“_Coroner._ There is one point which I would wish to have cleared up. Several medical men have mentioned to me that it is quite possible she might have obtained, either by mistake or otherwise, strychnia in place of morphia. You are satisfied that is not the case? ‘I am perfectly satisfied. I should say that the symptoms of tetanus and strychnine poisoning are the same while the spasms are on. After the spasms pass away, the patient becomes quite well in strychnine poisoning, but the muscles remain contracted in lockjaw.’” I have written Dr. Meldon, asking for histories of the two cases of tetanus referred to, but as yet have not had a reply. The _British Medical Journal_, in commenting on this case, says that it has no knowledge of the case referred to by Dr. Meldon as occurring in London, but refers to three cases of death from traumatic tetanus after the hypodermic injection of the sulphate of quinine (_Lancet_, July 6, 1867), and a case of tetanus after the use of morphia, due, probably, to the use of rusty needles (_Lancet_, December, 1876, p. 873). CHAPTER VI. THE TREATMENT OF THE OPIUM AND MORPHIA HABITS. So many of our fellow-men have been, in the past, are now, and will be, bound hand and foot in this terrible bondage, from which they seem utterly incapable of releasing themselves; so many illustrious men have offered themselves as living sacrifices to this false deity; so many lives have been ruined, homes desolated, hopes destroyed, ambitions smothered by it; so many of those dear to us have fallen beneath the shadow of this sickening evil; so rapidly is the habit spreading, that the question of its treatment and cure has become one of momentous importance. Reading the histories of those cases where a cure was effected some years ago, one’s mind is divided between admiration of the great heroism displayed by the unfortunates, and pity for the agony which they were allowed to endure. Great advances have been made in the treatment of this affection in the last few years, and to-day, although science is unable to substitute for the accursed drug one that can fully take its place, still she can lend a helping hand, whereby the ascent is made easier and more rapid. The suffering incident to the breaking of the habit can, in a great measure, be relieved. The method strongly advocated and practiced by Levenstein, of Germany, I consider barbarous in the extreme, and dangerous. The following cases, a type of all, selected from those published in his book,[40] well illustrate this:—