, 1891-12-17

CLIPPING OFF HIS SKIN.
the drug into his system with a hypoder-
mic syringe about a year ago to relieve To-
cal pain. and soon became what is known
as a "hend." When the collapse came he
was taking seventy-ive grains of the drug
daily, aud had reached a frightful state OF
nervous exhaustion. An attempt is being
made to restore him to a normal condition
by gradual reduction in the size OF the
doses, but the patients chances for life are
considered doubtful.
A queer feature Of the cocaine habit is
that the victims imagine that they are tor
mented with bugs. That is DR.. Rothert's
delusion, but he has not gone to the ex-
tremes reached by a fellow sufferer who
was recently cured. OF this latter patient
the attending physician said:
HE was in a terrible state at one time.
In his case the belief WAS that bugs had
crawled under his skin and were constant
ly moving about. He would shrug his
shoulders and go through the most fearful
contortions in the effort to secure relief
from the imaginary insects. Sometimes
they were ants and other times Shiny bugs.
The,peculiar Authorization was productive
Of awful agony. When finally his condi-
ton became such hat further concealment
was impossible he was placed under the
treatment of the most eminent physicians
of Cincinnati. When they examined his
body a startling discovery was made. His
thighs and the lower parts of his limbs
were found to be scarihed in numerous
places. 1t was evident that small patches
Of skin had been removed, and many of
them quite recently. The work had been
done with a sharp instrument.
Nothing was said to the patient, but he
was placed under a close watch. One even
ing the attendent noiselessly entered the
door. He was surprised to see the patient
sitting in a chair in the middle OF the
room. His head was bent over and he
seemed to be intently busy at something.
His back was to the door, and so quietly
had the nurse entered that the attention OF
the patient was not attracted. Curious to
solve the mystery, the attendant tiptoed to
one side until he had a fairly good view.
What do you think the 'iend' was doing7
He had taken a small pair of tweezers and
a scalpel out of his case OF instruments.
With the iron pincers he had raised the
skin, and before the nurse could reach his
arm he had given it a whack with the seal
pei, severing a piece of the cuticle nearly as
large as a five cent piece.
He had started toward the window,
still holding the patch of skin in the
tweezers, when the nurse touched him on
the shoulder. He turned around with an
innocent, inquiring look. In answer to the
~ttendant' questions he said that he mere
ly proposed to examine the particle under
his microscope. He talked very nationally,
saying that bugs had got in his skin and
were crawling around. He had frequently
examined them under the powerful mag
nifying glass, describing their shape and
appearance in the minutest detail. He
talked intelligently of the great annoyance
they had given him and of the peculiar dis
ease with which he was afflicted. He even
grew enthusiastic over the good work he
was doing in the cause of science, and said
he proposed to write an extended article
for a leading medical magazine or the
symptoms and cause of the new malady
and giving the results of his personal in
yestiRatioD,p