"DRUGGING."
The main reason why so many people use patent medicines is the popular
supposition that drugs cure disease. This is a great error. _Drugs never
cure disease._ Nature alone has power to heal. There are agents, which
in the hands of a trained and painstaking physician may assist nature,
but the physician needs to understand something of the idiosyncrasies of
his patient's system, or the use of these agents may do great harm
instead of good. Those medical men who have made the most diligent study
of health and disease assert as their deliberate opinion that excessive
professional drugging has been decidedly destructive of human life.
Dr. Jacob Bigelow, professor in the medical department of Harvard
University, in a work published a few years ago stated as his belief
that the unbiased opinion of most medical men of sound judgment, and
long experience, is that the amount of death and disaster in the world
would be less, if all diseases were left to themselves, than it now is
under the multiform, reckless, and contradictory modes of practice, with
which practitioners of diverse denominations carry on their
differences, at the expense of the patient.
Sir John Forbes, M. D., F. R. S., said:--
"Some patients get well with the aid of medicine, more without
it, and still more in spite of it."
Dr. Bostwick, author of _The History of Medicine_, said:--
"Every dose of medicine given is a blind experiment upon the
vitality of the patient."
Dr. James Johnson, editor of the _Medico-Chirurgical Review_, says:--
"I declare as my conscientious conviction founded on long
experience and reflection, that if there were not a single
physician, surgeon, man-midwife, chemist, apothecary, druggist
nor drug on the face of the earth, there would be less sickness
and less mortality than now prevail."
Prof. J. W. Carson, of the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons,
says:--
"We do not know whether our patients recover because we give
them medicine, or because nature cures them. Perhaps bread-pills
would cure as many as medicine."
Prof. Alonzo Clark, of the same college, has said:--
"In their zeal to do good physicians have done much harm; they
have hurried many to the grave who would have recovered if left
to nature."
Prof. Martin Paine, of the New York University Medical College, said:--
"Drug medicines do but cure one disease by producing another."
Dr. Marshall Hall, F. R. S.:--
"Thousands are annually slaughtered in the quiet sick-room."
Dr. Adam Smith:--
"The chief cause of quackery _outside_ the profession is the
_real_ quackery _in_ the profession."
Prof. Gilman:--
"The things that are administered for the cure of _scarlet
fever_ and _measles_ kill far more than those diseases kill."
Prof. Barker, of New York Medical College:--
"The drugs that are administered for the cure of _scarlet fever_
kill far more patients than the disease does."
Prof. Parker:--
"As we place more confidence in nature, and less in preparations
of the apothecary, mortality diminishes."
The examining physician of a large insurance company in New York said to
a _Mercury_ reporter:--
"The primary cause of so many cases of _la grippe_ in this and
other cities is the almost universal habit of drug taking from
the milder tonics to patent medicines. Whenever the average man
or woman feels depressed or slightly ill, resort is made at once
to medicine, more or less strong. If they would try to find out
the cause of the trouble, and seek to obviate it by regulating
their mode of living, the general health of the community would
be better. The drug habit tends continually to lower the tone of
the system. The more it is indulged in the more apparent becomes
the necessity of continuing the downhill course. The majority of
persons do not look beyond the fact that they seem to feel
better after the use of a stimulating drug, or patent medicine.
This feeling comes from a benumbing action of the drug, because
it has no uplifting action. With the system in such a weakened
state, the microbes of the disease find excellent ground to
grow."
Dr. J. H. Kellogg says in the April, 1899, _Bulletin of the
A. M. T. A._:--
"Every drug capable of producing an artificial exhilaration of
spirits, a pleasure which is not the result of the natural play
of the vital functions, is necessarily mischievous in its
tendencies, and its use is intemperance, whether its name be
alcohol, tobacco, opium, cocaine, coca, kola, hashish, Siberian
mushroom, caffeine, betel-nuts, mate or any other of the score
or more enslaving drugs known to pharmacology. As the result of
the depression which follows the unnatural elevation of
sensation resulting from the use of one of these drugs, the
second application finds the subject on a little lower level
than the first, so that an increased dose is necessary to
produce the same intensity of pleasure or the same degree of
artificial felicity as the first. The larger dose is followed by
still greater depression which demands a still larger dose as
its antidote, and thus there is started a series of
ever-increasing doses, and ever-increasing baneful
after-affects, which work the ultimate ruin of the drug victim.
