THE MORPHIA HABIT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 228, 26 September 1907, Page 3

THE MORPHIA HABIT.

SAD CASE AT GISBORNE.

GISBORNE, Sept. 22. The case of a young man named Edward Cornwall Clark, sentenced at the Supreme Court to one year s imprisonment on a Charge of einbezzle'ment, was one presenting pathetic j features. When accused was brought up for sentence, Mr W. L. Rees said he desired to make an application which in ordinary cases would be considered unusual. Accused had contracted consumption when he was sixteen years of age, and had come to the colony at nineteen, and been in Gisborne Hospital for a considerable period- *n consequence of the administration of morphia to allay pam he contracted the morphia habit, and, in fact, became a morphomaniac. On discharge from the hospital seven years ago he was taken into the employ of Messrs Williams and Kettle, merchants, perhaps partly out ot kindness. Four years ago he got married. He was then receiving a salary of only £2 10s a week, and eventually his salary was increased.to £3 a week. Having contracted the morphia habit, and having a considerable amount of medical attendance his* income went largely in medical expenses. Directly after his marriage he.began to fall in arrears, and the shortage of his cash commenced. He had large sums to handle, and sometimes did not pay tho whole of it in. The shortages began in 1905, the total amount he was charged with coming to £156 14s Id. ■ ' His Honour (Mr Justice Denniston): "I want to know how much he .embezzelled altogether." Mr Rees : "I do not know." The Crown Prosecutor : "Nearly £900 has been so far discovered. It was only looked into last week." His Honour: "What has he done with the £900?"

Mr Rees : "I do not know."

His Honour

"I want to know."

Mr Rees said accused had had big expenses, and having got into debt he had got into the hands of the money-lenders.

His Honour : "Ah, now we are,coming to the facts." Mr Rees said he would show by medical evidence that a sentence of imprisonment would be equivalent to sentence of death. He commended the case to the Court, not merely pro-^ fessionally " t His Honour : "I can only view it professionally." j Mr Rees : "I was going . tto say humanely." His Honour : "I do not care about appeals to my humanity. I am here to administer the law. I quite appreciate that I must be as humane as possible, but I have to administer the law."

The evidence was taken of three doctors, who deposed that they had known prisoner to be addicted for the last four or five years to the morphia habit. It had ruined his physical system./ It was a well-known medical fact that by the contraction of this habit the moral sense became much perverted. Dr Collins stated that morphia led to a tendency to gambling, and a person addicted to the drug became a moral degenerate.

Each doctor, questioned by his Honour, agreed that the best thing could happen to prisoner would be that he should be put- under immediate medical supervision.

His Honour said he had no power io commit him to a hospital.

Dr Morrison said the man must have morphia at least every 12 hours. To deprive him of it would probably bj fatal.

Detective Maddern stated that when--ever there were races on anywhere prisoner was out amongst the bookmakers. Witness looked upon him as a very heavy bettor. His Honour remarked that a person who had apparently the intellectual capacity for business without the moral capacity was a dangerous man to society. The prisoner had no friends who would take care of him, and no money, and the most humane course would be for him to be placed under restraint, so that he could be put under treatment. ' The police authorities were humane, and would take good care to see he was put in proper hands. His Honour said he had frequently cases of a similar nature, in which epileptics and neurotics were brought before him, and it appeared to him that the best course in such cases, for the individual as

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well as for society, that they should be placed under restraint. He would be sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in Auckland Gaol. The police and the gaol authorities would take note of what he had said with regard to the treatment to be accorded prisoner. His Honour added that he would probably have made the sentence much longer but for the circumstances of the man's health.