d. Jour.. Nov. 25, '99).
.1 \.t. ry short time sulliccs for the estab VslimEnt of opium-inebriety. It is, not irifrequoulv. silently, yet surely, set up •11 from four to six weeks. The period of .ubation varies in duration with the ilii,svnerasv of the subject and the means ,it his disposal of procuring supplies of tl e dLcuiving, dru,_cr. The initiation of tile practice of opium- or morphine Torinrr shows some different starting i;nt-, than those from which inebriates t out on an alcoholic career. The most quent apolog.v with which I have been Livered by opium- and morphine- inebri eitcs has been that they first had recourse t., the drug. to procure sleep. Insomnia, ion increasing trouble in these days of mental overpressure and overstrain, is frmuent among- literary workers and Tubers of the learned professions.
In the fnited S'tates the intense nerve pr.tiN:ty and exhaustion of the people, and. within extensive tracts of country, Ow prevalence of malarial fevers of a low tipc-. with their depressant sequel, are the principal introductions to opium-in Pbr.ctv.
sed,itive for the relief of pain has f.r•I n the origin of the habit with nearly as many. Obscure and intense neuralgic pairs being generally relieved as by a charm by morphine introduced subcu taneously, this also is a frequent inaugu ration of the habit. The enormous amount of opium given to children in the form of soothing syrnps has much to answer for in the increase among us of opium indulgence.
[Twenty years ago a gentleman who was a martyr to unbearable attacks of sciatica of a purely neurotic origin, who had been thoughtfully treated and kept from this perilous practice by his i»ed ical attendant, went off to consult one of the greatest surgeons of that day. The patient in a day or two thereafter returned exulting to the family phy sician, exhibiting the hypodermic syringe which had been ordered by the con sultant, and demonstrating the dexterity ith \\ilia Ile could perform the opera tion. The unfortunate sufferer had not the slightest idea that this self-medica tion involved any danger. NORMAN KEnn.] Neuralgia is the most prolific cause of morphinism. J. B. Mattison (Med. Rec.,
Oct. 26, '95).
According to the statistics of institu tions for the treatment of opium-addic tion, there is no class of invalids from which there have been more opium ha bitues recruited than chronic neuralgics. Wendell Reber (Buffalo Med. Jour., Dec., *95).
Injudicious medical prescription has had much to answer for in introducing the practice of the antoinjection of nar cotics.
Case of chronic morphinism in which the drug was taken in solution by rectal injection in enormous doses, estimated aloont 5 pounds in ten years. Brazier (Jour. de MM., July 19, '91).
-Medical practitioners cautioned against administering opiates for the relief of pelvic pain. IIines (Maryland Med. Jour., Mar. 19, '92).
Nearly all personal cases of narcotic inebriety are to be attributed to-medical prescription of the drug in the first in stance. J. B. Mattison (Med. Rev., Feb. 11, '93).
The need of strict enforcement of laws governing the sale of opiates by drug gists emphas.ized. Exposure of morphino maniacs by registering in an open ledger the names of all purchasers of opium not presenting the prescription of a repu table physician, recommended. Happel (Atlanta Med. and Surg. Jour., July, '95).
The opium habit cannot lay claim to great indebtedness to direct heredity, though its descent through three gener ations has been observed. It is, in a vast number of cases, an undoubted disease, a functional neurosis, whence arises a physical crave for a renewal of the sensa tion of intoxication. Thus considered, it is important to bear in mind that a con siderable proportion of opiomaniacs are the subjects of neurotic inheritance. Alcoholism in parents may tend to opium excess in the children, or to some other interchangeable neurosis.
The opium habit appears most fre quently in persons with a neurotic and opium diathesis, persons suffering from disturbances of nutrition, and those who are invalids or have the entaihnent of a previous disease or injury. Crothers (Quarterly Jour. of Inebriety, Apr., '92).