Medical Notes

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXIV, Issue 3341, 19 November 1934, Page 3

Medical Notes

USE AND ABUSE OF OPIUM. If it becomes necessary to part with all drugs in the world but one, the one retained shall be opium. East and West alike agree to its incalculable value, but because a few derelict men and women abuse its use it is listed as an almost forbidden substance. The sale of alcohol is encouraged as a source of revenue, but the damage it does to human life is a thousand times greater than that done by opium. Alcohol as a prompter of criminal actions is known wherever it is used, whilst the opium addict, be he Eastern or Western, is the enemy of himself alone. The law-abiding and industrious Chinese, using opium as wc use alcohol, and with far less offence, arc made to adopt illegal methods, and then heavily punished for breaking a law, in the making of which they had no share. It costs twenty times less (in fines) to become mad on alcohol and require physical control, than to take 20 breaths of opium smoke and go to sleep quietly, troubling nobody. The opium traffic, which brought great wealth to England, has gone beyond English control and, driven underground by oppressive laws, now leads to more evil than ever before, whilst its benefits in disease are lessened. For Hopeless Cases. A medical presidential address, given in Scotland recently, contained the following: “Old people usually stand opium well and benefit from its Judicious use. ! do not think that it is consumed in the quantity it used to be. In the town on market days the chemists had a large sale of lor. bottles of laudanum, which was the domestic remedy for fever of any description in the fen parishes. And I do not know (hat many people were any the worse for >t. “Opium is a blessing in old age for some conditions, and above all for inoperable cancer. I remember Prof. Chieae, of Edinburgh, saying, apropos of inoperable cancer; ‘Gentlemen, turn them into opium caters.’ To all of us come sooner or later cases of malignant disease which are past the surgeon’s aid. Here is a field for the Judicious use of opium. I mean opium in cither pill or tincture not morphia. Put these cases on a small dose as soon as it is decided that operation is impossible, and it is surprising how slowly the dose requires to be increased to keep the patient free from pain and discomfort. Given thus, it seldom gives any digestive trouble, constipation or other ill effects.’’

The sight of a hopeless opium addict is horrible, but a hopeless alcoholic is worse. The medical uses of opium are almost limitless. In suitable doses at appropriate times it acts first as a stimulant and then as a sedative and narcotic. Its chief value is its wonderful influence over pain. It is the most reliable drug for producing sleep, being equally effective in simple restlessness, and insomnia, or sleeplessness due to disease of mind or body. It subdues inflammation, checks excessive secretions, and is useful in delirium, mania, and melancholia. It lessens the sugar output in diabetes and controls diarrhoea. It controls cough, and hiccough, and is an actual cure in many cases of neuralgia, lumbago and sciatica, and quells the pain caused by gall stone or kidney stone. It has a calming effect upon the brain and nerves, and by enforcing rest gives time fur a wearied body to recover from its troubles. It has the power of reducing internal hemorrhage, is useful in some forms of dyspepsia, and is invaluable in cholera and dysentery. Many Uses. In therapeutics opium has a literature all to itself. Dr. S, Ringer used to say that the moderate use of opium “i--' perhaps no more prejudicial to health than tobacco smoking.” In the form of Dover’s powder, opium will check a cold in the head, if the powder is taken overnight, and two or three drops of

i laudanum in a glass of hot grog will do the like, and .Dover's powder will cheek the night sweat of consumption. In confinement eases opium is of great service, and given before operation in any surgical case under anaesthesia it. renders the effect of ether more speedy and less unpleasant. In pneumonia, keep the patient free from pain, or irritable cough, small doses of opium bring quick relief. When there was less fear of poisons and less restriction, as fifty years ago, there were fewer cases of misuse than there are to-day under prohibitive laws. Nearly everybody who drank alcohol took more than was really reasonable, but nobody seemed anxious to exchange it for a drug, then quite common and easily purchased. There is as much difference in the action of opium on different people as with alcohol. Climate, race, sex, temperament and age vary the response. Some patients go quickly to sleep, and show no preliminary period of flushing and excitement, skipping tlie stimulant stage; others show marked excitement, followed by drowsiness; others again show the stimulus only, and need a large dose to procure sleep. Erratic in Effect, As an intentional poison it is unreliable. T remember an unhappy mother who decided to poison herself and her child. She gave the child a very small dose of opium and took a large dose herself. She was soon very sick and recovered in time to see her child die. It needs experiment and Judgment to apporliou the dose. Ilk? the man who partly hanged himself every day, remaining with his neck in the noose longer and longer each day. in order to discover how long he must nang to be done with finally. It is strange that a true story often reads like fiction.