Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-09-13
DANGERS OF COCAINE.
The Drug Easily Fascinates Users by 1As
Pain Deadeuing Qualities.


Few drhgs in recert times have received
more general commentator thar cocaine.
Its advantages as a local anaesthetic, re-
ceived with some incredulity when it was
first introduced, nave been so abundantly
proved that there may be a tendency to
overlook the fact that there are certain
dangers attendant upon it's too frequent or
reckless employment. AS local anesthet-
tc it has won golden opinions where small
operations were required upon superficial
parts. In ophthalmic and laryngeal sur
gerry it may fairly be said to have revolu-
tionized the methods of a few years back.
But every now and again warnings are
brought forward which indicate that. with
cocaine, as with opium and other modes of
producing local or general anaesthesia, there
Is danger in the familiarity which breeds,
If not contempt, at least disregard Of ordi-
nary precautions. Verdicts of misadven-
ture are no consolation to those o2ncerned,
If there is an underlying conviction that
She fatality might never lave occurred if
there had been any due appreciation of
danger.
Cocaine is a drug which shares with
opium and many others the questionable
credit Of developing a "habit"-that is, of
leading, by the beneficent effects expert
enced after small doses, to a desire for the
repetition of the relief, and as a conse-
4uence the dose employed tends to become
greater, and the precautions which perhaps
were taken at first are gradually relaxed.
"Cocaineism'' is not so we'll recognized in
this country as in America, out it I'M
doubtedly exists as a form of self indul-
gence or rs a practice which, like morphin-
ism, originally employed as q means of al
leviating some chronic trouble, has ulti-
mately developed into a form of self indul-
geDce in which the need of restraint and
of precautionary measures are entirely lost
In the fascination of the relief afforded by
the drug. In a recent inquest, the evidence
showed that the drug had been originally
prescribed for the relief of pain in the
gums, and the symptoms Immediately pre-
ceding the termination were merely those
Of collapse. There was no Indication of
the amount employed or taken. In most
cases collapse is the most marked feature,
and this symptom may arise when the
drug has been employed as a local applica-
ton in the form of a hypodermic injection
or spray, and may frequently call for slim
ulant treatment after employment of the
spray in laryngeal examinations.
1t must not be forgotten, however, that
a true cocaine habit may be developed
when the drug is taken internally in any
quantity, and that this condition is occa-
sionally marked by curious hallucinations
and perversions of moral sense, which, if
the use Of the drug is not discontinued,
may lead to more serious central disturb
ances. The summary of the whole matter
may be expressed in the proverb that ''fre
Is a good servant, but a bad master" Co.
caine or any other drug which allays pain
has its limitations, and these are reached
when the craving for the relief afforded
leads to disregard of the attendant dan
ers.-London Lancet.