Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-14

/ 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, accord
| ing 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 midwife's favorite is simply
| sweet preparation Of opium fla
vored chiefly with aniseseed and
tastes somewhat ike the anisette or
/ kummel used in French and German res
taurants. Still others of the same sort use
the infants soothing sirups, which quacls
! put upon the market for the apparent bene-
| fit but the eventual ruin of babies, and
/ which are so heavily Speed and favored
/ as to suggest French mixed candies rather
! than any medicine. Outside of these are
| the people who use Dover's powders and
morphine pills. Both of these, and es-
| peciaIly the latter, act rapidly and are very
popular with opium fends who wake up ID
/ the early morning with large and painful
/ heads. Ali OF these opium nendS are OBJ
/ jects of pity. The habit seems more 8
| disease than vice. As it progresses, their
whole nature, physical, mental and moral,
[ seems to undergo complete revolution.
At the first they slowly lose their appetites,
and then the eyes become preternsturally
! bright. Soon the flesh begins TO fail away,
and the space around tho eyes becomes
dark from being surcharged with blood.
Next the skin loses its normal color and
changes to a sodden gray, 8 blotched brown
or an unhealthy yellow. After this come
the strangest symptoms Imaginable. In
the coolest day the victim perspires copi-
ously and shivers at the same time. On the
other hand he complains of being frozen in
mid August, when the thermometer is in
the nmeties. 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 'hend.'
"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 of ammonium and bromide of llthium
''The bromide fiend gradually develops an
abnormal condition of the nerves. upier
which sleep, or even comfort, is impossible
without a constant use of the anodyne salts.
Muscular and intellectual exertion grow
more and more difficult, until the habitue
gets into semi-sleepy state, III which she
simply moves and vegetables rather than
lives
''The new coal-tar product antipyrin, has
already started vice of its own. This
singular compound was discovered by
German chemist 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 de-
grees, and so is of vast utility it treating
fevers and feverish stages of many
diseases. 1t does its work by depressing
the action of the heart, and generally when
employed by physicians it is accompanied
with digitalis to neutrallze it's influence in the
latter regard. Women uselt partly because
1t is sedative and partly because it makes
the complexion beautifully clear and pale
by keeping the blood away from the surface
of the body. The habit, like all others,
grows upon the person who practices 10
1t does harm, however, from the first.
With women who are weak, it increases
their weakness; with those having a pre-
disposition toward heart disease of any
sort, it increases the tendency TO a terrible
extent. Besides these results, antipvrln
exerts peculiar influence upon the blood,
which is not thoroughly understood by the
faculty. It seems to undergo some decompo-
Siton or breaking down when absorbed by
4he system, developing unknown com
or else powerfully influence the nerves and
ganglia which control the vital functions
"Two other habits" said DR. Perry, "are
much more common than is generally be-
lieved, the use of choral and of cocaine pre- =
arations. Both are terrific vices, while
the latter means physical and mental
ruin. Choral acts in a peculiar way. 1t
decomposes in the blood and changes to
III tybi oh tI,r cc+S on acth hot ic
within the body just the same as when in
hailed. The 'chlorai fiend' can be detected
at a glance. Her face assumes yellowish
Or greenish hue that is unmistakable; the
eyes become satire or blood shot; the orbits
grow discolored; the breath assumes a hor-
rible flavor; the appetite vanishes and the
nerves become disordered to the worst de-
gree. The cocaine fieDd is beyond redeup-
ton. She lives in a world of dreams that
are shattered only when health departs and
reason vanIshes she is irresponsible and
deaf and blind to conscience and even de-
cency.
There is one thing more which ought to
be said, and that is a protest against the
senseless outcry of how physicians start
these habits by careless prescriptions. Out
Of one hundred alleged cases which I have
examined every one arose from the curioS-
dy, folly or in trinsic viciousness of the VIC
tam, and not one from a habit contracted
while under medical treatment. The out
cry probably results from the fact that the
fends OBTAIN supplies Of their favorite
drugs upon physicians orders. To get these
recipes they adopt every expediency They
pretend to have neuralgia or insomnia and
deceive the ablest Doctors they borrow pre-
scriptions which contain their particular
poison and make dozens Of copies; they con-
suit chen nd obtain orders upon whole
sale DIR In fact, they exhaust hui
man ingenu.y in pandering to their depray-
~ ~