All drugs which enslave are alike in this regard, however much
they may differ otherwise in their physiological effects.
Alcohol is universally recognized as only one member of a large
family of intoxicating drugs, each of which is capable of
producing specific functional and organic mischief, besides the
vital deterioration common to the use of so-called
felicity-producing drugs.
"Is it not evident, then, that in combating the use of alcohol
we are attacking only one member of a numerous family of enemies
to human life and happiness, every one of which must be
exterminated before the evil of intemperance will be up-rooted?"
Among the most popular drugs for self-prescription at the present time
are the coal-tar products. Of these Dr. N. S. Davis has said:--
"Only a few years since, the profession were taught to regard
the degree of pyrexia, or heat, as the chief element of danger
in all the acute general diseases. Consequently, to control the
pyrexia became the leading object of treatment; and whatever
would do this promptly, and at the same time allay pain and
promote rest, found favor at the bedside of the patient.
"It was soon ascertained that antipyrin, antifebrin, phenacetin
and other analogous products, if given in sufficient doses,
would reduce the heat, and allay the pains with great certainty
and promptness, not only in continued fevers, but also in
rheumatism, influenza, or la grippe, etc.; and thus their use
soon became popular with both the profession and the public. No
one, however, undertook to first ascertain by strictly
scientific appliances the actual pathological processes causing
the pyrexia in each form of disease, or even to determine
whether in any given case the increased heat was the result of
increased heat production, or diminished heat dissipation.
Neither were any of the remedies subjected to such experimental
investigation as to determine their influence on the elements of
the blood, the internal distribution of oxygen, the metabolism
of the tissues, or on the activity of the eliminations.
Consequently their exhibition was wholly empirical, and the one
that subdued the pyrexia most promptly was given the preference.
Yet we all know that the pyrexia invariably returned as soon as
the effects of each dose were exhausted, and in a few years the
results showed that while the antipyretics served to keep down
the pyrexia, and give each case the appearance of doing well,
the average duration of the cases, and their mortality, were
both increased.
"Step by step experimental therapeutic investigations have
proved that the whole class of coal-tar antipyretics reduce
animal heat by impairing the capacity of the hemoglobin and
corpuscular elements of the blood to receive and distribute free
oxygen, and thereby reduce temperature by diminishing heat
production, nerve sensibility and tissue metabolism. Therefore,
while each dose temporarily reduces the fever, it retards the
most important physiological processes on which the living
system depends for resisting the effects of toxic agents;
namely, oxidation and elimination. This not only encourages the
retention of toxic agents and natural excretory materials by
which specific fevers are protracted, but it greatly increases
the number of cases of pneumonia that complicate the epidemic
influenza, or la grippe, as it has occurred since 1888-89.
"The bad work that people make in dosing themselves with patent
medicines, without a physician's prescription is not
unfrequently punctuated with a sudden death from overdosing with
antipyrin, sulphonal, or some other coal-tar preparation."
Dr. C. H. Shepard, Brooklyn, N. Y., says:--
"Quinine is a most fatal drug. Of course, it is the orthodox
treatment for malarial conditions, but quinine never did nor
never can cure malaria or any other disease. The action brought
about by its use is simply to benumb the nervous activity and
interfere with the natural action of the system to throw off the
poison, which is expressed by the chill. Because of this
interference with the manifestation or symptom of the disease,
many imagine that the disease is being cured, but there never
was a greater mistake. A drug disease is added to the original
disease. This is shown by the invariable depression that follows
the administration of the drug, and the length of time required
to recuperate, which imperils restoration, and sometimes hastens
the final results. This is ordinarily met by the use of what are
called stimulants, that is, more drugs, and the last state is
worst than the first; the poor patient is thus made the victim
of a triple wrong, which only a most vigorous constitution can
pass through and live, and even then he is crippled and made
more liable to whatever disease may come along ever afterward.
