One of the obstacles to an appreciation of narcotic drug addiction-disease has been the casual assumption on the part of the average person, both lay and scientific, that opiate drugs act upon the addict, and that he reacts to them similarly to the actions and reactions in the non-addicted individual. Morphine action, however, as commonly observed following therapeutic administration or in experimentation upon un-addicted animals gives no conception of its manifestations in the man or woman grown tolerant to its use. Many of the actions and reactions of opiate upon the un-addicted are practically lost in the addicted, and absolutely new reactions, unfound in the un-addicted individual, become the dominating factors in the opiate medication of the addict. To some extent the fallacies connected with the general conception of narcotic addiction have arisen from the mistaken application to addicts of opiate experience, experimental or otherwise, of the non-addicted. In the matter of sensations, for example, supposed to follow opiate administration, and to the enjoyment of which is widely attributed the addict’s indulgence--in practically none of the opiate addicts, once tolerance and organic dependence are completely established, do these sensations occur. The immediate effect of opiate to the addict, depending upon the extent of tolerance, and the reaction of the patient, in dosage not too much in excess of physical body need, is apparently support to function, the restoration or maintaining of normal circulation and nerve and glandular balance, prevention or relief of the agonizing withdrawal pains and manifestations and of impending collapse. Opiate is used by the large majority of opiate addicts simply and solely for its supportive action, and a certain amount for each addict becomes as much of a definite need and a necessary and integral part of his daily sustenance as food or air. The dream states and other sensuous results, occasionally observed, are when they occur as part of the minor toxic action of the drug, against which the developed addict is nearly or completely immune, and to the experiencing of which very few of the honest, innocent or accidental addicts have ever carried their dosage. They are commonly found only in the opium pipe smokers, an entirely different problem from that of the average narcotic addict.