Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-02-18

stefan and special
list, and who offers in proof of his ter
rible statement an array of statistics
which certainly seems to be conclusive,
says the New York Herald.
When Aubert was arrested in Paris
the other day on the charge of assas-
sinating the young philatelist, Della
haeff, il soon became apparent that he
was a confirmed morphine fisnd. Dur
ing his trial he suffered agonies for
lack of the deadly drug and at last the
public prosecutor, fearing that he
would utterly collapse, instructed a
physician to administer a timely in
lection. This in itself, the prisoner be-
ing on trial, was a remarkable proceed
ing, but what surprised the public
more was the fact that a poverty-strick-
Ell fellow like ALBERT should have be-
come addicted to the use of such an
expensive drug as morphine. Hitherto
the popular opinion has been that only
the comparatively well-to-do could af-
ford a luxury Of this kind, but now
this opinion has been shown to be base
less.
The question, then, which the French
people are asking is: How are we to
account for this strange epidemic, which
is evidently spreading among all
classes of society? To this question a
startling reply has been given by this
eminent French specialist and physi-
clan. Here is what he says:
Il do not desire my name to be men
toned" he began, because what l have
to say is no. very flattering to a GER
tain number of my colleagues, and,
while have nothing to conceal, / have
neither the time nor the inclination to
take part in any paper war on the sub
ject."
1t may be stated here that this spe-
cialist is one of the b~est-known living
authorities on nervous diseases.
THE mania for morphine" he con-
tinued, is growing daily among all
classes. Statistics on the subject are
not easily obtainable, because morphine
fiends are very crafty and because no
exterior symptoms condemn them in
public, as is the case with drunkards
and e%pileptics. From what many drug
however, | estimate that there are not
less than $4,000 persons in Paris who
use morphine secretly and almost con-
stantly. Most of these who belong to
the army of degenrates are women;
indeed, | should put their number at
not less than 10000.
More instructive, however, than this
general statement are the following
statistics, which have been carefully
compiled and which show how the vice
has spread among persons of the vari-
Gus professions. Here is a table of
$50 morphine fiends who belong to
twenty-five different professions or
trades. You will see-and this is the
most startling point-that the first
rank on the list is occupied by physi-
clans and their wives, the number of
victims among them being sixty-nine.
In the second rank we find army Off
GERS and their wives, the number OF
victims among them being twenty; in
the third, druggists and their families,
and in the fourth, workingmen and
workingwomen, the number of victims
among them being eighteen. Among
members of the other professions
namely, college professors, magistrates,
literary men, artists and others-the
number of victims varies from two to
ten.
Now the amazing fact is that ply
s~icians, who from their knowledge of
the danger ought to be most of all be-
yond the reach of contamination,
should actually be at the head of the
list of morphine fiends. To many the
reason will seem obvious. Their ex-
plantation is that physicians become adj
dicted to the drug through WEAKNESS
and through their disgust with the
most ungrateful of all professions. In
other words, being often disappointed
and obliged to struggle unsuccessfully
in the discreet and comparatively ST.
lent intoxication of morphine that OBJ
livion which the w~orkingman finds in
raw brandy.
Il tell you the physicians who act
thus are mourning a terrible RESPONSE
bility and perhaps the time is not far
distant when there will be applied to
such practices that articles of the civil
code which says that every one shall
be held responsible for whatever harm
he may do not only by his own act but
also by his own negligence or impru-
dence.
Druggists are quite as often to
blame as physicians. If they were to
strictly obey that law which prohibits
them from selling drugs except on a
regular prescription, which must be re-
newed at the time Of each purchase, the
facilities for obtaining morphine would
be much diminished. Certainly those
persons who could not get physicians
to help them out of their difficulty
would find 1t very nard to get the drug.
A druggist was recently punished for
having sold in one month 1900 grams
Of morphine without any formality to
one of his lady customers"
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