Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1885-12-26
DANGEROUS ANESTHkTICS.

A dispatch has been going the rounds
of the papers to the effect that b'
Bradlej of Chicago went mad and tina}y
killed himself by the use of cocoaine; also.
that before he thus disposed of himself
he had after administering the drug,
mutilated his five children by hacking
th.ir poor little bodies with the object OF
demonstrating the anaesthetlc properties
of his favorite drug. Gu the face OF II
such dispatch ought to be supported by
a tall pile of aft il4vits before it should
command belief. There was Mrs. Brad
ley, and mothers can judge whether she
would be likely to Let her husband cut up
heir children in the COURSE OF surgical
experiments.
All the same 1t is we'll that TIE daEg'rs
of using cocoaiue should be brought TO
pubic notice. When it was first ntro>
luced to the public 10y DR.. Harrison it
was SAID to be invaluable for operations
ON the eye-the effect Of it's exhibition be-
ING to inIuce local inseusibility TO pain
without causing general Inconsistencies.
1t was then so expensive that surgeons
were not tempted to use where either
spray or cloroform answers tho desired
purpose. When General Grant began to
utIer acutely from cancer, the surgeon
in attendance tried the effect of paintings
the diseased surfaces with a solution
of coo oa.ine, and the resultwas satisiac-
tory. The rpain vas duled. 1t has
been hinted that the resisting powers OF
the patient were diminished, but this is
hard TO say The disease could only end
one way, and whether tbs end was hast
ened or delayed by. the use of the an@sthetic
it is probably beyond the ken of science to
decide, But ever since the protuse ad-
vertisug which cocoaine then received.
its use ap pears to have been widely ex-
tsnded-simulaneously with reduction
in its cost which places it within the reach
of ordinary buyers.
Physicians are familiar with tho NOR
bid taste for anaesthetics which prevails in
sociely-espccially among woman. In the
last generation ladies who would not have
thought OF drinking glass Of brandy,
constantly stuperfed themse.vee by doses
OF laudnum. Some of them succeeded at
last in taking sixty drop, at a dose with
out injury This was merely the opium
evil in another phase, and fully as bad as
smoking or eating. More recently lsud>
anum was superseded by illusions of NOR
phia, chloroform and chloral bydrate,
commonly known as chlora. Far more
women than peopl. known are in the hab
it of putting themselves into a half
dreamy state by the use at chlorsl, and its
consu, ,nption AS reported by the drug |
yists-has been subject Of serions con-
Germ. Now cocoaine pro mises to become |
popular This is a much more dangerous
article than the Others II has no effects |
# applied to the skin. Bat when brough. |
INTO contact with tissue denuded of ep- |
dermis. in n solution of four parts of the
irug and one of water, it produces local
and exc; cses a peculiar in
luence on the brain, which reminds one
If the fancitull tales we read of Arabian
hasEeesi. Dentists use it in their opera
IONS, though il mas no. proved success IN
topping .oothache. There is no doubt
hat it throws the consum 7 into ra ne
pleasant lanSuor-
But all physicians sgree that, like other
narcotics, its regular use is certain to be
INJURIOUS. 1t checks the pulse, alter the
,lobuls of the blood, and tends to a dis
of the brain matter. Peo-
Ole who get into the hahit of using
t had better make their wills while
hey are still in disposing mind.