The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-29

but do yolLy seriously say that the
practice is nluchson the inorease?"
Indiscriminnte Dosing.
Certainly it is. 1t is growing stead
lily and things have got much worse
since the Introduction of these tabloid
medicines, though this. of course, ap-
plies more to indiscriminate dosing
than to the practice of taking the few
powerful drugs l was speaking of.
People dose themselves according to
the one or two obvious symptoms,
which are generally misleading; and off
they rush to buy d bottle of tabIoids,
and probably do themselves a good
deal of injury. But some of the tabloids
are really dangerous when taken in
discriminatory.
These things, for instance, that
contain strychnine and iron and qui-
nfne-I always make purchasers sign
the poison book for them, but plenty
OF chemists are not so scrupulous Peo-
pie, buy and take them by the dozen,
with the result that their systems get
full of strychnine, the arterial pressure
Is Increased. with a probable resultant
Danger of aneurism, and they keep
themselves in a constant state of men
tai excitement and irritation"
NOW these facts were not only con-
frmed but reinforced when, fearing
that my informant was something of
an alarmist, l went to other sources
or knowledge. The first doctor I CON
suited was fresh from a curious case
TO which he had been summoned in a
large London hotel. A man had taken
a large dose of cocaine-apparently for
~the llrst time-and Immediately had be-
come temporarily az raVing maniac. He
attacked the porter and the chamber
maid. and qVln11Plr
doris armed with poker, to the terror
and serious injury yof more than one
guest An injection of morphine quickly
restored him to sanity, when he was
entirely unconscious of his behavior.
though the deadly reaction that fol-
lows the excitement of cocaine must
nave told him of something abnormal.
Poisonous TabIoids.
The same doctor spoke bitterly of the
evils of the tabloid drugs "A bad bus
mess for the DOCTORS" he said frankly:
but it's thousand times worse for
the public. People get half a dozen
sorts of tabloids and take them on the
least provocation. and without at all
knowing their properties. You can
imagine how soon ones constitution
may be ruined like that" l asked how
1t is that people can procure poisonous
drugs so easily. and he gave me one
startling piece of information that may
or may not throw some light on the
matter. 1t was once suggested. it ap-
pears, by no smaller a person than an
ex-President of the Pharmaceutical
Society, that if a customer wrote down
what he wanted on a piece of paper,
and appended cryptic initials, a
chemist would be justified in regarding
the document as prescription. Of
course, this does not eever the case of
the man who, having once secured a
prescription on a particular occasion,
treasures it carefully for use a hundred
times afterward. In such case the
chemist is powerless, and the man
may go on buying morphia or cocaine
for the term of his natural life.
The drug maniacs do not confine
themselves to the few poisons named.
Opium, though it has never come into
general use in England, is to be had
cheaply and easily enough in certain
provincial districts; and in the North
methylated spirit, as the revenue peo-
pie know, for long provided an mex
pensive but eXtremely~efficient instru-
ment of intoxicationsS Not even the
admixture of petroleum oil, ordained
by regulation which-Nas made neces-
sary not many years ago by the preva-
lence of this habit, has entirely checked
it's popularity Indiani hemp, quinine,
bromides, these also have their de-
voices among the lfugea army of men
and women who With criminal folly,
are bent on the destruction of their
tradition of magnificent physical
health which has always been the pride
of England. The final result no man
can foresee, for we are fast developing
into a nation of drug takers, and the
matter might very we'll afford food for
one of Mr.. Wells gloomiest and grim
NEST "anticipations. -