Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1899-09-29

HI ESa NuIlueTSs |
The amount of morphine used by
women in New York is increasing at
an alarming rate" said a physician:
II do not give the drug at all. save in
extreme cases. for I believe we doctors
are largely responsible for the spread
of the evil. 1t seems such an easy, mer-
ciful thing to relieve acute suffering by
a dose of morphine, and it would be all
right if the patients couldn't get the
drug themselves. They can get it.
There's the trouble.
II was called to see one Of my pa
tients last week. She is a wealthy wo.
man. She developed the morphine habit
two years ago, when she had a serious
illness. Since then she has had period
ical sprees with morphine, in spite of
all we could do to prevent her. She al
ways says that the deplorable state she
gets into is due to other causes. but I
can tell. as soon as l see her. whether
she has been taking morphine. Last
week, when l went to see her. she was
a v wreck and said she had been
agonizing with rheumatism. Rheuma-
tism is a handy thing. A doctor can't
swear that a patient hasn't got it. I
accused the woman Of having been on
a morphine spree. She denied it. l ap-
pealed to her husband. He searched her
bureau and chiffonier. and found 900
morphine pills. She had bought them
all at one time. but wouldn't tell who
sold them to her.
"Of course there's a law against sell
ing morphine except on prescription,
but a morphine fend can always get it
if he is persistent, and generally he is
so. Any physician can tell a habitnal
morphine taker at a glance. So can a
druggist. The latter reads the unmis-
taxable signs in a mans face and, if he
hasn't a conscience. will sell the NOR
phine victim What he wants. The drug
gist knows that the purchaser will guard
the secret quite as closely as he could.
But, if a person with no symptoms Of
the morphine habit wants to buy the
drug. he will probably have great diff.
Guilty in getting it. No pharmacist, even
if not particularly reputable, wants to
take the chances of being hauled up for
4 breach of the law.
II am constantly running across
cases of the morphine habit, especially,
as l said. among m The life they
lead when active socially uses up their
nerves. and they take morphine for neu-
ralgia until they can't get along with
out it. Usually they are ashamed of the
habit and conceal it carefully, but some
times they are quite open about it,
take their morphine regularly and will
not listen to reason. Not a month ago a
beautiful young woman showed me a
new chatelaine ornament she had just
bought. 1t was a remarkably handsome
gold case. studded with jewels. and look.
ed like a vinaigrette. The top opened,
and inside were a tiny hypodermic
syringe and tube Of morphine. l said
something more forcible than polite and
tried to make her see the insanity Of
the thing. but she only laughed and
told me she carried morphine pills in
her chatelaine bonbonniere, so that she
would be all right if she happened to be
where she couldn't use the hypodermic,
which she preferred. l threatened tt
tell her husband, but she said he knew
about it and didn't care. She didn'1
bother him, and he didn't bother her.
went to the husband, and he merely
shrugged his shoulders and said he new
er interfered with his wife. Then I re
lieved my mind again and told hin
what l thought of hin1-and now there
is me family less IN my list of patients
THAT was an exceptional case, / ad
NIT. Usually relatives and friends Of
person who takes morphine do every
thing possible to break up the habit
but a morphine fiend is remarkable To-
c~leverness. A great many women VIII
don't want any one to know that the,
have the habit work the physicians TO
morphine. l know women Of good fam
lily who never go more than two week
without terrible attacks of neuralgia O
rheumatism or something else tina
causes excruciating agony. The docto
is called in and tries to relieve the VIC
man, but nothing relieves her until h
tries morphine. If he is clever enougI
to see through the thing and too con
scientious to help out the little farce
he gives up the case. Another doctor i
called in and another. until one pre-
scribes what is wanted. That's an old
old game. Many a struggling youn;
doctor has thought his fortune mad
because a wealthy woman in his neigh
borhood called him in, but when she
seriously i'll she goes back to her Of
doctor. She only wants the new n t
prescribe morphine for her neuralgia.
There's no excuse in the world fo
a doctor acquiring the morphine habit
He knows better. Yet some Of the doc
tors dc it. One famous old New Yor
doctor used to take his morphine g
regularly as he took his breakfast, ant
whenever he gave a %hypodermic injet
] ton to a patient, he took n himse
while he had the syringe out, just fc
sociability, suppose. He v wer
to pieces under it. but | presume /
would have done so in time.
NO one but a physician can realiz
how this special vice is Increasing an