OCR Text |
Show OPIUM AND ITS DISGUISES. The Drue Sold In Many terms to 1'ooplo Who t.nnd In the Asylum. Ono druggist, who kept a record of his prescriptions for several years, assured a New York Herald man that nearly two thousand out of sixteen thousand prcccrlptionn ho had counted called for opium. Hut that is not all. Whan tho patent medicines that go to mako Tipthrco-fourth'.nf the merchant-nblo merchant-nblo stock of tho ch-nnlt t nvo gono over wo run across more opium. With fow exceptions, tho patented cough balbams nil contain opium. That'll why tlioy aro so dear. Tho moro Oi-pcnslvo tho preparation tho larff.-r tho amount of opium it contains. It nlmoi.t t.oems as if they woro a cloak under which tho unrestricted salo of opium is carried on In open violation of the law. Muny fiends carry a doctor'B proscription pro-scription calling for half nn ounce or moro of opium in their rK.cVc.ts forycarn and havo It replenished as often as thoy llko. When the paper becomes old and faded they havo it copied by an obliging oblig-ing druggist's noolbtant and it laUs for another yenr or so of daily uso. They nro Iho persons who fooncr or later go to Oil up our Insai'o aaylumi. nnd prl-vato prl-vato retreats. If they nro poor they becomo burdens upon tho community. If they havo Influential friends thoy find a homo In wn-io relirod ratrcat whero thu 1io,k i . k- 1 1 ; n on that they havo not passed beyond human aid. liy this time thoy aro p'iy leal and moral ivrocks, for nothing like opium will uudcnnlno a iblo chnraotcr und a iitrong will. ' All this is tho poxnielouB sido of opium. Now what good tan be Enid of it A great deal. It Is ! - ( :d quoo-tlon quoo-tlon a valuable drr. ; and c'ootor can afford to bo without it f . .. momont. To rollevo ocrac: .ling p.. n. v.hleh of Itself may kill a p r on, it h t no equal as n hodntive, a v..p pi-o.,.: or and a tonic. If wakofn. night i l.-io sapped a Etiffcrer's ital ! ri.o in 1 thejo ll little lct nolhlm; lio op; in i ill bring on roUnnd freedom from i iiu. Thore aro many kindred conditi .is in which tho uco of opium In indt .u d, yes, demanded, de-manded, but rarely has 'r uny other valuo iu tho therapy for i ho euro of disease. It id icldoin im-i-c than n remedy of expediency. A . a rulo It dlsgulsoa tho vory fymptomi that enablo n tlKvhtful, c--i-1 tout doctor to i.trlko nt tho root of Hie evil, as ho should, and it la precise h f rthli reason rea-son that its npparent luipimzard uno Is so much to bo condemn od In medical jractlco. |