Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-11-03
HORRORS OF COCAINE.
Frightful Sensations of Those wbo
Are Slaves to the Drug.

cE18At1ul SenA0ttOnH OF vhOHe WHO
Are Slaves to the Drug.
These evils cannot be more strongly re.
vealet than in the experience of an Aus
tralian physician. He has given the
world Of medicine the benefit of u narSa:.
ton of what he underwent after he had
become addicted to the almost constant
use of the drug. In the course Of that
confession, which he did not hesitate to
make public, he said, in describing his
sensations: "The first feeling n cocainist
has is an indcscribable excitement to do
something great; to leave a mark. But.
alas, this disappears as rapidly as il
comes. and soon every part Of the body
seems to cry out for n new syringe.
The second sensational first, AT least,
N hallucination-is that his hearing is
enormously increased, so that he hears
the flies walking over the paper. Very
soon every sound begins to be a remark
about himself, mostly of a nasty kind.
and he begins to carry on q solitary life.
inge. Every passcr by seems to talk
about him. Often and often have l stop
ped persons or ordered the police to ar
rest them, thinking they were talking
about me.
"Aftcr a relatively short time begins
the hunting of the cocaine bug You
imagine that in your skin worms or SINH
lar things are moving along. If you
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 danger.
These worms are projected only to the
cocainist's W person or clothing. He
sees them on his washing, in his skin,
creeping along his penholdcr, but not on
other people or things and not on clothes
brought clean from the laundry. How is
this to be explained? About the same
time appear many other Authorizations of
the opticus and, strange to say, self sug-
gcsted Authorizations also. Night turns
to day. You sit up in o II room syring-
ing until the morning and then fall asleep
in 4 coma. In my case this occurred to
such an extent that l had to engage a
hospital warder, who came in the morn.
ing to revive mt with about ten syringes
Of 5 per cent solution. so that l was able
to drive, not walk, fearing some one
might garrotc me. Other dreadful hallu.
cinations l had in thousands, all Of a per.
scouting character and frightening the
life out Of me so long as the effects of the
drug lasted.
"You see small animals running abou,
your body and feel their bites. Every oh
ject seems to become alive to stare a,
you. From all corners look rcvolyers
knives, ETC., and threaten you. Yet, Sc
soon as the effect Of the injection is ovel
you laugh ut it and produce willingly by
a new injection the same tcrrors. Abou,
that time l bought three st. Bernr
dogs. thinking they would protect me, bu'
one night l foundt they were talking abou
mellow they could get rid of me-so
stood up and shot one of them with a re
volver, which always used to carry.
think this was the most dreadful night o
my life-I standing on the table, with al
Indian dagger and a syringe on tn,
ground, one three foot high dog going t,
die and two rather dangerous dogs roar
ing and grooming aloud, reproachfull.
looking at me, who always fancicd, Nov
comes the moment when they will tea
!, you to pieces l stood the night on tn
table until the arrival of my wardman
who hardly risked to enter the room.
: "The strange thing, however, in the CO
I caine habit is that there seem to be tw,
souls in the cocainist-one infested b,
) the cocaine, suffering and tortured by it
| effects, the other normal, laughing at hi
fears and saying: What nonsense! 1t i
only a hallucination, produced by an in
%jection.' Not frightened enough by thes
, experiences and escaping from the trou
bles produced by his conduct, on the &C
. cainist goes, taking more and more, an
! then enters a new kind of illusion whic
finishes him up for the m~adhouse."-
!; Philadelphia Times.