Weekly Arizona journal-miner. [volume] (Prescott, Ariz.) 1903-1908, 1903-05-06
W0MAN'S CURE FOR DRUG HABIT

DIR. Margaret >. Halleck OF the New
York State reformatory for women
reports in the Medical Record her sue
cess in treatingsvictims of the NOR
phine habit in cases where she cut off
the drug at once. Not long ago medi-
Cine taught that the morphine habit
must be broken off by degrees and
that the cure was always attended
with untold suffering, and current
text books still teach that severe
symptoms will follow the sudden
withdrawal of the drug.
The first case DR.. Halleck treated
was an American girl, "a years old,
who said she had contracted the habit
while under a doctors care for a
broken leg. The patient was taking
six to ten grains of morphine daily
besides smoking dollars worth of
crude opium. On the day that she
was deprived of the drug she was seiz-
ed with much pain. Her pupils we're
dilated, she vomited, was extremely
nervous and said that she ached all
over. The doctor administered one
sixteenth of grain of strychnine sui
phi5e, one two hundredths of a grain
hyoscine hydrobromate and one fourth
of grain of codeine sulphate. This
is the prescription she used in other
cases, except that sometimes she
doubled the quantity of hyoscne
hydrobromste.
Next morning the patient reported |
that she had not slept we'll, but vom-
iting had ceased and she was free from |
pain. The same dose was administer |
ed morning and evening for a week |
At the end of that time the patient |
left her room and did light house
work She was still somewhat ner-
vous, but her pains we're gone and her |
appetite was good. Strychnine in |
quantities of one sixteenth to one
thirtieth of grain was continued |
for a week and then all treatment was
stopped. In six months she gained |
thirty pounds. She has been out of |
the reformatory now for eight months
and has not rleapsed.
The second case was a German girl, |
q years old, who when she was 10
years old, was induced by an older
girl to go and live in Chinatown. She
learned to smoke opium and used il
daily for eight years. When she came
h. \ II, IL
ing from 81 to s1.5O worth of opium a
day. She was emanciated, her pulse
was slow, she had no appetite aud she
was subject to muscular tremons. She
received the same treatment as the
first patient for four days and the
strychnine was continued for while. |
Her weight went from 100 to 142
pounds. She is, DIR. Halleck reports.
a good member of society
An American girl. % years old, who
had used morphine in increasing doses
for ten years, was the third patient
Today she is the picture of health and
weighs 100 pounds. She says she has
no desire for morphine. her feeling is
rather an aversion.
The fourth was a girl of a, who
had taken morphine hypodermically
for seven years. Her daily dose be-
ng from fifty to sixty grains; in ad-
dition she took cocaine. She entered
Bellevue three times to be cured of
her habit, but relapsed each time.
She weighed only ninety pounds and
her body was covered with LESSONS,
left by the hypodermic. After ten
days treatment she received no more
medicine. She gained over twenty
pounds in six weeks.
None Of these patients received any
morphine from the time the treatment
was begun and each processes to have
lost all craving for it. Dr. Halleck
says the combination of strychnine,
hyoscine and codeine forms a perfect