"Disease is not entity to be killed by a shot from a
professional gun, but a condition, an effort of outraged nature
to free itself from an incumbrance, and should be aided rather
than hindered by the administration of any nerve irritant. There
never will come a time when the laws of health can be evaded.
Nor is there any vicarious atonement. The full penalty of
disobedience will invariably be exacted. The hunt for a panacea
is as sure to be disappointing in the future as it has been in
the past."
A writer in the _Brooklyn Citizen_ says:--
"Few people are aware of the extent of a peculiar kind of
dissipation known as ginger-drinking. The article used is the
essence of ginger, such as is put up in the several proprietary
preparations known to the trade, or the alcohol extract
ordinarily sold over the druggist's counter. Having once
acquired a liking for it, the victim becomes as much a slave to
his appetite as the opium eater or the votary of cocaine. In its
effect it is much the most injurious of all such practices, for
in the course of time it destroys the coating of the stomach,
and dooms its victim to a slow and agonizing death.
"The druggist who told me about the thing says that as ginger
essence contains about one hundred per cent. alcohol, and whisky
less than fifty per cent., the former is therefore twice as
intoxicating. In fact, this is the reason why it is used by
hardened old topers whose stomachs are no longer capable of
intoxicating stimulation from whisky. They need the more
powerful agency of the pure alcohol in the ginger extract. He
told me that he had two regular customers, one a woman, who had
ginger on several occasions for stomachic pains. The relief it
afforded her was so grateful that she took it upon any
recurrence of her trouble. She found, too, that the slight
exhilaration of the alcohol banished mental depression. In this
way she got to using it regularly, and finally to such excess
that she was often grossly intoxicated. Large doses produce a
quiet stupor; additional doses induce a profound lethargic
slumber, which lasts in some cases for twenty-four hours. His
other customer was a peddler, who came at a certain hour every
morning, bought a four-ounce bottle and drank its contents by
noon. The man craved the stuff so ardently that he was unable to
go about his business until he set the machinery of his stomach
in operation, and started the circulation of the blood by means
of the fiery draught. He says that the habit is well known to
the drug trade."
"The morphia habit, the cocaine habit, the chloral habit, and
other poison habits which are prevalent in this and other
countries, are only different manifestations of a wide-spread
and apparently increasing love for drugs which benumb or excite
the nerves, which seems to characterize our modern civilization.
Indeed, there appears to be, at the present time, almost a mania
for the discovery of some new nerve-tickle, or some novel means
of fuddling the senses. It is indeed high time that the medical
profession raised, with one accord, its voice in solemn protest
against the use of all nerve-obtunding and felicity-producing
drugs, which are all, without exception, toxic agents, working
mischief and only mischief in the human body."--DR. J. H.
KELLOGG.
Much discussion upon careless drug-taking has resulted from remarks made
recently in London by Sir Frederick Treves, the King's surgeon, at the
opening of a hospital. He said that the time is fast approaching when
physicians will give very little medicine, but will instead teach the
people right methods of living so that sickness may be avoided.
Although there are some physicians who appear to enjoy the old routine
of giving heroic doses of ill-tasting liquids, there are others who
agree with Sir Frederick, and admit that they would often be glad to
give no medicine if their patients would be satisfied without it. But
the great mass of people are unwilling to take a physician's advice as
to proper clothing, suitable diet, and regular habits of living. They do
not seek his advice upon those points; what they want is a drug that
will benumb uneasy sensations while they live as they please.
