St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-02
New York Letter.

u SfA N AZ}tone of the body
# NIX ! often dangerous
n Ill e e5tent t. n 1t can an
safety under the
direction of skillfuf and ex-
perienced physician. The drug is
largely used by doctors all over
the world in many diseases, the
same as if everything that it is possible
to know about the drug was known, and
who can tell to certainty what the
after effect of the medicine is. 1t is
known that it breaks down the nervous
system, if not sparingly used, but
physicians are in the dark as to thecon-
ditiOns that are established in the body
and brain. To say that a habit is
formed that can not he broken does not
explain anything. as the simplest lay
man can see this without the aid of
SCIENTIFIC sPECTACLEs.
CeleStialS who are largely addicted to
the use of the drug seem to know more
about its effects than the educated
physician. The Chinese believe that
af' victim or 'ifiend'' has been pois-
o d three times by the drug that a
s Ell ng will soon afterward appear
rapidly, and. according to the Chinese
idea, the "fiend" is bound for glory, and
will soon smoke his pipe in the CeIestial's
heaven. The poisoning that comes
from smoking opium is different from
that which follows the drinking or in
lection of the drug.
Unfortunately the victim does not al
ways die when suffering from poisoning
by smoking, but lives on for a little
while. mental and physical wreck.
a case which tends to confirm the Chi
nese idea was recently healed at st.
Luke's hospital, IN the private ward.
The patient was Clara Looms, clever
young actress, who came here from her
home at Louisville. KY. to continue her
studies at the Lyceum School of Act
ing. She came of highly respectable
family, and the family history. as far as
is known. shows strong neurotic ten
dency. She was led to
"HIT THE PIPE"
by prominent actress, who told her
there was nothing better to develop the
emotional faculties than smoking
opium. Opium smoking up to certain
point does not set the nerves on edge,
and makes the mind keenIy alive to
every emotion and feeling; but there
are few persons who have the will
power to keep from passing the limit of
safety. Miss Loomis became "fiend"
in three months after she began to
smoke. and she not only smoked in
den on West Twenty-Seventh street. but
purchased an outfit and carried on the
practice in the privacy of her chamber.
She was treated twice for opium poi
soning by DR.. Koefler, and was tenn
porarily benefited on each occasion. AS
soon as the constant surveillance ceased
she went back to her old habit and
smoked worse than ever. Her appetite
was entirely beyond her control, and
she sacrificed friends. fortune and fame
in the frenZied pursuit of deluSiOnS and
fancies. The third time that Miss
Loomis was poisoned she was taken to
st. Luke's hospital. She was in
A CRITICAL CONDITION.
Her eyes were dull and the pupils
contracted; pulse, ITO per minute; res
piratiOnS. S per minute: intellect per-
fectly blank; body very much ENACT
ated. and her haggard face had the pale,
greenish-yellow color common to opium
smokers. She had not eaten anything
for five days, and during this period she
had smoked daily an average of $50 pills
of five grains each. The patient was
very restless. moved constantly from
side to side in bed. and talked without
ceasing about the visions that were
passing in her mind. DR.. Brite, recog-
nlzing that the patient was in great
danger, resorted to heroic measures to
restore the vitality. Koumiss and
brandy were given at short intervals
and atropia in One-thlrtieth grain
doses were administered hypoder-
mically. The respiration sank to 4 per
minute and the pulse went up to 200.
The powerful hypnotics, choral and
sulfonal. did not have any effect in pro-
ducing sleep, and the surgeon reluct-
antly gave her morphia in large doses.
There was slight change for the bet
ter. Rather than give the morphia by
hypodermic injection, an expert cooker
was employed from an opium den to
prepare and cook the pills, and the pa
tient smoked the opium pipe in the hos
pltal. Her system was toned by gradu-
ally reducing the quantity of opium in
each pill, and in month the poison
GUS symptoms had disappeared. She
had constant gnawing and pain in the
abdominal region. and it was these feel
ings, she said, that gave her the desire
for
THE OPIUM PIPE.
She was watched all the time SO that
she could not get the drug.
True to the Chinese prediction SWELL
ing appeared in the right side. 1t was
thought to be an ovarian cyst, and the
treatment was directed toward reducing
il by absorption. The nature of the
trouble was suspected when severe
paroXysnal pains were accom- panied by
a hillary discharge from the intestines.
They were indications that general
cholarmia was setting in, the result of
stones in the gall bladder, and an imme-
RI Int a IL rfoI
An incision was made in the right
swollen gall bladder was found con-
siderably out of position in the center
line of the body. The bladder was
drawn gently to the opening in the alb
domen, and trocar was thrust into it
and the fluid withdrawn. A portion of
the bladder was drawn outside the body
and cut open with knife, and large
number of small stones fell out on the
table. Some of them were brilliant
carmine, tinged with yellow. The stones
in the bladder were removed with q
small scoop. A large stone was I'M
packed in the common duct, and the
surgeon had
GREAT DIFFICULTY
in removing it. The surgeon gave. up
trying to force it back into the bladder
and finally crushed it with muffled for
ceps, and took it out in pieces. A por-
ton of the bladder near the cystic duct
which had liberated was cut away. The
bladder was stitched to the abdominal
inclSi0n SO that the bile would be dis
charged outside the body and not in the
abdominal space. rubber drainage
tube was inserted and the abdominal
wound closed with catgut sutures. The
stones removed, both large and small,