The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-10

said DIR, Samuel O. L. Potter, superin-
teudent of the Home, notwithstanding
his condition and the fact that he has
been here before. think If he were kept
quiet for month or two and denied all
drugs he might again become a valuable
citizen"
us the cocaine habit growing1"
81 should say il was. Why, about six
years ago cocaine was So cents a grain.
There was none of this widespread habit
then. II has all grown up in recent years.
Now the drug can be purchased at retail
at 3 cents a grain, and three or four drug
stores in this city sell il to its victims in
! quantities to suit. Most of the reputable
| drug stores will not do this, notwith-
standing the fact that the trade is very
! profitable. They don't care TO have such
a class of customers about them But
the habit grows ana grows and grows"
lis it very degrading"
"Dreadfully so. Now, here is a hypo-
dermic syringe | recently took from a
| West Point graduate, the son of an old
| general of the army. When he was
brought here | added it TO the collection
| there in the case. Look at that syringe
The point in the needle has been broken
and filed down, because the victim
couldn't get money enough to buy a new
one Why, it's enough to poison mans
entire system to inject that dirt into his
the last time he used the syringe he took
a penknife and gashed his arm, and then
stuck the Osyringe into the wound.
That's the condition they get into"
'How is the habit generally acquired"
I'm the effort to cure the morphine
habit by using the cocaine to counterfeit
the effect of the morphine. But it has
Just the opposite effect from the one de-
sired. The man who Is using, say, three
or Of mo !, inc do nd In To
take cocaine will find that before a fort
night lapses he is using ten grains of NOR
phine and ten of cocaine. The cocaine
breeds a desire for more morphine and
the morphine calls for more and more CO.
came TO counterfeit 1t, One patient who
came in here was in the habit of taking
forty-eight grains of cocaine and twelve
grains of morphine daily. That was the
worst case as regards the quantity taken
that l have had experience with"
What is the effect of cocainel"
at has local effect Of numbing or par
alyzing the tissues Immediately around
the place where the injection is made, so
you can cut those tissues without the pa
TENTS experiencing the slightest pain.
So 1t is used in small surgical operations.
But in addition to the local effect it has a
general effect of exhilaration. People
under its influence can do q great deal of
work and go without sleep. But the
effect wears off in about quarter of an
hour, requiring additional injections to
maintain It, Morphine, on the other
hand, has an effect lasting from six TO
eight hours
Cocaine as sold to the victims gener-
ally comes in bulk in boxes like anti
pyrine. 1t is white powder and the
'fiends make their own solutions by dis
solving it in water. Then all theyrequire
is an ordinary hypodermic syringe Co.
caine is also put up in tablets which come
in long thin walls. But in this form II is
used by physicians and surgeons rather
than by the victims of the habit.
THE cocaine as we get it is the active
element in the leaves of a small shrub,
erythroxylon coca, which is indigenous to
Peru and Bolivia, and extensively cult
waited in those and other South American
states. The leaves resemble large tea
leaves, two inches to three inches long,
and oval shaped They have a tea-like
odor, are aromatic, and have a bitter
taste Coca should not be COMPOUNDED
with cocoa, the seed of the chocolate
tree.
"Though the general use of cocaine is
comparatively recent, its qualities have
been known for some time. DR.. Lane
told me he heard a lecture on the drug at
Vienna in 1867, in which all the qualities
now known were spoken of at length. 1t
sprang into its present prominence be-
cause German or Austrian surgeon be-
gan using it in operations on the eye II
is valuable medicine when properly
used, but the spread of the habit Of using
it is alarming"