Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1894-02-09
SLAVES OF NARCOTICS
HOW SOME WOMEN TAKE NOR
PHiNE INJECTIONS.
How Stimulants Are Obtained I'm
UnciviliZed Countries Victims
PeCuliaritieS.

Peculiarities.
An Indiana newspaper gives graph
ic account of railway train being de-
layed while victim Of the morphine
habit, a woman, received at the hands
of physician a subcutaneous injec-
ton of the drug. When told to get
ready for the drug the woman pre-
sented not her arm but her leg to re-
ceive the dose. Here! here" she
screamed, pounding her thigh. This
seems to be another of the things
which, classic traveller remarked,
they order better in France. In rail-
way train recently conversation drift
ed on the morphine habit A woman
descanted on it with vivacity, produced
from her handbag her hypodermic
syringe, and, bouncing up her skirts
gave herself an injection in the thigh.
One of the most enlightening treat
ises on the abuses Of opium is by q
French physician, DIR. Martin, ex-Med-
ical Attache OF the French Legation at
Peking, says the New York Sun. He
classes the abuses of opium under
three heads. Of these the first NOR
phinomania, which is confined to
Europe, is the most recent and worst
misuse of the active principal of the
drug, and, in his opinion, the most
redoubtable of all. 1t has not, how
ever, superseded the cruder forms Of
using. At the inquest on the body of
a woman in an English village, not
long since, it appeared that the drink
ing of laudanum was very prevalent
among the women of that place. This
particular victim had brought her
daily dose up to seven drachms.
1t transpires that the use Of Indian
hemp has come to prevail in lower
Egypt. The smuggling of prepared
hasheesh is carried on quite extensive
ly by Greek traders and seamen. Has
heesh is prepared from the small
leaves and female flowers from the
tops Of Cannibis indica, reduced to a
fine powder, then heated until it be-
comes cohesive and can be worked
into Jumps by the hand. Hasheesh-
smoking first produces that exhilera-
tion which impels to the acts Of vio-
lence that have gained for it It's evil
repute; this is followed by u dreamy
condition similar to that enjoyed by
opium smokers, and which lures the
victim to a miserable future. Insan-
| ity is a frequent result.
This vice has been introduced into
British Guinea and the West Indies
by the East Indian coolie immigrants.
1t is almost confined to the male sex
and to Hindus, Indian Mahomedans
being rarely addicted to it. In British
Guinea Guinea fully 80 per cent of the
Coolie patients admitted into the Ber-
bice hospital for the insane show a
history OF having been addicted to the
drug. A close resemblance has been
remarked between the effects of the
abuse OF Indian hemp and the effects
OF the abuse of alcohol. The exemp-
ton of Hindu women is due to the
fact that they do notlget chance to
use the drug. 1t is explained that the
male member OF Hindu family is the
head of the house, and enforces his po-
sition as such with a stout bamboo
stick on the female members.
One curious mental phenomenon
to which it is thought hasheesh may
be contributory, is called latah." 1t
is an irresistible impulse to initiate an
action, and sometimes it is an impulse
of fear. 1t is observed in the Malays,
whose insane impulse for running
amuck is believed to be founded in the
use of hasheeh. Thus a Malay cook
was dandling a baby. A shipmste
picked up billet of wood and began
dandling it. Suddenly he threw it up
in the air and let it fall upon the
deck. The latah (cook) did the same
with the infant, killing it. A cry of
tiger" will cause latah to flee in
panic, though he may be an intrepid
tiger hunter. 1t is suggested that this
twist of mind may be akin to that
which produced the epidemic fear Of
witchcraft.
1t will be recalled that the witch
craft epoch was one OF universal hard
drinking. This was true of New as
we'll as Old England and Of the conti-
nent of Europe. If there is any valid
lity in the notion, the subject deserves
the attention of military authorities,
and especially where soldiers are ad-
dicted to sbsinthe and to the more
deleterious alcoholic beverages. The
notion Unjust not be pressed too far.
The liability to panic" as its name
proves, is older than the modern civil
lization, and the history Of man dis
closes no stouter fighting than during
the time when rum was served as q
regular ration. However, that rum
was sound rum, and affords no safe
precedent for inferring the effects Of
the sophisticated drink now in vogue.
Altogether the subject is one that is
well worthy of the scientific investiga.
tion it is now undergoing. The work
OF the Indian Opium Commission now
in progress promises to be more en-.
Tightening contribution to the subject
than any that has preceded it.
A FROG cannot breathe with its
mouth open. Its breathing apparatus
is so arranged that when its mouth
is open its nostrils are closed. Ts
suffocate frog, it is necessary only to
lprop it's jaws so that they cannot shut.