Dr. Mattison recently spent several weeks in Bermuda, and the _British
Med. Journal_ in reporting a meeting of the British Med. Association,
held in the Town Hall at Hamilton, says:
By request of the Society, Dr. J. B. Mattison, of Brooklyn, gave an
address on the subject of narcotic inebriety. Attention was called to
the extensive use of opium, chloral, and cocaine, notably in France,
Germany and America. The genesis of the disease was a physical necessity
in many cases. The speaker said in proper cases his plan—an original
one—was to secure an entire narcotic disuse by regular reduction, in ten
days, meantime bringing the nervous system under the sedative influence
of bromide of sodium, in initial doses of thirty grains, at twelve-hour
intervals, increasing the dose ten grains daily, and reaching, if
required, a maximum of one hundred and twenty grains at the end of the
withdrawal period. The resultant reflex irritation was treated by hot
baths, cannabis indica, hyoscyamus, coca, and electricity, with a
subsequent tonic regime. The prognosis was good as to recovery, but in
most cases, sooner or later, there was a return to the narcotic, due to
a renewal of the original cause, or to other conditions beyond control.
A vote of thanks to Dr. Mattison closed the meeting.
Dr. Mattison is translating Erlenmeyer’s Die Morphiumsucht und ihre
Behandlung—the Morphia Disease and its Treatment; third and last German
edition, the latest and largest work on the subject, which, with notes
and comments by the translator, will be brought out the coming autumn.