New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-01-16
OUTNTNE AND POLICEMEN.

The widely different effects which the same
drug will sometimes have on two persons is
Of the most interesting things noted by the student
II medicine. We need scarcely refer, by way Of
illustration 20 the old story OF the penniless
wanderer who set up in n strange city as doctor
N an attempt TO get enough money TO continue
his travels Ills first patient Dutchman
for whom he prescribed nuX vomca. The man
proi>ptly got well. The next caller was a
negro. for whom prescribed the same
drug. and who as promptly died. Whcrcupon the
amateur physician, wishing 10 make sure OF his
experience as he went along. for future practice
entered this item in his notebook Mem. Nux
yomica will cure a Dutclman, but it will kill a
Niger.
In this town there have been during the past
FEW months instances OF the diverse effects Of
another drug which would have surprised the
practitioner we have just referred 10 almost as
much as DID the strange action Of the nuN
vomica. Indeed, We believe that he would have
entered this in his notebook: n. b.. Quinlnc
will s0othe an ordinary man, but it will make
policeman 20 out on his beat and wh0Op and as
raut folks. Almost every week the spectacle Of The
poor police victim Of quinlnc Is brought before
tsc people Of this city or OF Brooklyn. By
peculiar coincidence the quininc attack Is lnyarl-
ably diagnosed by tie spectators as plain alcoholic
liquor drunkenness. Nor Is this 50 strange, per-
haps, when consider the wide difference IN
the effect OF quininc on common citizen and on
Il policeman. An ordinary dose Of quinlnc has
but little outward and visible effect in the case
Of the average man. lie remains in
bed or goes about his business, a.
the state Of his health may warrant,
and no one knows tEat no has taken any Of
the drug unless he mentions the fact But how
different il Is when member Of the New-lork or
brooklyn police force swallows few grains of
quininc lie Immediately goes duty and soon
begins TO whoop in really startling tone of voice.
lie is observed to staggcr about on the sidewalk as
if laying out the plan Of an old-fashioncd " worm
fence" Then lie embraces n lamp-poSt and sings
Annie Rooney in buzz-saw tones, and calls the
attention of the bystandcrs to the procession Of
telegraph poles which is moving down the street
lie then proceeds along his beat, occasionally re-
buling the undigniGcd efforts of the earth to rise
up and strike him, until he meets an noIcnsivc
man or woman, when he begins the active use of
his club over the subjects head. This is usually
continued till the arrest of the unfortunate officer
by brother patrolman not n victim
Of the deadly quininc, after which he
is taken away in ambulance TASTY
sprctators unacquaintcd with the facts. report
that the policeman is drunk Often the news
papers fall into the same error the next morn
ing. Strange as it may seem, the doctors at
the hospital where he is taken by the ambulance
sometimes make the same mistake. IL is usually
reserved for the penetrating lawyer Of the un-
happy officer to discover the true state of affairs
and in a voice touched with emotion to. explain
to the court and the Police Board that his client
had only taken Il few grains Of quinine to ward
of the grip. How much injustice, alas. there
would be in this world were it not for the self
sacrificing lawyer
The question why the effect OF qulnlnc on
policeman should be SO extremely different from
It's effect on another man, and more especially
why quininc should affect policeman precisely
as rum, taken III copous quantities, does ahothef
man, we must leave TO advanced medical science
IN answer