Not long ago a business man of intelligence was heard to complain
because he had tried several physicians and all had failed to cure his
sciatica. He said they all told him he must live differently; several
said he must quit smoking and lay aside wine and beer or he could not be
cured. With scorn he said, "What are physicians good for if they don't
know a drug that will cure as simple a thing as rheumatism?" He could
not and would not believe that rheumatism might be the result of his
wrong habits.
Akin to him in thought is a woman, much above the average in
intelligence, who a few months ago had an operation performed upon her
stomach. The stomach was enlarged so that the food did not pass through
the pylorus, the opening into the intestines. The operation consisted in
making a new opening and connecting it with an intestine. This bright
woman now complains that the operation was not a success, because she
still has times of great distress with indigestion. Upon being asked
what she eats, she laughed and said, "Everything, peanuts, mince-pie,
sauer-kraut, frankforts; whatever is going. I have a vigorous appetite,
and keep peanuts and figs in my room, for I often have to eat in the
night."
Until multitudes of people like that business man, and that bright
woman, are educated in matters of health, it will not be easy for
physicians to bring Sir Frederick's prediction to fulfilment.
The popular supposition is that drugs _cure_ disease, and all that the
medical adviser is for is to choose the drug that will produce the
desired effect with the greatest speed. Consequently the physician is in
many cases driven to prescribe drugs that simply allay pain without
removing the cause of the pain. He cannot remove the cause without the
patient's co-operation, and as that would require the abandonment of
wrong habits few are willing to accept health at such a price. What man
will abandon beer to escape rheumatism, or smoking to save his eyesight
if he has weakness there? Or, what woman will cease tea-drinking if she
has neuralgia?
The _Journal of the American Medical Association_ for November 16, 1907,
contained an editorial article in which, after reference to drugs
necessary in the practice of a physician or surgeon, this is said:--
"The remark of Holmes years ago that it would be better for the
patients, but worse for the fish, if most of the drugs were
thrown into the sea, is probably even more true to-day. The vast
majority of these drugs have not the slightest excuse for
existence."
Dr. T. D. Crothers, in his valuable book upon Morphinism and other drug
addictions, reports a case of murder where it was shown that the
assailant was delirious from large doses of quinine. He says assaults
are often clearly traced to the drug taking of the assailant. A surgeon
from a New York hospital, in speaking of drug habits before an audience
at Chautauqua, New York, said that some of the ovarian difficulties
which demand operations are the result of over-dosing with quinine.
There are people who keep morphine in the house all the time lest some
little pain or ache should find them unprepared.
Dr. Crothers, who has perhaps made more of a study of the evil results
of drug taking than any other man in America, says of this:--
"Morphine as a common remedy, taken for pains and aches, may
suddenly develop into an incurable craze for its continuous use.
* * * The early relief which morphine brings to the sufferer is
often the beginning of an unknown journey ending in disease and
death."
Cases are on record where morphine given to mothers soon after the birth
of children to allay pain, has resulted in the death of the infant, the
morphine having poisoned the milk.
Cocaine is possibly the most insidious of all drugs yet known. Few of
those who become enslaved to it ever are able to lay it aside. It leads
to hallucinations of sight and hearing. Many persons have become
enslaved to cocaine unwittingly through its use in catarrh snuffs,
asthma "cures," and other proprietary preparations, the composition of
which was secret. Some states now have strict laws regulating the sale
of this dangerous drug.
It is not only the enslaving drugs which are injurious to the body, but
even such apparently simple agents as liver pills and pills for the
relief of constipation may do more harm than good if resorted to
frequently. Some of the ingredients used in the pills for the relief of
constipation are said to be injurious to the liver.
Dr. Nathan S. Davis, late dean of the Northwestern University Medical
School, Chicago, said of the coal-tar remedies, such as phenacetin and
antipyrin, in the treatment of influenza and _la grippe_:--"While each
dose temporarily reduces the fever it retards the most important
physiological processes on which the living system depends for resisting
the effects of toxic agents, namely, oxidation and elimination. This not
only encourages the retention of poisonous agents by which fevers are
protracted, but it greatly increases the number of cases of pneumonia
that complicate _la grippe_. The bad work that people make in dosing
themselves with patent medicines is not infrequently punctuated with a
sudden death from overdosing with antipyrin, sulphonal, or some other
coal-tar preparation."
