Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-06
A TERRIBLE HABIT.
Tie Confession of a Drinker O.
Hydrate of Choral.
An I%nsiduous Drug More Fearful and Nrore
Injurious In Its Effects Than
O~pium-The Horrors of
Choral Mania

After an apparent forgetfulness of the
once famous anasthetic hydrate Of
choral, recent fatal leases seem to
have awakened public interest in this
effective drug. 1 need not describe the
dangerous drug further than to say it is
a salt of burning pungent taste, having
a great affinity for water; its basis is
chloroform, into which it is supposed
to be changed into the blood. In small
doses it is stimulant and antispasmodic,
in larger narcotic, while an overdose
produces death a. instantaneously as a
flash of lightning. Like opium, the
dose must be constantly increased to
keep up the same effects. The stimula-
ton, however, is not like that caused by
opium or alcohol; it is not celebrating.
and does not incite to action either
mentally or bodily. But the subject of
the influence rises for a time above all
his cares or sorrows or fatigue, and
seems to look on life through the me-
dunn OF a rose-tinted glass. But while
care and sorrow are forgotten and a
strange, dreamy sense of perfect ease,
comfort and happiness takes their
place, all affection and love are likewise
banished. He is apathetic and cares
Tor nothing save his own sense of COM
fort. In this state the confirmed choral
taker would stand by the death-bed of
his nearest and dearest a passive spec
tator, if not actually smiling, and for
the same reason he would stand quietly
on the scatfold until executed. II the
same dose is repeated without the chlor-
alist lying down speech becomes indis-
tinct, the eyelids drop, and the gait in
walking is affected just as in drunken
ness from alcohol. The chloralist
drunk in the first degree, is by no
means an unpleasant companion. A
stranger could mark nothing unusual
about him; he is genial, and although
rather languid and by no. means
bright in conversation, he is
at al events 9 good listener, and is cas-
lily pleased, although his smiles often
partakc Of the hysterical order, and,
too, he is at times easily aroused into
an outbreak Of furious passion, which
dies away just as suddenly as it came,
leaving no trace behind. But, of
course. every one will not be affected
precisely alike, as much depends on
me ld~losyncrasy or innate pe%culiarities
o. tho chloralist. In my wv early
stage OF chloral taking l used to take a
snail plck-me-up dose when starting on
u Journey by rail. The effect was rath-
or remarkable. Ali sense of bodily IA
tgue and even of unpleasant motion
was banished. l seemed lifted out of
myself--a spirit travelling by rail-and
me ~eVcr-varying scenery went gliding
past me like an enchanted diorama.
Inc difference in the effects of choral
ana opium under the same circum-
stances would be this: Opium is moral
anu imaginative, and paints things as
theIN really do not eXistAthrows an
artificial halo around them, as it were;
ci!oral merely increases the power OF
enjoying the real. The picture on the
Dr;lln OF the chloralist is, so to speak,
photographic compared to that on the
pfa!l OF the opium-eater, which might
~ called phantasmagorical. 81 know
from experience" said a neighbor to
lne the other evening, ''the work that
cnioral does. For manymonths, every
h'Sht on my return from business, I
FOUND my poor wife drunk and my
Gear children, who used to be so merry,
s:lent and unhappy. But there was no
smell OF Intoxicating liquor inthe room.
OF even about her breath, and all my
efforts to unravel the dreadful mystery
We're u%nayailing. But one evening
"1ter Yea she dropped from her chair
W. lie trying to speak to m~e-dropped
IKE 4 log on the floor, and l
carried her to bed. Her face was
req and swollen, her lips blue; her
rms and legs We're marble cold, even
Lard; she had no pulse at the wrist,
tut breathcd as quietly as an infant.
j sat beside her all that long night.
towards morning the sleep was broken
oI means and deep catching signs, and
"nen she, at length awoke it was dread
lal ever to look apon her suf1erings and
:::Sony. From the doctors lips | first
heard the name Of choral. She is now
~ssVous imbecile. and must. I fear.