The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-01-07

auCnOfltlyc tcSLmOHy As 10 sHiS. a. Inc
same time, even those physicians who
have used it most successfully will not
make the claim that the drug can yet
take its place in pharmacopGia with 9th
ers of equal energy about which every
thing is known and concerning which
experimentation is at an end. At pres
ent the remedy is yet in its infancy, and
| its full scientific Characterization is still
incomplete. This being the case and its
remarkable potency being 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-
fessional supervision.
1t is, nevertheless, already widely SO
used, if we may believe the reports of
accident due to its ignorant employ
ment which the newspapers here and
there throughout the country publish
from time to time. Cocaine is proba-
bly, having the same career that other
narcotics have always run before they
finally took up their place as remedies
We no longer believe in the elixir OF
life or the philosophers stone, but q
large part of the public still seem to
regard the pharmacopria as likely at
any moment to be enriched by some
paradisiacal drug whose potency for
pleasure shall be infinite and unac-
companied by any corresponding pain,
1t is in some degree still a popular
superstition that the law of action and
reaction, applicable in all other cases,
fails entirely when confronted with A.
drug. And this in spite Of the fact. at-
tested by a prominent physicisn some
years ago, thst the only branch Of med
icine ii which enormous strides have
not been made within the LIST half GEM
tury is therapeutioss Yet quack medi-
cines for incurable diseases were never
moro successful, and the ordinary drug
clerk is regarded By many persons in
measrably the same way that the In
dams regard their ssmcdicine men, : and
his prescriptions for chronic complaints
as the African savage regards his fetich-
What is most noteworthy. however.
in connection with 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 pheno-
menon is moral rather than physical.
The numbers who resort to tobacco and
alcohol in excess testify by no means
exclusively to diseased stomachs and
disordered nervous systems. but to
desire, almost acute enough to be called
passion. to escape FROM moral sur
roundings and change the conditions- OF
moral sensation. The humdrum of
life, not to speak of its ''intolerable bur
dens'' and painful necessities, makes
the imaginative temperament, which is
to be found as often in the howell as iE
the palace, uncontrollably restless and
defiant Who would not eat opium
from time to time if he could be sure of
perfect immunity from the pains and
perils of it? Only the sane. the wise
and the healthy who form, after all,
. small part Of aaY community. The
history of chloral as popular narcotic
must be familiar to every one. The
avidity with which it was seized upon
by that large majority which is unhappy
or unhealthy, or both, received check
only when il dclctcrious effects became
known. Gocaine is manifestiy destined
to the same career. It viii be = public
blessing 4 reports Of its abuse, however
sensational and unscicntific, lead people
TO recall the great fact Of hrnaan life,
namely that only by spiritual means can
spiritual ills be circumvented or dimin-
ished. Philadelphia Press