Deaths from acetanilid are becoming more and more frequent. The presence
of acetanilid in headache powders "guaranteed to be harmless" and thrown
upon the door-steps as samples has led many persons into grave danger,
and not a few to death. Bromo-Seltzer, Orangeine, Antikamnia, Taylor's
Headache Powders, and various other preparations have all contained this
drug.
The use of cocaine is advancing rapidly in this country.[TN: see Errata
at end of text] The following article is taken from _The Banner of
Gold_, of Feb., 1899:--
"Value of cocaine leaves imported at the port
of New York in 1894 $14,284
Imported in 1897 54,122
Indicated value of imports for 1898 75,000
"In these simple figures are contained the elements of a warning
sermon that would startle all America. We seem to be rapidly
becoming a nation of cocaine fiends. If the number of those
addicted to the use of the dreadful drug continues to increase
at the present rate, the importation of what was originally
regarded as a blessed alleviation of pain, will have to be
classed with opium, and its use prohibited by law, except for
medicinal purposes.
"At present the cocaine fiend can purchase the drug without
trouble, and the ease with which it is taken is a fatal
recommendation to those who crave a nerve-deadener. No laborious
cooking of pills over a lamp, cleaning of implements, or
troublesome necessity for secrecy, as with the use of opium.
Cocaine can be taken at any time, with scarcely any trouble, and
without a soul besides the user being aware of his being in the
toils.
"At first, that is. It will not be long before every intimate
friend will observe a change, a gradual and scarcely perceptible
change, come over the appearance and general conduct of the
cocaine fiend.
"Begun in many cases in a legitimate way, as an anaesthetic, the
surprisingly pleasant effect is sought for again by the one who
has had a glimpse at the portals of the elysium. This is the
beginning of the terrible habit. The effect is a sense of
exhilaration followed by a quiet, dreamy state that causes the
worried man to forget his troubles, and the sufferer his pain.
Once this freedom from physical and mental sickness has been
experienced, the cocaine fiend will rob or kill to get the drug.
Enforced non-use of it will not cure the victim. Sentence him to
a term of imprisonment, and he will go straight from the jail
door to the nearest drug store to secure cocaine before he eats
or sleeps.
"From an occasional use of the drug to insatiable craving is the
rational course of the cocaine fiend. From thence to the insane
asylum and the grave is a swift and easy descent.
"In his fall from health to physical and mental disintegration,
the cocaine fiend undergoes a terrible experience. When not in
the temporary heaven that the drug provides, the victim is in
the lowest depths of an _inferno_. He suffers from insomnia,
anorexia, and gastralgic pains, dyspepsia, chronic palpitations,
and will-paresis. He is a terror both to himself and others. The
life of the man is a living death. He knows it, and with this
knowledge staring him in the face, he rushes for the drug, and
is happy for a brief period under its influence.
"It is time something was done to keep from this high-strung
nation a drug so deadly. Clear-minded medical men have
recommended its exclusion from the country, believing that its
use medicinally should be foregone rather than that such a
cursed temptation should be placed in the way of weak humanity.
"What the real action of the drug is, and how to counteract its
influence, are at present puzzling questions to the medical
fraternity. A leading member of the profession to whom these
questions were put replied after careful consideration as
follows: 'Its physiological action is practically unknown. As an
analgesic, it is uniform in its action, and this is due to the
suspension of the physiological functions of the sensory cells
which it comes in contact with. Beyond this, it is an excitant
of the cerebro-spinal axis, later it has a peculiar action on
the encephalon, manifest in a wide range of psychical phenomena.
Beyond this a great variety of widely variable symptoms appear.
