Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-07-03

80 fortunate Is comparatively small The
slave TO drink, a drunken sot the greater
part of his life, finds 1t hard to reform and
live decent life, but even he encounters no
such obstacles in the way of right as does
the opium eater after he has well
entered the downward course. But
of the number who use opium, by no
means all descend rapidly from bad
to worse, as is the prevailing idea, steadi-
~ increasing their doses of the drug.
That, very likely, is the rule among opium
eaters of civilized countries, but it certain
ly is not the rule where its use is most
common and infinitely the largest quanti-
ties of it are consumed. A gentleman who
has spent many years in India, and studied
the opium habit there, even goes so far as
to say that moderate use of the drug-as
it is consumed by the very great majority OF
those either eating or smoking it's not
prejudicial, and to very many persons, and
in many positions, it is actually beneficial
"Among the Rajpoots," he says, ''the ma
jority use opium IN one form or another
either swallowed in the shape of little pills,
or drunk as 'umal pawnee,' or smoked as
chandaL Yetthe Rajpoots, speaking gen
orally, are as fine race Of men as any to
be found in the eastern hemisphere.
have known middle-aged men, hale and
hearty and capable of the greatest fatigue,
who hay used opium from their youth up
ward. 1t is very rarely that these people
exceed the accustomed quantum, and
have occasionally known individuals to
break OF the habit But as rule, finding
it does them no harm and that they are
exhilarated and strengthened thereby, the
habit Is not left of. Again, in the more
malarlous districts Of India. as, indeed, in
some other malarious countries, opium eat
ing is very prevalent Opium has long
been noted as an anti-periodic,
and there is no manner of doubt
that it is prophylactic against
ague and malarious febrile diseases
generally. If it were not for opium, the
mortality from malarious fevers in India
would be very much greater than it is. 1t
is also an inestimable boon to the very
poor, and especially in times of scarcity and
famine, for it enables persons to exist upon
less food than they otherwise could live on.
Neither is the consumer of opium mentally
incapacitated."
The conclusions which may be drawn
from all this are, that opium, when proper
ly used, is drug of exceeding value; that
In certain conditions of i'll health it is alb
solutely Indispensable; that when abused
and used immoderately it is surely de-
structive TO health and life. 1t is an agent
which ought never to be in other hands
than those of a physician. When ordered
for patient, he should take misunderstanding
ly; but limit its use to the absolute need,
and never self-administer it on his own re-
sponsibility If these rules are observed,
opium will never do any one harm. As for
the effects upon the people of India and
China, they would not be the same as those
in other countries where the vice of opium
using was not a national one. "Custom
breeds tolerance" and the habit perpet-
uated generation after generation has
doubtless lost much of its virulence, as
does the poison of rabies in NJ Pasteur's
laboratory in his process of attenuation.
Certain it is that opium eating or smoking
can never be justified in any civilized coun-
try, and criticism is useless beyond such