The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1886-03-03
t8.EDIcAL sLAyRs no proRrmfNE.
= Large percsntsge of Our Physicians
Ruin Their Health by Using the Drug.


:" You will be surprised" said widely
known doctor, to learn the large number
of physicians who are confirmed morphine
eaters.
should think, y interrupted the repor
ter, " that doctors who are aware of the
consequences of the habit would be the last
to form it.n
So would'any one who has not made
the subject special study" replied the ply.
sician. 'No man ever begins using NOR
phine for any reason which naturally causes
him to use liquor. For instance, there is
no conviviality about the morphine habit.
You never heard of man inviting another
into drug store and treating him to n.y.
podermic injection of morphine. Neither
is it ever taken at dinner or at IN evening
party Therefore the common excuse fol-
forming the habit which is SO often given
by victims of alcoholism can never be
given by slave of opium. Its first use is
medicinal. After a man has become parti-
all addicted to the drug in sickness he
oftentimes continues its use during con-
yalescence, and before he realizes that he
is in the tolls he finds that he Is no longer
his own master, and he continues its use
until he is completely enslaved. OF course,
there are some foolish persons who take up
the drug through curiosity. They are usu-
ally children, or dissipated men and wo-
men, aud as rule they ara opium smok-
ers, not morphine takers The effect of
the use, however, is almost precisely the
same. Opium stimulates the brain rather
more than morphine, but one is as dsas.
trous to its victim as the other.
6 There is another reason, too" continu-
ed the doctor, why so many of the NOR
phine takers are physicians. The use of
the hypodermic syringe is something that
laymen have little knowledge Of, and they
are therefore unable to form the habit, even
IL they had the desire to do so. Ipresume,
also, that a physician, from his own lnowl-
edge of the use of the drug and its effects,
has more confidence in himself than lay
man would have, and this often tempts him
beyond the power of resistance. Then
again, doctors are SO oyerworked, as a rule,
lose SO much sleep, eat so irregularly, and
are obliged to have their mental and physi-
sal faculties in such constant order, that
they are led to turn to this drug, which in
time completely takes the place of natures
own restoratiyes.n
Does it fully take the place of rest,
food and sleep?
81 suppose should not have said That
it completely does, for that would be i'm
possible, but it produces an instant relief.
The patient becomes soothed and quoted.
His nerves cease TO trouble him and pain
vanishes in n second. harmony fills his
soul, and although he may lie for hours on
his bed as sleepless at the sun ut midday,
he is never tired, never lonesome and never
feels the slightest monotony. His yolition
is entirely suspended. doubt whether q
man WHO first feels The effects of morphine
would leave his bed were his house burn
ing down around his head unless he were
compelled to do so.'
" 1t can be cured ?p
"Without question. Any man who has
no organic disease such as renders the con-
slant use of the drug necessary to the re-
lief of pain can be cured within thirty days,
provided, of course. that he Inns desire TO
be cured, for there is no royal way TO
health for q morphine user. The cure is
painful, but certain, and the discovery of
new drugs every year makes il easier.