In some cases all the intellectual faculties are excited to the
highest degree. In others a profound lowering of the senses and
functional activities occur. Morphine-takers can use large
quantities of cocaine without any bad symptoms. Alcoholics are
also able to bear large doses. Not unfrequently the excitement
caused by cocaine goes on to convulsions, and death. Sometimes
its action is localized to one part of the cerebro-spinal axis,
and then to another. In some cases well-marked cerebral anaemia
appears, and for a time is alarming, but soon passes away.
"Small doses frequently given are more readily absorbed than
large doses. Habitues always use weak solutions, the effects
being more pleasing with less excitation. Morphine and alcoholic
inebriates very soon acquire certain tolerance to large doses
taken at once. The cocaine user takes large quantities, but in
small doses frequently repeated. He becomes frightened at the
effects of large doses, and when he cannot get the effects from
small (to him safe) doses, he resorts to alcohol, morphine, or
chloral. In many cases memories of the delusions and
hallucinations are so vivid and distressing that other narcotics
are used to prevent their recurrence. In other cases the
recollection is very confused and vague, and strong suspicions
fill the mind that the real condition is grossly exaggerated by
the friends for some deterring effect. In common with opium and
alcoholics, there is moral paralysis, untruthfulness, and low
cunning in order to conceal and explain the condition by other
than the real causes."
Hoffman Drops are used considerably as a heart stimulant. They are much
more intoxicating than whisky, and, used as a beverage, make the drinker
crazy while under their influence. According to Dr. F. E. Jones, of
Mass. Board of Health, they consist of 325 parts ether, 650 parts
alcohol, and 25 parts ether oil. They are said to have a very bad effect
upon the kidneys.
_The Banner of Gold_ for Oct., 1898, contained a lengthy article upon
the dangers of drugging, from which an extract is given here:--
"Philanthropists, when trying to stay the hand of rum, do not
overlook the victims of drugs. If you will go, under the
protecting aegis of an officer, to an opium den, such as are to
be found in every large city, and as a visitor view for yourself
the degradation of hopeless opium users, then train your
batteries towards removal of the cause. Do not depend upon
preaching, or the writing of essays, or the delivery of an
address before some society whose mission ends in telling others
what to do, but put on the armor of earnestness, go into the
nursery, and demand of the mother to know why, when little lumps
of human clay are placed in her keeping for the sacred purpose
of moulding them into men and women, she deliberately feeds the
prattling babe with soothing syrups, sleeping drops, paregoric,
and opiates in various other forms, rather than with the
healthful food, and simple remedies, that nature only requires.
With such commercial nostrums the thoughtless mother too often
paves the way for her offspring to a life of toxic-slavery by
creating a systemic condition, which, in maturer years, develops
an abnormal craving, or appetite, for narcotics and stimulants.
Follow this little victim of nursery malpractice through the
imitative age, and you will discover in him the cigarette
smoker, the tippler, the self-abased youth, and later, the man
whose life is shadowed with the curse of baneful appetite.
"Ask the druggist, and the saloon keeper, why they dispense
deadly poisons so freely to old and young, and they will tell
you the law permits it; a sad commentary!
"Converted men relapse into evil ways through coquetting with
sin; and cured inebriates relapse to drink, and drugs, through
the use of proprietary medicines, with which the domestic market
is flooded. Tonics, compounds, nerve remedies, bitters,
vitalizers, appetizers, balsams, pectorals and kindred nostrums
contain, with few exceptions, from 7 to 50 per cent. of alcohol,
or opium in varying quantities, each preponderating in kind, as
the effect is designed to be stimulating, or sedative. The
active principle of some of the best known catarrh remedies is
cocaine, and a few manufacturers are honest enough to so
announce on the labels covering their goods; more do not, and
leave the victims to discover the truth after they have paid the
penalty of ignorance, and developed the cocaine habit. Wholesale
legislation, as well as vigorous education, is needed along
these lines, and while considering means of betterment, the
reputable citizen, the clergyman, and others of good moral
repute, whose names are so generally used to herald the efficacy
of so-called remedial inventions, should not be overlooked for
ethical attention.
