Forty years ago Dr. C----, of Laporte, Indiana, a bricklayer by
profession, conceived the idea of selling morphine as a cure for the
opium habit. Morphine is the essence of opium, just as cocaine is
the essence of the coca leaf. It was a brilliant idea and brought
Dr. C---- (he afterward bought diplomas galore) a mint of money.
C---- constructed himself a mansion in Laporte, which stands today, a
splendid specimen of the builders' art. He was the first man to put on
the market an opium cure.
The poor wretches who are addicted to this habit would make any kind
of a sacrifice for a cure. The whiskey habit is not a circumstance
to the opium or morphine fiend. There is no habit which so enslaves
the victim as the drug habit, and they are seldom cured. C---- ran
along for many years with but few imitators. The many victims of
morphine whom he has gathered into his net were pouring in their
wealth until it amounted to thousands daily. As long as they took the
C---- remedy they had no desire for morphine. The "remedy" contained
morphine--more, usually, than they had been taking before.
"Dr." C---- had thousands under treatment, but made no cures. At last
the so-called remedy was analyzed and its true nature discovered.
At once an army of imitators sprang into existence in all parts of
the country, and morphine cure became as common as other cures. They
all had and have as a basis opium or some of its salts. The extent of
these drug addictions is hardly realized. Chicago alone has thirty
thousand of these unfortunates, and the trade in opium and allied
drugs is immense.