The age-herald., 1897-09-26
THE ETHER DRINKING HABIT.
A Vice That Began in Ireland and Has Spread
 to England and the Continent.

From the Courier des Etats Unis.
 Paris, Sept. 20.-The recent death from an overdose of ether of the celebrated Dr.
 Luys, has b.ough- once more into prom
 inence the question of e1heromania. A
 few years ago this vice was limited to
 England, but now it has reached the
 Continent. The ether habit, more refined
 perhaps than i1he pass.on for alcohol, is
 beginning to make many victims. We
 can count by hundreds now people who
 take ether every day. They mix it with
 alcohol, and in ithat way obsatn drink
 that intox.eages rapidly. The corff med
 ether drinkers take it in it's purity. and
 in ordinary doses of from eight to fifteen
 grammes. Tha beginners take water be-
 fore and after itlle etlheJ, but the hard
 drinkers neglect this precaution, which
 diminishes the burning sensatotn in the
 stomach. There are sorne ether drinkers
 who take 150 grammes at time. Drunkenness comes on rapidly and also masses away in a comparatively short time. The first symptom is violent ex- citement with abundant salvation.
 Some times ep1eptiform conyulslons are observed. and when the doee is too
 strong they are followed by stupor Nofh- ing in the effecs has been observed which resembles delirium tnemens, ex- cept in the cases in which Whlskey dnAo
 ether are blended.
 But if drunkenness from etner Is less degrading than drunkenness rom dico
 hol. it ts far more dangerous. It feais
 to insanity and death, and socm p:aEes
 eIbollb marked changes in '.he temper
 and health of the etheroman-ac. rake
 this portra.it of the ether drlnker and
 you will find serious mo dyes for aVe1llns
 the drug 1.-The ether drunhatid IS guar
 relsome and untruihful His condf ton or
 mind resembles that of people afflicted
 with certain nervous diseases. He sur
 fers from gastric troubles and nervous puostra ton. He becomes ;he slave Of his passion, Eke the opium smoker, and the cures of the passion are rare It Is im- possible to save a person afflicted with rthis malady, except on the condition or remouncing the ether habit completely, and this SeldtGn happens. As a ru1e,i an etherOmaniac is never cured, except Dy the impossibility of satisfying his pas sion. There is no other remedy but
 confinement and the closest guarding at
 all timee."
 Like the morph.nomaniacs, the slaves
 of ether may become add1oted to their
 vice after certain maladies. Some times
 when a patient suffers from a heada che
 "a handkerchief siteepad in ether ds put under il.s nose. Relief comes quickly, and he inihales the drug with delight. Afteu a few inhalations great freshness in the face and in the respiratory organs is felt. The dose Is doubled in order to double the agrseafb,e ton, with the result that a delicious ecs;acy Is expe- rienced, and gradually the habit is ac- quired and continues until at Last an | overdose results in death.
 1 The o9igfn of this singular vice ds ob | scure. Some say the Irish peasant be- l gan to drink ether in 1S40, at .ha time when Father Matthew was preaching the crusade against alcohol. Others accuse | the doctors of having prescribed ether l too freely. Finally, the question of piEce has its importance, especially among the poorer classes, for ether produces intox- l fcation easily and is cheaper than ail- l cohol
 Thank heaven, the elher drunkard are at present l,e1a lively rare in Paris. Tn London keepers of the various squares and parks frequently find under the | trees empty vials labelled "ether' that have been thrown thera by the maniacs | who quit their homes in order to indulge | their favorite passion at their ease. Al Epsom after the races many Tasks of | ether are picked up among the cham l pagne bottles.
 l But it is in certai portions of Ireland l that the vice of drinking ether is most | common. There are regular ether shops | the oldest of which was established in | 1840 at Drap aperstown. There they drink a
 mixture of alcohol and ether, fifteen | gnammes of wLdch are sufficient to put | any ome into a revery. The railroad an | the little district of Crookstown carries | every year 1000 tons of ti1her, and an | equal quantity at least is brought theme | by other roads. Two merchants of the neighboring villages sell every year | 4,500 prnts of ether. At Draperstown and l al- Crookstown the air is charged wi 1l
 the vapors of ether on market days, and
 this same odor is present constantly in
 the third-class carriages of the Derry Gent al railway. Everybody in that parY | of Ireland drinks ether
 | FIorida-s Vanssbi,,x C,,,ao,