The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-09-13
PhvsloLoov AND kvoie 4e.

The Fatal Drug That for the M0ment
| Makes Life Dream Of Happiness.
An English authority gives the following
graphic description Of the action OF morphia
and the experience Of those who are known
a. ''morphia Hends:"
Imagine an instrument about the size Of a
pencil case, constructed somewhat after the
model of wasp's sting, and fitting into tiny
case that will 60 with ease into the waistcoat
pocket or the bosom Of the dress This Is the
injector, and slight puncture OF the skin
with the waspish point Is sufficient to enable
the required quantity of the magic fluid to be
discharged into the system There are three
distinct stages of morphia absorption, all OF
them brief In duration, the last one briefest
Of ALL
During the first stage the results are purely
pleasurable, they bring draught Of fresh
life into jaded limbs. The faculties receive q
sudden stimulus, the callous sense Of pleasure
is sensitive once more, the vision of the
world cast on the mental eye is drawn In
rosy lines, the whole appreciation Of things
earthly is that of one who is prepared to
drain the cup of life to the bottom and enjoy
it to the full. The subject lives in gla-
injurious sense of vague happiness, her half
closed eyes reveal the state Of exquisite lassi-
tude which laps her limbs, she feels that her
one enemy is exertion, she Is too happy to
trouble about anything
In time, however, a change comes DER
the spirit of this rose colored dream. Its
continuity becomes broken by dreadful in
tervals of reaction, during which the victim
IL oppressed by all the horrors Of intense
melancholy and weakness, and from which
relief can only be obtained by continual
repetition of the process Of injection. 1t is
30 easy to drive away the blue devils that
are making themselves apparent, to check
the reaction which has begun to set in, to
change the dark shadows which are clouding
over the vision Of life into the rainbow hues
of the morning, to transform the victim Of
melancholy, the prospective suicide, into the
laughing child Of pleasure. So easy, but
only by constant use of the fatal drug; and
as the former slight injections have lost their
power, larger doses of the stimulant must be
launched into the system.
The result, however, of the increase of the
quantity injected is to develop the feeling Of
lassitude until in time-such brief period!-
it completely overpowers the senses, and the
victim becomes practically lost to the world.
She lives in rose colored world of her own,
in which happiness reigns supreme and which
she would not leave if she could; for her re-
entry into the life she has forsaken can only
be accomplished by passing through period
Of intense mental and bodily torture. She
knows that she is slowly dying, that she is
slipping to extinction in soulless, mechani-
cal way, like clock which inevitably runs
down when its motive power is exhausted
but her appreciation of abstract ideas has be-
come blurred; life has lost it's meaning, death
It's terrors. Better it is, she thinks, so far as
she compares her condition at all, to fade
slowly and happily out of life without a
thought or care to checker the last brief |
period OF existence than to face the struggle |
~ which alone she could be saved.
1t has been reserved for modern science to
bring into existence and use the dreams of |
The ancient poets-the drug which conferred
happiness uncheckered and unalloyed Were
t possible, however, to analyze the mental
condition of the victim during the hours of
eaction, it might be possible to realize also
he tortures of the damned in the medieval
=. 43 d q 4, * e. i