St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-02-13
COCAINE.
AUG Sense.ess Use OF a Powerful rber,,
peutic Agent.

peutic Agent.
The insanity of Chicago physician.
due to the immoderate use of cocaine
will probably strengthen the popular
preJuulce against the use of this DOW.
er1ul drug. This effect will be salutary
beyond question, be the reasons which
induce 1t never SO ignorantlv INSULT.
clent. That cocaine, is an extremely
eihcacious therapeutic agent and its
discovery one of the most important in
the recent history of medicine we make
no DOUBT. The current medical Journals
are 1uil OF authoritative testimony as to
'nis. AT the same time, even those.
physicians who have used it most ssuc-
cessfully will not >makesthe claim that
the drug can yet take its place in the
pharmacopGia with others of equal
energy about : which everything is
known and concerning which experi-
mentation at IN end. At present the
remedy is vet in its infancy, and its full
scientific characterization is still income.
plete. This beingsthe case and its re-
markable potencybeing considered, the
unprofessional public had far better
keep away from it. even if what deters
them be Irrational prejudice. Prejudice
OF this kind every physician will know
how to overcome, if there be any neces-
sity for using the drug, and it certainly
ought not to be used except under pro-
teSsional supervision.
1t is, nevertheless. already widely so
used. if we may believe the reports If
accident due to it's ignorant employ
ment which the newspapers here and
there throughout the country publish
from time to time. Cocaine is prob.
ably having the same career that other
narcotics have always run before they
finally took up their proper place rs
remedies. We no longer believe in the
elixir of life or the philosophers stone.
out large part of the public seems 10
regard the pharmacop9ia as likely ut
any moment to be enriched by some
paradisical drug whose potency for
pleasure shall be infinite and unacconl-
panied by anNcorresponding pain Il
is in some degree still popular SUPER
stitition that the law of action and re-
action. applicable in all other cases.
fails entirely when confronted with =
new drug. And this in spite Of the fact,
attested by q prOminentphysi cian some
. = WIS tuul IuC VI Uleu.
icne in. which enormous strides have
not been made within the last half
century is therapeutics. Yet quack
medicines for incurable diseases were
never more successful, and the ordina-
nv drug clerk is regarded by many per-
sons in measurably the same way as
the Indians regard their medicine
men, and his prescriptions for chronic
complaints as the African savage re-
CARDS his fetch.
What is most noteworthy, however,
in conRectionWith.this popular faith in
the miraculous efficacy of drugs is the
extent to which they are resorted to by
people who need absolutely nothing SO
much as to abstain from them. With
this class the different narcotics are, of
course, in greatest demand The phe-
nomeuon is moral rather than physical.
The number who resort to tobacco and
alcohol in excess testify by no means
exclusively to diseased stomachs and.
disordered nervous systems, but to q
desire, almost acute enough to be called
passion. to escape from moral sur-s
roundings and change the conditions
of moral sensation The humdrum Of
life, not to speak of its ''intolerable
burdens and painfulnecessities, makes
the imaginative temperament. which
is to be found as often in the howell as
in the palace. uncontrollably restless
and defiant Who would not eat opium
from time to time if he could be sure of
perfect impunity from the pains and
perils of it? Only the sane, the wise
and the healthy-who form. after all. .
small part of any community. The
history Of choral as popular narcotic
mustbe familiar to every one. The
avidity with which it was seized upon
by that large majority which is un-
happy or unhealthy, or both, received a
check only when its deleterious effects
became known. Cocaine is manifestly
destined to the same career. 1t will be
public blessing if reports of its abuse.
however sensational and unscientitic,
lead people to recall the great fact of
human life, namely, that only by spirit
ual means can spiritual ills be circum-
vented or diminished. = Philadelphia