Middletown transcript., 1899-08-05
noRRoRs OF COCAINE.
FrIghtfuI Sensations of Those whc

!, FrIghtfuI Sensations of Those VIII
Are Slaves to the Drug.
The evils cannot be more s;rnnal
revealed than in the experiences III al
Australian physician. Hs has givel
the world of mediciue the bentG. If
narration OF what he underwent afte
he had become addicted to the almos
constant use of the drug. In thu
course of that nfession, which ht
did no. hesitate To make pablic, ht
said, in describing his sensations,
"The first feeling cocainist has is al
indescribable excitement 10 dn some.
thing grea' TO leave a mark. But,
alas, this dissap ais as rapidly AS II
comes, and soon every part of he body
seems to cry out for new syringe
The second sensational first, ut least,
10 hallneinat iat,-is That his is -. gi..e iis
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, bis only companion being his be-
loved syringe. Every passerby seems
to talk about him. Often and often
have | stopped persons or ordered the
police to arrest them, thinking they
were 'alking about me.
''After relatively short time Legins
the hunting of the cocaine bug.' You
imagine that in your skin worms or
similar thlrgs are moving along. If
you touch them with wool, especially
absorbent wool, they run away and
disappear, only to'peep cautiously out
of some corner to see if there is any
danger. These worms are projected
only TO he cocaiEist's own person or
clothing. He sees them on his wash,
ing, in his skin, creeping along his
penholder, but not on other people or
things and not on clothes brought clean
from the laundry. How is this to lie
explained About the same time ap-
pear many other hallucinations of the
opticus and, strange 10 say, self sug
gested hallncinatiOns 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 10 such an extent that I had
to engage hospital warder, who came
in the morning to revive me with about |
ten syringes of per cent solution, so |
that | was able to drive, not walk,
fearing some one might garrote me.
Other dreadful hallucinations I had in /
thousands, all of prosecuting charac.
Ter and frightening the life out of me SO
long as the effects Of the drug lasted.
"You see small animals running
about your body and feel their bites.
Every OBJECT seems to become alive TO
stare at you. From all corners look
levolvers, knives, etc., and threaten
you. Yet so soon as the effect of the
injection is over you laugh at it and
produce willingly by new injection
the same terrors. About that time
bought three St. Bernard dogs, think
ing they would protect me, but one
night found they were talking about
they could get rid of me-so
stood up and shot one Of them with
} revolver, which I always used to
carry. | think this was the most
1readful night OF my life-I standing
1n the table, with an Indian dagger
and syringe on the ground, one three
'oet high dog going to die and two
'ather dangerous dogs roaring and
yroaning aloud, reproachfully looked
It me, who always fancied, Now
zones the moment when they will tear
'ou to pieces stood the night on
be table until the arrival Of my ward
nan, who hardly risked to enter the !
oom. Ii
"The strange thing, however, in the I
ocaine habit is that there seem to be t
wo souls in The cocainist-one infested
y the cocaine, suffering and tortured !,
y its effects, the other normal, laugh
lg at his fears and saying: What
onsensel It is only halIucination, =
reduced by an Injection Not fright c
ned enough by these experiences and
scaping from the troubles produced
y his conduct, on the cocainst goes, a
aking more and more, and then enters
new kind of illusion which inishes
i'm up for the madhouse. ."-Phila-
elphia Times.