression, both
from personal experience and comparison of
notes, is that the habit is more common with
women than with men; and, curiously enough,
owing to their more glandular temperament, it
kills less rapidly"
Going on to explain something of the
rationale of the action of the drug, the
doctor attributes many of its disagreeable
! consequences to the sulphuric acid in
combination with it, which gradually pro
duces an extreme sensitveness to cold, with
symptoms of hysteria in both sexes alike. But
per Sc, from experiment, it is an ascertaned
fact that the akaoid alone is destructive to life,
rapidly altering the constitution of protein com
pounds such as albumen and causing the colored
corpuscles of human blood to decompose into nu
merous minute particles resembling in this par
ticular nicotine, morphine, alcohol. atropine and
other toXics In very large doses it produces a