The age-herald., 1901-08-20
DOCTORS WHO USE MORPHINE.
Ten Per Cent of Physicians Said to be
 Addicted to the Drug.

From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
 Dr. T. D. Crothers of Hartford, Ct, makes the broad assertion that 10 per cent of the physicians in the United States are victims of the morphine habit.
 Dr. Brothers is the chairman of A med ical committee which has for the last ten years been Investigating the use of, aleo- hol opium and morphine. He has collect ed endless statistics. and out of them and the evidence he has gathered he has formed some interesting conclusions. The most significant of them all Is his state ment that the morphine needle is as well known to many physicians as is the most inocent implement in their instrument case
 There is a way. 1t is said, by means Of which 1t Is possible to learn whether your doctor is a devotee of the little needle. The test Is the result of much study on the part of this committee on opium inc briates If the doctor uses morphine he is likely to be susceptible of great emo- ton. At times he will be very talkative and sensitive to his surroundings. Again. he will be silent, indifferent, irritable, or violent in his impulses and talk. He Is not incapacitated for worh He may be consistent in his love for the drug and still do well In his profession. It Is possi- ble for him to make a clear diagnosis. d4 may be able to deliver good lecture or conduct a successful clinic. but after these exercises, the impaired memory ap- pears, and he Is to all intents and pur- poses insane.
 xryho has Dpen talk ing morphia for three years recently went to his wife and asked her with tears In his eyes to help him stop using 1he stuff.
 My business is going, to the dogs, he told her. i've are not enjoying the hap py home life that we were once, ana must pull up.
 "To stop wil lbe too much of drain on you" his wife said. '1 would advise you to continue the use of the morphia, and to do the best work you can under the circumstances"
 The doctor continued to roll up his sleeve every day and inject the needle with the morphia. He did this for three | weeks before he found that the old pleas urable sensations came no more. He | told his wife about It. and then she con- fessed that she had been filling the needle with water instead of morphia- and that the doctor was unconsciously breaking himself of the habit.
 Chicago doctors who have discontinued the use of the drug say that they use the needle without anything In 1t as men, tai relief after they have broken the chain of the drug habit
 Besides the use of morphine, pr. Croth- CTS estimates that many doctors use opium without detection. The use of this drug is not so widespread among doctors as the use of morphine for several rea- sons. One of them is that the price of opium is much higher. No doctor in Chicago is known to the levee police as a habitue of a smoking den. Those who use opium do so with the assistance of a needle. It Is not so seay to detect users of opium as 1t Is to find users of nor phia. The face gets lividity that noth- ing else gives, not even excessive use of liquor. The victim Is always serenely somnolent and meditative. Memory fails after a while, and the ethical sense de- generates, but a man may use opium much longer without discovery than he can use morphine.