The use of opium as prescribed by medical men is chiefly for the relief of either pain or of insomnia. Its employment in cases of great agony is probably justifiable, but the repeated taking of this drug until the habit is formed becomes a criminal blunder for which the doctor who prescribed it should be held responsible. Unfortunately this is only one of the uses to which opium is put by the medical profession. Prescriptions containing either opium or morphin are frequently given to relieve pain, or to produce sleep, when the primary trouble is chronic, and should be treated by removing the causes, and not alleviated by stupifying the nerves. In the majority of such cases, if the diet is balanced according to age, activity, and climate, and vigorous intestinal peristalsis created, sleep will follow, and other disorders will gradually disappear. [Sidenote: Opium in patent medicines] The dangers that lurk in the use of opium are so well known, and the habit has become so unpopular, that tricks are resorted to by manufacturers of this drug to deceive the people into believing that they are using some "harmless" substance, while it is the influence of the opium that gives the medicine its apparent good effect. Patent medicines which claim to kill pain, soothe nerves, and produce sleep, usually contain opium. The popular "Soothing Sirups" for children are nearly all opium products, and have been given to millions of babies in this country by deluded mothers, in the belief that because it soothed, their innocent child was being benefited. These are the crimes of greed passed on to innocent childhood through ignorance. COCAIN Cocain is an alkaloid, the use and the influence of which are almost as noteworthy as that of morphin. Cocain is derived from the leaves of the cocoa plant which grows in the Andes of Peru. Just as the Chinese use opium, so the Peruvian Indians use cocain. [Sidenote: Uses and effects of cocain]