"For the information of those of our readers, who are not
familiar with the nature and use of toxic drugs, we here refer
briefly to the prominent characteristics of a few most
dangerously potent for evil, and seductive in kind.
OPIUM AND MORPHINE:--"Gum opium, the dried milky exudate from
the green capsules of the white poppy, and its
product--morphine--are the most reliable drugs known for the
relief of pain. The dose of gum opium in medicine is from 1/4 to
1 grain. It contains from 8 to 14 per cent. of morphine, which
is its principal alkaloid. Opium is a much more stable, and
stronger, sedative than morphine. The cumulative effect of
repeated medicinal doses is frequently observed, and is followed
by dangerous symptoms. It is both a sedative and hypnotic, and,
if given in large doses, quiets the brain, and excites the
spinal cord. Small doses have little perceptible effect upon the
circulation, but, under the influence of large doses, the pulse
is retarded, and the respiration becomes fuller, deeper, and
slower. In poisonous doses the pulse may become rapid, and great
depression follow, the respiratory centres are paralyzed, thus
causing death. If taken in from 2 to 4 grain doses it produces
deep comatose sleep, full breathing, full pulse, dry skin, and
contracted pupils. If the dose is sufficiently large, the sleep
will be more profound, the patient can hardly be roused, and if
awakened quickly, he sinks back into slumber. The face may be
swollen, and reddened, and the lips deeply tinged with blue. At
this stage the breathing may be characterized as puffing.
Respiration may be from 8 to 10 per minute, perhaps be reduced
to 4, 2 or 1, and as the toxic effect is more marked, it becomes
shallow, the pupils are contracted, and the patient is so
thoroughly narcotized that nothing will arouse him, the heart
ceases to beat, and he dies by respiratory failure, or paralysis
of the pneumogastric nerve.
"Morphine, extracted from gum opium by a slow and expensive
process, is used much less in proprietary medicines than is
tincture of opium, which is more easily manufactured.
"A medicinal dose of sulphate of morphine is from 1/8 to 1/4 of
a grain. One grain is a dangerous dose, and 2 grains are liable
to prove fatal. Morphine is a true narcotic. It is a sedative,
lessens tissue change, and weakens every function of the body.
TINCTURE OF OPIUM, OR LAUDANUM:--"Laudanum, or the tincture of
opium, is a mixture of gum opium with alcohol and water, the
solution consisting of equal parts of alcohol and water. Each
ounce contains 5-1/2 grains of powdered gum opium and half an
ounce of alcohol, and is equal in alcoholic strength to one
ounce of strong whisky. The ordinary medical dose is from 12 to
15 minims, or from 25 to 30 drops. It is much used as a domestic
remedy for pain from any cause, such as ear or toothache,
indigestion, insomnia, summer complaints with children or
adults, and is often used in poultices over painful sores or
swellings. It is also used in many medicines for throat and lung
troubles, in nearly all medicines for painful chronic diseases,
and in many of the well advertised spring tonics, as well as in
nearly all the compounds that are offered for sale for blood
troubles, or as alteratives. The opium in laudanum acts the same
as morphine, or any other of the thirty preparations of opium,
officially recognized by the medical profession.
PAREGORIC:--"Paregoric of standard grade is half alcohol, which
is as strong of alcohol as high proof whisky. It contains a
little opium, some benzoic acid, oil of anise, and camphor. The
dose is from 15 to 60 drops.
COCAINE:--"Cocaine is an alkaloid of coca leaves, and is used in
medicine in the form of hydro-chlorate. It is used locally in
powder or solution to relieve pain. It is a strong local
anaesthetic. The ordinary dose when used as medicine is from 1/4
to 1/2 grain, and is very unstable and treacherous in its
effects. Some patients will tolerate large doses while in others
small doses produce unpleasant effects. Deaths are recorded from
the use of 1-7 to 1 grain.
