The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-06-01
MORPHINE FOR LADIES.
How and Why Fair Parisiennes Use
the Deadly Drug.

/ HIS A. Il 0CAAAAAA111 A0A
wildered physician ''some sweet OBJ
livious antidote" to cleanse away 1.-THE
| perilous stuff which weighs upon the
heart."> At that period opium in all
its forms had not been discovered as a
poison to be used by murderers, or In
minute doses to deden pain and soothe
agitated nerves. Morphine injected
under the skin is the fashionable drug
| of the day. This IS one CT the most
highly concentrated forms in which
| opium can be given, and is, OF course,
a deadly poison. It's communicated
| to the system by q little syringe, which
| at the point is about the size of a large
needle, and the operation Is almost as
trivial and painless as the process OF
vaccination. After having seen it
done by a surgeon, sometimes without
any teaching, a lady can do IL for her
self. and thus this most dangerous.
because most seductive, of all forms
OF narcotization may become a secret
and deadly habit.
All classes of Parisiennes take it
''the fashionable lady, wearied by the
vigils of the ball room; the actress,
overpowered by the excitement OF the
footlights, and others overwhelmed
by drinking too deeply, Of pleasures
cup One writer in the French press
implores the doctors to interfere; NOR
phine, he says, is daily numbering
dozens of Pa~risiennes, and the drug is
about to under the name
sex~algine.'n For, while in compare
lively large doses this powerful poison
= - a~n hn rruad II CpnInG QC
n kind of stimulant. Ii the patient
resists sleep. then the drug exalts and
excites the whole system.
The person who has takeni it feels able
to saw with Romeo:-''My bosom's
lord sits lightly in his throne. And
all this day an accustomed spirit lifts
me above the ground with cheerful
thoughts" In fact, an e~xhilarating
form Of intoxication Is induced, and
the same result was recorded some
years ago, when the people in a viii
lage in the-north of Ireland adopted
methylated ether as their customary
drink. They could laugh and boast
and swagge after it as If each had re-
ceived that day some joyful news.
This dangerous habit is peculiarly
pernieious to such persons as the
ladies of Paris. They are not robust;
they inherit from their progenitors a
capacity for feverish excitement; they
are not fond of exercise. They are
pleasure seekers almost from birth,
for a French child shares more
of her mothers life than any
English boy or girl. The power
Of stimulants or narcotics is
much greater in such cases 1t will
be said, however, by the fair slaves
to the bad custom. that they require
it most because they are physically
weak and nervously excitable; if they
were calmer, they could go to sleep
without any such artificial stimulant.
Why, then, should they not use what
they above all people most want2
Now, no doubt, there are cases where
opiates have been prescribed by the
physician when it is necessary TO Sc
cure absolute quiet for restless nerves,
when the mind is wearing out the
body, or when pain banishes sleep.
Yet. even when q doctor is thus com
PEELED to inject a poison in order to
gain time for something that will
really cure, there is considerable dan
ger.
The first effect of morphine is either
a delicious forgetfulness of existence,
doublY welcome after hours of pains.
or an uplifting of the spirit after days
of deadly depression; but these eff
fects are aud must be temporary.
Then follows reaction, and the dose is
repeated; but after the doctor seeing
the danger of continuance, cuts off the
supply, the suffering of the patient is
redoubled, and there comes on him or
her a fierce craving for the old relief.
If this is secretly INDUCED all hope of
happiness must be abandoned unless
the maj or woman, which is rare, has
a strong will and can stop on the
downward slope. Everybody knows
how difficult it is to cure an habitual
female tippler; but the charm of alco-
hol is nothing TO the charm of NOR
phine; and here is the danger to the
unfortunate women in Paris who
have begun to use this fascinating
and fatal drug. 1t is a sweet poison
that sooner or later saps the body, the
mind and the will, and reduces what
was once a vigorous, virtuous, intel
lectual woman into a bundle of rest
less nerves, to be composed at inter
walls into lethargy or sleep. We doubt
whether the mania for opiates, once
thoroughly established, has yer been
e~radicated.
That fair Parisians should have
moments of WEAKNESS, languor. and
depression is natural enough. They,
above all people, can understand the
saying of Sir George Cornewall Lewis,
that life would be very tolerable if it
were not for its amusements. They
ever seek pleasure, and therefore CON
stantly miss it. Parisians of both
sexes seek new sensations every day
in every form of vice, sometimes wen
in fashionable virtues. Yet through
their light literature, as through their
lives, runs a wearisoIne fponotony of
sin-a perpetual round of the same
kind of Shiny jests on the same kind
of dishonor and infidelity. That a
ma or should be faithful to a
promise, a vow or an oath would
break the charm of French life. There
are in their dramas and stories two
characters that recur alway in the
same relation-the person who violates
a duty or breaks a pledge and the
avenger on his or her track. This
central situation is the kernel of every
Partisan fiction and every Partisan
play. Society is made up of persons
engaged in ~concealing such faults
committed bYfothers. When this has
gone on for generations it becomes
rather monotonous, and Paris plunges
for ~clanea in any direction Duri2