There are certain dangers attending the temporary or continued use of morphia by the hypodermic syringe that deserve careful attention, in order that, if possible, they may be remedied. The first is the production of abscess and inflammation. The majority of those who use morphia in this way are badly scarred. The skin is thickened, reddened and covered with bluish and reddish discolorations. Abscesses just forming, formed, or commencing to heal, are found here and there. Ulcers and sloughs are sometimes seen. Cysts are occasionally met with. Isolated patches of erysipelatous inflammation and gangrene are found in some instances. In the accompanying cut (p. 73) is shown the condition of the skin in a male nurse at Bellevue Hospital, who was an habituè. The photograph from which the cut was made was taken but a short time before death. I have now other patients who are quite as badly scarred. In the case of a young married lady, the skin, everywhere that the dress covered the body in front, and the limbs all over, was scarred, contracted and discolored, as though she had been badly burned and then pricked all over with India ink. Dujardin Beaumetz (quoted by Bartholow[11]) relates a case where these injuries resulted in death. These abscesses are due, in the majority of instances, to (_a_) carelessness in injecting, (_b_) unclean needles or syringe, (_c_) a dirty or over-acid solution, and (_d_) a low condition of the general system, predisposing to inflammation and suppuration on slight irritation. I have never seen but one habituè who had a clear solution of morphia, and he made it up fresh each day. Abundant testimony as to the production of inflammation and abscess from the above mentioned causes can be found in my little work on “MORPHIA HYPODERMICALLY.” Those patients who exercise great care in regard to cleanliness and manner of injecting are rarely troubled with abscess. Thus one patient of mine had used morphia subcutaneously in large amount, for over six years, injecting every time, and that several times daily, into a spot upon one thigh, that could be covered by a small tea-saucer, and has never yet had either inflammation or abscess. Indeed, some persons who exercise no care whatever to keep syringe or solution clean, are free from this troublesome complication. Such a case is related by Dr. Roberts Bartholow, as follows: “One of the most inveterate subjects I have ever encountered was a man living in the wilds of Texas, who used a glass hypodermic syringe, that had been broken many times, and mended with successive deposits of sealing wax, until only the rusty old needle remained in view, and yet he escaped all accidents.” [Illustration: RESULT OF SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTION (see p. 71).]