The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-09-20

struggling heroically for awhife, gave
UP the contest, exhausted, and frankly
confessed that they would rather die OF
quinine than of the effort to getriduf it.
"Did it never occur to you to inquire
why it is that the consumption of quiz
nine has increased so tremendously dur
ing the last five yearsP Did you suppose
it was because doctors prescribed it in
such immense Quantities for malarial
complaintsP Not at all. Ask any pro-
fessional druggist who his quinine con-
sumers are, sick or well people, andel
guarantee he will tell you that he sells
sixty grains over the counter to every
five compounded behind the prescrip-
ton screen.
Quinine has three properties, you
know. In small doses it is tonic; in
medium doses, stimulant; in large
doses, potently sedative. Once con-
tracted, for the first six or eight months
the habit is very seductive, rendering
the intellect clear ana brilliant, the
nerves steady and tense, the wit quick
and yivacious, the spirits equable and
vivid. But presently it begins to be
followed by other effect-an intense,
desperate, unreasoning, quickly-excited
and ungoyernable irritability OF
temper; murderous mood, as danger
Gus in its outbreaks as epilepsy. The
victim flies mad at word, disagreeable
or pleasant, and were the weapon at
hand on the instant, would cut or shoot
as quickly as a mailman. There are
hallucinations and decisions, generally
auditory, sometimes optical. The vic
tim hears voices, noises within his own
head, and sudden sound striking upon
the drum of the ear produces quick
agonizing pain in the back of the head.
He now resorts to larger doses, and for
a little while they prove efficacious.
But this period never lasts n,orz than
a few months, and then the habitue is
vis-a-vis with condition of affairs that
is worse than death. He suffers on;
drags out life a little longer in enfeeble1
ment and mental torture, then dies
either by suicide or asthenia. Among
women of fashion the habit is very
prevalent, and let me tell you there is
such thing as quinine drunkenness,
Ladies prefer it to morphia, because its
effects are not physically noticeable un-
til the collapse comes. 1t brightens the
eyes, without contracting or dilating the
pupil, The complexion becomes lucid,
beautiful with a faint pink suffusion
and an abnormal freedom from spots
and pimples. 1t lends softness, gloss,
apparent righteousness and beauty to
the hair that no cosmetic can accom-
plish; in short, adds UNNECESSARILY to
the powers of fascination, by the gentle,
agreeable, viyacious intoxication it inn
parts to the whole being. My impress
sion, 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 drug, the doctor at
tributes many of the disagreeable con-
sequences to the sulphuric acid in com
bination with it, which gradually pro
duces an extreme sensitiveness to cold,
with symptoms of hysteria in both sexes
alike. But per Sc. from experiment, il
is an ascertained fact that the alkaloid
alone is destructive to life, rapidly alter
ing the constitution of protein com
pounds such as albumen, and causing
the colored corpuscles of human blood
to decompose into numerous minute
particles resembling in this particulal
nicotine, morphine, alcohol, atropine
and other toxics. In very large doses
it produces peculiar species of drunk
enness, in which the victim is perfectly
unconscious of what he is doing, anC
lives for hours in condition similar tC
the frances of mesmerism. 'sThe qui.
nine habit is rapidly increasing among
the higher classes of society," concluded
the doctor, as he turned and assembled
the steps at his own door, land it il
time the note of alarm was sounded.
Other physicians with whom the re
porter conyersed confirmed the state
ments above given, and one distin
: guished neurologist has gone SO far q
: to say that he believes suicidal anC
J homicidal impulse to be more frequentl,
due to the quinine habit secretly in
dulged than to any other cause.-M z
Mercury.