Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-04
MODERN NEP ENTITIES.

From the Pasadena Union
The growing predisposition to use GER
tain forms Of drugs, is subject that
may well attract the attention Of the
moralists and reformers today.
De Quincy in his unexampled way,
told the world much of the seductions
and horrors of the opium habit, but
there are kindred vices that it will take
modern De Quincy to properly depict,
and describe the degree of degradation
and moral perversion, that holds thral-
dom over the users of more modern
drugs. Each decade seems to add new
means of qualification to the depravity
of these morbid tastes. Opium or its
active principle morphine, once held
solitary sway as the means OF supplying
the artificial life upon which the vic
tins exist. The opium smoking
habit was one of the concomi-
tants that was introduced with the
Mongol, with whom it is the supreme
habit of life, and without which few of
them would care to exist. Hasheesh,
made famous by Dumas, has also had Its
many votaries. Snuff dipping and gin
ger essence drinking by the poor whites
of the south. are mild evils in compari-
son. But the victims of these will
generally look for more enthralling
substitutes to satisfy their enlarging APP
petites.
Choral, came as great boon to the
large army of narcotic users, and has
held its dangerous sway, and produced
its tragic results. The great army of
silent dead, number many enrollments
through its baneful influence. The bro
mides are but mild substitutes for more
powerful drugs. but these too have their
legion of friends.
The drinkers of eau de cologne, the
eaters Of camphor, the arsenic fiend and
the chloroform inhaler are well known
to the drug dispenser.
And so the brilliance of some fair
lady's eyes may not be due to her loves
presence, but to the peculiar virtues of
belladoana. Anti-pyrine is now enlist
ing among its votaries those who object
to undue color at ones nose tip or
cheeks. Perhaps, however, the most
vicious modern craze in this line is that
of coacine eating. Druggists and physi
clans alone can tell of the remarkable
extent to which this remarkable drug is
being used. In the beginning the cocoa
leaf received attention among medical
men for its valuable tonic and stimula-
ting effects and its apparent harmless
ness. Those who resorted to this
soon exacted from the chemist his per-
suasive powers over the innocent leaf,
and therefrom was evolved the more
potent principle cocaine. Valuable in
legitimate use, its excessive taking has
sent many victims to the protection of
the lunatic asylums' bars. 1t is within
the knowledge of the writer that two
men,-both physicians-have been thus
placed under restraint within a year, be-
cause of their unrestrained use of CO.
came. Dealers in drugs tell us that the
consumption of narcotics is on a steady
increase, that their victims are growing
rapidly. Most victims of these vicious
habits admit their evil effects. and their
desire to reform. Few ever succeed in
escaping the powerful thraldom, when
once its force becomes fully exerted.
In this respect, it is harder to throw
off this habit than theuse of Intoxicating
liquors. The will power is rendered nil
by the physiological effects of the drug,
and frequently all sense of moral respon-
sibility is extinguished, and the suffer
ing victim, looking the consequences
squarely in the face, VIII yet as eagerly
cry out for the means of finding sur
cease from their mental and physical
tortures. Many crimes that would
otherwise be difficult of explanation,
under the existing environments, could
find ready solution were the habits of
the criminal known to be such as re-
ferred to. The origin of these habits
may be traceabe to several causes not
within the scope of this article, but their
cure should demand the attention of
social reformers and moralists.