CHLOROFORM:--"Chloroform is an anaesthetic, and death is often
caused by a few inhalations. The dose internally is from 3 to 20
minims. It is not much used in medicine, except to control pain,
and produce sleep. It is inhaled to produce mild slumber, or
complete insensibility in surgical operations. Death may come
suddenly, and without warning, at any time during its
administration.
CHLORAL:--"Chloral, or hydrate of chloral, is an hypnotic. It is
of but little value in medicine, except to control nervousness,
and produce sleep. The dose is from 15 to 30 grains. It should
be administered with caution, and only by the physician. It is
made by passing chlorine gas through pure alcohol, and gets its
name from the first syllables of the two words, chlorine and
alcohol. It produces death by inhibition of the heart's action,
and by paralyzing the pneumogastric nerve.
BROMIDIA:--"Bromidia is the trademark of an hypnotic, the
manufacturers of which give out to the public that each fluid
drachm contains 15 grains of chloral hydrate, or 1 ounce to
every 4 ounces of bromidia.
SULPHONAL:--"Sulphonal is a coal tar preparation, and is
valuable in medicine as an hypnotic only. An ordinary dose to
produce sleep is from 10 to 40 grains. If it is given in these
doses for several days in succession it produces great
weariness, an unsteady gait, and may involve paralysis of the
lower limbs, with great disturbance of digestion, and scanty
secretion of urine of about the color of port wine. There are a
number of cases of death reported as resulting from acute, or
chronic poisoning, by sulphonal.
PHENACETINE:--"Phenacetine is a product of coal tar, and an
antipyretic, a drug that lessens the temperature in high fevers,
and rapidly disintegrates the blood.
ANTIFEBRIN:--"Antifebrin, another of the coal tar preparations,
is the registered name for acetanelid. Its effects are very
similar to the effects of phenacetine, and it is used in fevers
for lessening the temperature, and for neuralgic pains. The
medicinal dose is from 3 to 10 grains. Unpleasant effects follow
its continued use, such as great exhaustion, blueness of the
lips, and a slow, labored pulse.
HEADACHE REMEDIES:--"The indiscriminate use of the many coal tar
products and other hypnotics, such as sulphonal, phenacetine,
antifebrin, chloral, bromidia, etc., under the guise of headache
remedies is productive of much disaster, all being nerve
paralyzants."
The public owe a debt of gratitude to those physicians, and chemists,
who give freely such valuable information as to the real nature and
effects of dangerous drugs. While it is true that the popular belief in
drugging is due to professional practice, yet it is also true that what
the people know of the preservation of health, and of the danger of
alcohol and other drugs is largely owing to the medical profession.
There is as much difference among the members of the medical profession
as there is among the members of any profession; some are careless,
selfish, unprincipled, unobservant of the effects of various medicines;
while others are anxious to teach the people how to avoid sickness, and
gain strength. It is the latter class who warn against the self
prescription of drugs, especially those of the dangerously seductive,
narcotic class.
Yet, with all the warnings, few pay heed. Even highly educated,
intelligent people seem possessed of a blind faith in the power of
drugs. Every little ache or pain must have its sedative, be the future
penalty what it may.
Were people to quit drugging themselves, avoid indigestible viands, eat
at regular hours, chew well, stop eating when they have had enough, take
a sufficiency of exercise, sleep and fresh air, with a hot bath once a
week, and a cold "towel bath" each morning, laying aside all alcoholic
beverages, tea and coffee, and tobacco, there would be very little
sickness in the world. Over-eating leads to the drug habit for relief
from uneasy sensations, so does improper food, or poorly cooked food.
It should be remembered that it is not possible to violate the laws
which relate to the physical well-being, and then escape the natural
penalty of transgression by swallowing a few doses of medicine. Remedies
may postpone the results of physical transgression, and may even seem to
prevent them altogether, but careful observation will show that the
escape from punishment is only apparent. Sometimes a parent escapes,
while his child pays the penalty of his transgression, in a weakly
nervous system, which may lead to insanity, or other trouble.