Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-10-19
BANE OF NARCOTICS.
INGENUITY CONSTANTLY At WORK
TO DEVISE NEW DRUGS.

Innocent Means Through Which People
Acquire the Habit of Using Narcotics
The Process of "Bracing" Should Be
| Called Poisoning, Says DIR. Sperry.
Dr. Lyman B. Sperry makes comfort
able living by giving popular lectures Oh
the subject of narcotics. For more thah
20 years he has been studying the proper
ties of such drugs and their effects. he
began his work when the Minnesota state
board of education decided to provide IN
struction on the evil effects of strong
drink, and he was sent to coach the teach-
ers and prepare the textbooks. ASIDE
from the moral aspect of the subject lie
found that both teachers and pupils were
interested in the forms in which various
drugs were prepared and the degrees ana
differences in effect. In this way he was
! led to give public lectures upon the sub
! ject
While discussing the subject in gen
eral way DIR. Sperry told Il reporter that a
corps of experts could not follow the ra-
pidity with which narcotics were put upon
the market in novel and ingenious forms.
1--WE seem to be living in an age ne
said, when drunkenness has become
national disease and is paralyzing the ener-
gies of our people mean to apply the
| term drunkenness SO as to include the
! opium and choral habits and the newer
and more fashionable habit Of using the
! thousand and one powders and fluids sofa
| at drug stores under the names OF pyrlnes
! and febrines calisayas, etc. L would place
! the cigarette habit among the most harm
: full. because it certainly leads to mental
exhaustion and thence to the use OF more
powerful narcotics.
| According to DR.. Sperry, the cunning
! of man seems to have been turned OF late
| toward the preparation of opium IN lnslo,
| ious forms. When a student at a medlcal
college, he made a speciality of chemistry
and he now employs his spare time in an
| alyzing new headache powders, cough mix
| lures, cigarettes, patent medicines ana
candies, lust to see, d" he explains how
the devil is keeping up with the times.
| 1t was Charles Lamb who said, IF glass
| of ardent spirits stood before me, ana
knew that eternal misery were the price OF
| drinking it, / could ns. let it alone.
| Nowadays the art of Disgusting the spirits
| has progressed so that person may gel
| the effects and incidentally the misery
| later without knowing exactly what is
happening.
| No two individuals are influenced IL
| precisely the same manner and to precise
| ly the same degreee by any one of the mar
cotics, and no two of the narcotics pro
| duce precisely the same effect on any one
| individual The Ingenuity of man j:
therefore very busy devising the form OF
narcotic that will produce the most desir
| able effect. An amount of opium-say
| two grains-which produces in one person
| profound unconsciousness, closely ccun-
terfeiting sleep, may render another per
son excitedly wakeful, while third may
| not be noticeably influenced by 1t in any
| way. DR.. Sperry claims that physicians
| have been innocently to blame in two
ways for the spread of the use of narcotics.
In the first place, they start the morphine
or liquor habit by prescribing anodynes
| containing the drugfo insomnia and nerv-
! ousncss. In the second place, they have in
troduced persons directly to narcotism by
utterly mistaking the composition anc
| effects of new drugs said to be harmless.
"A few years ago" " said Dr. Spe-ry.
"thc best physicians of our country Were
in an ecstasy of delight over the discovery
of choral At last they thought they hat
found drug that would soothe irritatet
nerves and leave no unpleasant effects.
something that would stimulate the nerv
Gus system without dcranging any of tbs
organs of the body The discovery haC
been known but very short time before
chloral was commonly prescribed by ply
sicians all over the country. There was
| q terrible awakening when it was discov
cred that the chloral habit followed clost
upon the physicians S prescription.
81 do not think the habit is quite S,
common as it was, because chloral fiends
soon take to opium to secure more per
feet deadening of the nerves. The physi
clans who Endorsed its use as a method o
| allaying pain We're nevertheless reSponsl
| BILE for the results Afterward came the
discovery of cocaine, and again it was
thought that the ideal drug had beer
found for certain purposes. In precisel!
the same way the cocaine habit followed
| The difference is that the cocaine makes
its victims insane instead of producing
the long years of lingering suffering from
the use of opium.
Now we have physicians prescribing
new sedative powders which are introduc
ed almost weekly. 1t is said that these
drugs leave no bad effects. l have found
that in most instances the effects are not
observable for some time. A person with
| a bad headache or troubled with insomnia
may take one of the many powders tina
go under the name of pyrines etc, and
experience very grateful relief. The pains
disappear, a long and refreshing sleep fol
lows, and the person is ready for solid
work. The same remedy, which can be
purchased at all drug stores without a
physicians prescription, is used again and
again when the nerves are to be quieted
| There can be but one end and that is a
complete shattering of the nervous sys
TEN, which leaves an easy route to the
opium and morphine habits.
1.-The advertisements in street cars,
newspapers and druggists windows would
Indicate that there is an epidemic of men
tai and nervous exhaustion among the
American people. The cause is not over
work, as the advertisements say, but the
carelessness and ignorance of our people
in using alleged remedies which aggravate
the trouble and cause a general breaking
down. If it were possible to have law
requiring an analysis of all these nervines
to be printed on the labels, there would