The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-03-27
COCAINE.
The Senseless Use of . Powsrfnl Thefn-
peutlc Agent.

VOCAINE.
The sensslsss Use Of . Powsrfai Thsra-
peutic Agent.
The insanity of a Chicago physician.
due to the immoderate use of cocaine.
will probably strengthen the popular
/ prejudice against the use of this pow
erful drug. This effect will be salutary
beyond question, be the reasons which
induce it never so ignorantly insuffi-
cient. That cocaine is an extremely
| efficaci0us 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 full of authoritative testimony as to
this. At the same time, even those
physicians who have used it most sue
cessfully will not make the claim that
the drug can yet take its place in the
pharmacopeia with others of equal
energy about which everything is
known and concerning which expert
mentation is at an end. At present the
remedy is yet in its infancy, and its full
scientific characterization is still incom-
plete. This being the case and its re-
markablc 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 1t certainly
ought not to be used except under pro-
fcssional supervision.
1t is, nevertheless, already widely so
l>el, al 81
accident due to its 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 as
remedies. We no longer believe in the
elixir of life or the philosophers stone,
but large part of the public seems to
regard the pharmacopeia as likely at
any moment to be enriched by some
paradisical drug whose potency for
! pleasure shall be infinite and unaccom-
panied by any corresponding pain. 1t
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 a
new drug. And this in spite of the fact,
attested-by prominent physician some
years ago, that the only branch of med
icine 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 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 rs 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
a passion, to escape from moral sur.
roundings and change the conditions
of moral sensation. The humdrum Of
life, not to speak of its ''intolerable
burdens" and painful necessities, makes
the imaginative temperament, which
is to be found as often in the hovel 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 iii? Only the sane, the wise
and the healthy--who form, after all, .
small part of any community. The
history of choral as a popular narcotic
must be familiar to every one. The
avidity with which it was seized upon
by that large majority which is un-
happy or unhealthy, or both, receiveds
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 unscientific.
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. = PhstadelphtG