“Dr. Osgood (_Quart. Jour. Inebriety_, June, 1879,) has, in a hospital, during the past two years, treated 800 cases of opium inebriety. His plan, in general, is: (1) The absolute and total discontinuance of the use of opium from the beginning of treatment. (2) A trusty attendant to be with the patient day and night for the first three days. (3) Chloral hydrate for the first three nights, if required. (4) Good food, milk, raw eggs, brandy (in some cases), chicken broth. (The above to be taken in small quantities.) (5) In diarrhœa give two-drachm doses of a mixture of equal parts of tincture of catechu and tincture of ginger. (6) Vomiting will frequently yield to bismuth in fifteen-grain doses; and in some cases a single dose of calomel has acted like a charm. Ice is of advantage in some cases. (7) Throughout the entire treatment it should be remembered that the patient is below par, and requires tonics. Quinine and tincture of iron have a prominent place in our list. (8) The patient should expect to suffer more or less for the first three days, and should make himself a prisoner for that time. By the fourth day there is usually marked improvement. (9) Usually by the sixth day all desire for opium is gone. The patient then requires a change of air and surroundings, and tonics for a few weeks. Out of one hundred cases thus treated there was but one death and that from apoplexy.” However well this plan may answer for the Germans and Chinese, it certainly is a dangerous and barbarous practice when applied to American and English people. The dangerous collapse that so often occurs in the carrying out of this method Levenstein combats by small, subcutaneous injections of morphine, stimulants, dropping ether on the skull, etc. CHAPTER VII. AGENTS EMPLOYED IN THE TREATMENT OF THE OPIUM AND MORPHINE HABITS. Limited space forbids my illustrating each modification of treatment with pertinent cases, and I content myself with discussing the various drugs and agents used, and the indications calling for their employment. In this way, too, the reader will become acquainted with the various symptoms that arise in the course of rapid deprivation. BATHS. Baths of various kinds are the mainstay in the treatment of most cases of this kind. They are used for four purposes: (_a_) To allay excitement. (_b_) To relieve pain. (_c_) To equalize the circulation, and (_d_) To procure sleep. They succeed when drugs fail.