The morning news., 1889-01-21
WOMEN WHO ARE "F1ENDs."
People Who are Addicted to Various
Deleterious Drugs.

| said DR.. Charles Perry, the popular phar-
macist Of PAX Row, ito see how many
women are 'fends' or course when | say
| fiands, | do not mean anything peculiarly
demoniac or suggestive Of that sulphur GUS
! realm of which 50 much is said. | am only
+ using an old term in the pharmaceutical
| trade for people who get into the habit of
using some pernicious drug. You have no
idea how many there are in great metro
polls like New York. question IL there be
a single apothecary In the city but what
| has at least dozen women patrons whose
chief purchases are Of narcotics and similar
compounds
The commonest vice in this regard is the
! opium habit The number of victims of
/ this habit is far up in the thousands. Some
| buy the crude gum and eat it as regularly
as they take their daily meals. Others buy
laudanum and drink it in quarter-ounce,
| half-ounce and even ounce portions &C
cording to the extent to which they are con-
trolled by the narcotic. Some who have
| keen palates and tender stomachs can not
| take laudanum and use instead paregoric.
| This ancient mid wife's favorlte is simply a
| sweet preparation Of opium favored chiefly
| with aniseseed and tastes somewhat like the
anisette or kummel used in French and
| German restaurants. Still others of the
same sort use the infants soothing syrups,
| which Quacks put upon tho market for the
auparent benefit but the eventual ruin of
| babie3 and which are so heavily splced and
| favored as to suggest French mixed can
| dies rather than any medicine. Outside Of
| these are the people who use Dovers Pow
| ders and morphine pills. Both of these
and especially tina latter, act rapidly aud are
very popular with opium fends VINO wake up
in the early moraiug with large aud painful
heads. All Of these opium fiends are OBJ
| lects Of pity. The habit seems more a dis
| ease than vice. As it progresses, their
I whole nature physical, mental and moral,
| seems TO undergo a complete revolution. AT
| the first they slowly lose their appetites,
| and then the eyes become preternaturally
| bright Soon the flesh begins to fall away,
and the space around the eyes becomes dark
from being surcharged with blood. Next
| the skin loses its normal color and changes
| to a sodden gray, blotched brown or an
| unhealthy yellow. After this come the
| strangest symptoms Imaginable. In the
| coolest day the victim perspires copiously,
| and shivers at the same time. On the other
hand, he complains Of being frozen in mid
| August when the thermometer is in the
nineties. Without the slightest cause he
suddenly weeps and betrays all the emotions
| of intense distress When this stage is
| reached he or she is a 'fiend.' Thereafter
there is but little hope of cure. They must
| have the drug, and to get it they will leave
| no stone unturned. In one case tnat came
under my professional notice the victim be-
| longed to a first-class Philadelphia family
and had every wish supplied by her brother,
| a wealthy South American merchant. She
| contracted the habit from the liberal use of
| morphine prescribed by her physician when
| she was sick. As the vice grew upon her.
| she was not satisfied with the allowance he
| gave her, but sold or pawned her jewelry
| and wearing apparel to buy further quanti-
ties of the narcotic. When her brother
49, L. l..
| careful Investigation and ascertained that
nearly, everything she hal in the world had
been hypotheclted in this manner In her
| trunk, which was empty, no found 400 pawn
| tickets that ran all the way from p cents
| up TO so and 100 He consulted the best
| physicians, but all that they could do was
to put her in the great asylum at Morris
town, n. j., where, after few months of
abstention from the drug, she died in terri
| bic agOnv.n
another habit" continued DR.. Perry,
(which comes under the druggists eyes is
| the 'bromide-habit' which includes the ex-
| cessive use of bromide of potassium, bro
mide ammonium, and bromide of lithium
"The brom.de-tiend gradually develops
an abnormal condition of the nerves, under
which sleep or even comfort is impossible
without a constant use of the anodyne salts.
Muscular and intellectual exertion grow
mora and more difficult until the habitue
gets into semi-sleepy state in which she
simply moves and vegetables rather than
lives. The bromideS exercise but little iu-
fuence at first upon the vital organs: as the
habit continues they more and more depress
their action; their final action is to so impair
all the bodily functions as to produce strange
and at times incu-able forms of disease
While the opium habit can scarcely be
cured, the bromlde-habIt is cured with but
little difficulty. Another odd thing is that
while there are more male than female
opium fiends, there are at least three times
as many women as men addicted to the
bromide-habt.
The new coal-tar product antipyrin has
already started a vice of its own. This
singular compound was discovered by a
German che mist, and on account of its re-
markable qualities, is now used the world
over. 1t has the power of reducing the
temperature of the body by several degrees,
and so Is Of vast utility in treating
fevers and feverish stage of many diseases.
1t does its work by depressing the action
of the heart, and generally when en-
ployed by physicians 1t is accompanied With
digitalis to neutralize its influence
in the latter regard. Women use it partly
because it IS sedative and partly because
1t makes the complexion beautifully clear
and pale by keeping the blood away from
the surface of tue body. The habit like
all Others grows upon the person who prac.
tlces 1t. 1t does harm, however, from the
first, With womea who are weak, it in
creases their Weakness with those having a
predispostiOl toward heart disease of any
sort, 1t increases the tendency to a terrible
extent. Besides these results, antipyrin ex-
erts peculiar influence upon the blood,
which is not vet thoroughly understood by
the faculty 1t seems to undergo some de-
composition or breaking down when alb
sorped by the Sys EN-, developing unknown
compounds which either attack the blood
itself or else powerfully influence the
nerves and ganglia which control the vital
functions.
Two other habits, said Dr. Perry, "are
much more comm than is generally be-
heved, the use Of cbloral and of cocaine
preparations. Both are terrific vices, while
the latter means physical and mental ruin.
Chloral acts ia peculiar way. Ii de ON
poses in the blood and changes 10 caloro-
form which in turn acts as an esths stic
within the uoiy just the same as when in
hailed. The choral fend' can ue detected
at a glance. Her face assumes yellowish
or greenish hue that is unmsta6able: the
eyes become sapphire or boodshot the orbits
grow dlscolored; the breath assumes a hor-
rlble flavor; the appetite vanisheS and the
nerves become disordered to the worst de-
gree. The cocaine fiend is beyond redemp-
ton. She lives in a world of dreams that
are shattered only when health departs and
reason vanishes She is irresponsi BILE ami
deaf and blind TO conscience and even de-
cency
NTthara 10 ppo tb;nrv ,,orn -hiob ou0ht 70