Drugs that enslave : $b The opium, morphine, chloral and hashisch habitsKane, H. H. (Harry Hubbell)
Science
Drugs that enslave : $b The opium, morphine, chloral and hashisch habits
Kane, H. H. (Harry Hubbell)
Drug addiction
That for years she has complained of pain, and pressed her hand
on either side of her head, with the exclamation, “Oh, mother,
mother, I shall die!” That for six years she has complained of
such soreness of the head that when she passed her hand over
it, in smoothing her daughter’s hair, she would cry out: “Oh,
mother, don’t; it hurts me so!” That five years ago, in 1867,
she was obliged to call in help, as the patient threatened and
intended to take her own life. That both before and after she
began the use of morphia, her conduct was peculiar and erratic;
that she was emotional and easily disturbed by trifles. That
after the morphia habit was known, her conduct for many years
preceding was wrongly attributed to this cause.
A few weeks before she was sent to the asylum she passed into an
acutely maniacal condition, in which she was sleepless, ate little and
irregularly, lost flesh and strength rapidly, and became quite feeble. She
was destructive of clothing, pulled her hair out, was noisy, incoherent
and violent; opposed care, wandered about, and was with difficulty
controlled. In this condition she was admitted to the institution, on
the fifth of May, 1871. She was carried to the ward and placed in bed.
Examination revealed scars and ecchymosed spots, covering nearly the
whole of the body which could be reached by her own hand. She asserted
that she had employed the hypodermic injections for three and one-half
years, once, and much of the time twice, a day, making in all about two
thousand injections; that during the last few months of its continuance
she had used a drachm and one-half of morphia per week; that she inserted
the needle perpendicularly to the surface, and often carried its full
length into the tissues. For two days she was sleepless and retained no
nourishment. Chloral, in thirty-grain doses, was then administered, which
was tolerated by the stomach, and secured sleep. The vomiting gradually
became less frequent and soon ceased. She ate well, gained flesh and
strength, all maniacal symptoms subsided, and in twenty days she was up
and about the ward. Menstruation, as she said, had been suppressed for two
years. As she complained of pain in the back and other symptoms which
usually preceded it, she was placed on the use of capsules of apiol, and
on the 24th of June began to menstruate, but the flow was scanty, and
accompanied by much pain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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