River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1899-07-13
A COCAINE FIEND.
The Terrible Sensations of a per-
son when Addicted to the
gse of the Drug.

These evils cannot be more strongly
revealed than in the experience of an
Australian physician. He has given the
world of medicine the benefit of a mar
ration of what he underwent after he
had become addicted TO the almost con
slant use Of the drug. In the course
OF That confession, which he did not
hesitate to make public, he said. in de-
scribing his sensations: '.rhe first
feeling cocainist has is an indescriba-
BILE excitement to do something great;
to leave a mark. But, alas this dis
appears as rapidly as il came, and soon
every part of the body seems to cry out
for new syringe. The second sensa-
ton at first, at least, no hallueina-
ton is that his hearing is enormously
increased, so that he hears the flies
walking over the paper. Very soon
every sound begins TO be remark about
himself, mostly of a nasty kind, and he
begins to carry on a solitary life, his
only companion being his beloved
syringe Every passer-by seems to talk
about him. Often and often have
stopped persons, or ordered the police
to arrest them, thinking they were
talking about me.
after relatively short time begins
the hunting of the cocaine bug. You
imagine that in your skin worms OF
similar things are moving along. 1fyou
touch them with wool Especially alb,
sorbent WOOL they run away and disap-
pear, only to peep cautiously out OF
some corner to see If there is any dan,
ger. These worms are projected only to
the cocainist's own person or clothing
He sees them on his washing, in his
skin, creeping along his penholder, but
not on other people or things, and not
on clothes brought clean from the laun-
dry. How is this to be explained
About the same time appear many other
Authorizations of the optics, and
strange to say. self-suggested halluci.
nations also. Night turns to day. You
sit up in your room Swinging until the
morning, and then fall asleep in coma
In my case this occurred to such an ex
tent that | had to engage a hospital
warder, who came in the morning to re
vive me with about ten syringes of five
per cent. solution. so that was able &c
drive, not walk, fearing some one might
garrote me. Other dreadful hallucina
tions | had in thousands, all of perse
cutting character, and frightening the
life out of me so long as the effects oil
the drug lasted.
'You see small animals running
about your body and feel their bites
Every object seems to become alive tc
stare at YOU; from all corners look re
volvers, knives, etc, and threaten you
Yet, so soon as the effect of the injec
ton is over you laugh at it, and produce
willingly, by new injection, the same
terrors About the same time / bought
three ST. Bernard dogs, thinking they
would protect me, but one night ! found
they were talking about mellow they
could get rid of me so | stood up and
shot one of them with a revolver, which
| always used to carry. ! think this was
the most dreadful night of my life
standing on the table, with an Indiar
dagger and a syringe on the ground
one three-foot high dog going to die
and two rather dangerous dogs roaring
and grooming aloud, reproachfully look
ing at me, who always fancied: Nov
comes the moment when they will teal
you to pieces | stood the night on the
table until the arrival of my wardman
who hardly risked to enter the room
The strange thing, however, in the co
caine habit is that there seems to be-
two souls in the cocainist-one infested
by the cocaine, suffering and tortured
by its effects; the other normal, laugh
ing at his fears and saying: What non
sense! 1t is only hallucination, pro
duced by an injection Not frightened
enough by these experiences and escap
ing from the troubles produced by his
conduct, on the eocainist goes, taking
more and more, and then enters a new
kind of illusion, which finishes him NJ
for the madhouse." = Philadelphi;
| Times.