The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-02-15
THE CHLORAL HABIT.
THE CONFESSION OF A DRiNKER OF
HYDRATE OF CHLORAL.
An Iasidious Drug More Fearful in Its
Effects Than Opium-The Horrors
of Choral Mania - Effect
ing Cure.
brooklyn Eagle

brooklyn EagleI
By this time never less than five drains
of the hydrate Of chlOral was my nightly
dose From the time | arose in the morn
ing nv sufferings were extreme. l had
now lost all power of reading, writing,
or speaking aloud; any attempt to do
either was circulating brain agony, and
if persevered in fainting followed. L
could hardly move my head from the pill
low or sit erect, while my eyes seemed
starting from their sockets if | attempted
10 walk But toward night-welI, II all
of mental. all of bodily suffering l
ever endured in my life could be COM
pressed into one hour it would not ex
coed the torment then underwent Every
vein in my body seemed swollen to double
the size and intiamed along the whole
length, while the restlessness was so dis
treSsing that | could not lie for five min
utes in any one position Add to this
that time seemed indefinitely long-min-
utes as hours and hours as days-and you
will have some faint notion Of my expert
euce Of the grand remedy for sleepless-
ness that had no after effects.
Then came a day when my laudlady
took fright and went of her own accord
for a medical man to come and see me.
was worse that day than ever l had been
This gentleman hardly stopped minute
with me and as he went out | heard him
say to the landlady: You ought to have
sent for me befOre-weeks ago. He can't
last many hours now. -" SO. then, 1t had
come at last | was almost face TO face
with the grim enemy. | went quietly to
bed and took more choral The doctor
was To come at 10 in the morning and
was anXiOusly awaiting his arrival lie
came at last The first thing he did was
to glance up at the windows to see If the
blinds were down, and | think he was dis
appointed that they were not L did not
like this man, and lay perfectly still,
with closed eyes when he came IN. He
felt my pulse gently enough, and then
stood looking at me a few moments with
his hands in his pockets. Nv ordering
what you'll put in my death certificate,
eh, doctor" said |, opening my eyes. Il
am, " he replied bluntiy Then, " said I,
"here is the verdict-felo de sc. Now,
good bye; l can't bear talking" He went
away accordingly, thinking, no doubt,
was 5 Chilly distracted.
Hardly had the sound of this mans car
rage wheels died away in the distance
when hale, hearty. bluff old gentleman
stepped into nv room. He was medical
man had often heard of; he had a good
deal of bluntness about him, but hid
kind heart behind a rough exterior He
soon elected from me the whole history
OF the Cl. oral. IUOQ lie SIOOU at my ped
side and offered to bet me five to one that
if / followed his instructions to the letter
| would be a different man and in good
health in five months. He examined my
heart said it was weakened by the poison
imbibed, but nothing more. Though his
words seemed to me only cruel mock
cry, promised faithfully to obey him in
every particular Then he destroyed all
my choral, and asked me if / had any
l. \ lzy, 4 ha,ly oh rol hot ,irrl,f
and such night l never passed before,
and / trust I never shall again. Sleep, of
course, was impossible; but tossed about
all the long, long hours in bath of per-
SEPARATION yawning, stretching. and sneeZ-
ing.
The most painful feeling was a sensa-
ton of rending at my heart, as if some
monstrOus crab were gnawing out my
vitals. | never slept wink for over
week. and then sleep came in ftful
snatches | was, of course, to much pros
trated to leave my bed. On the second
night | was deliriOus and so on for the
several nights following My delirium,
100, took at first a strange form. Some
presence seemed to be ever with me ask
ing me question after question in rapid
succession, which | was compelled to
answer in rhyme. W Ords or meter never
once failed me, and in one night | am GER
tain composed sufficient verses to set a
dozen poets up in life; in fact, [ had been
suddenly transformed into a living. breath
Eng, rhyming dictionary; but the distress
this form of delirium caused me can
hardly be imagined.
On the third night there was an entire
change in the performance; the rhyming
power left me, my eye no more rolled in
fine frenzy, and the dilirium was changed
to a diOramic enteTtainment-to wit, in
my travels and voyages around the world
l had gazed on many a beautiful coast
scene from my cabin; these scenes were
framed, as it were, by the round port
hole, and very pretty pictures they often
made, each one varied as the weather or
climate varied, but always having the sea
in the foreground. whether calm and Sc
rene or ru ed and angry the sky above,
whether blue with tlocks of snowy cloud
lets or dark and lowering with the com
ing storm. and the landscape in the mid
die. Now back from the realms of mem
DRY came those circulating pictures, one
by one, and by the hundreds gliding be-
fore my half closed eyes like dioramic
scenes of enchantment. My recovery was
a long one. but hope had renewed in my
heart. and in three M nths | could walk
as many miles. Sleep, too. returned to
bless me- and felt indeed new man.
Blessing on the rough kindness of that
good and clever doctor.