A DREADFUL EXPERIENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1461, 15 November 1879, Page 23

A DREADFUL EXPERIENCE.

" How did I ever cure myself of the opium habit ? " said a man a little more than 30 years of age to a News reporter this morning, "First, I'll tell you. how I got in the way ( of using the drug. I didn't use opium myself, mind you, but morphine, the active principle of opium. I took ithyperdermlcally, under the skin — that is, the morphine in solution was injected into my' arm. 'You never have had inflammatory rheumatism, perhaps ?, Well, I have, and , when a man has that he'll jump at , any thing for relief, Five years ago I began the use of morphine by subcutaneous injeotion. I never used the little needle noaed syringe myself, but the soothing fluid was , always injected by my physioian. At first it was given me two or three times a week under the akin of my arm, but it ,waß no great while until the syringe came to be used that often each day, and 1 became a slave to the drug. I was gloomy, despondent, worthless, except when, under the influence of the opiate, and when charged with it was quite as worthless, as the rosy visions which followed its use were accompanied by a languor and listlessnes's that made me utterly adverse to all exertion. My right arm (for that matter my left also^) has been so closely punctured with holes from the Byringe point that you couldn't lay a quarter down on my arm anywhere without touching two or three aore plaoes, for the morphine inflamed the flash wherever incision was made. •

" Women who use morphine hyperdermically have the fluid injected under the kneecap. This is for the reason that they do not like to disfigure their arms. Two months ago I determined to go to the hot springs in Arkansas, to see if I couldn't boil the morphine out of my system, and undertake some treatment that would oure me of the habit. I was a slave to morphine. ' It had completely enervated me and j ruined me for everything. Cured of rheumatism, I had acquired in its Btead the opium disease, opio» phagy, which waß infinitely worse. When I left this city to go to the hot' springs my physician advised me to take' a' solution of morphine along with me,' and ft hyperderauo syringe. I 'did so> but resolved not to use it until the last extremity.' Do!you'iknow<that the craving for liquor is not to be compared with the insatiate desire 'that a morphine user has for his nepenthe?-' On the cars;> on my way to the springs, I suffered terribly, and resolved not to use. the' opiate,' but as I nearedmy deetinationmy Buffe'ringainoreased. People ontbe oars whojsawmy writhings (for my limbs became -contorted and my teeth 'grated together) me mad. Finally I could hold out no. longer,. ., ;With great difficulty I bared; my" arm and 'w^th unsteady hand jabbed the syringe into' it'. f ,lt struck a vein or an artery, I, don't .know which. The blood spurted across the.' car, three or fouriwomen fainted,' and. several men rushed forward, thinking it .a suicide. You can have no idea of the shock { Vent through me as the fluid entered | the vein. Mash after flash of searing,, bliiaging light shot aoross my eyes, and from my. heels to top of my spinal column went an clectriclike current that seemed, to burn as it ran. In five minuiea I felt myself again, that is, my old morphine self ; but I ones more resolved to rid myself of the bondage, even if my life went out in the effort. When I got to the springs I put my hyperdermic solution and the instrument aside, and. began taking the baths. I don't know whether they did me any good or not. I don't know anything that occurred during the next ten days, except that I died a thousand deaths. I had every pain and ache that almanac ever told of. Morphine is a drug that the entire system grows to and assimulat ;s with. If you deprive yourself of it after it has become necessary to you, you suffer the tortures of the damned. I had but one thought in my mind in all those terrible days — to free myself from the drug. I did it, and thank God for it. Do you see my hair how gray it is Not one man in a thousand, I've been told , could do what I have done. Several physicians to whom I have told my experience look on me in wonder. They aay my nerve is unequalled. They may ba right. I only know thit 50,000 dols. wouldn't hire me to undertake the experience of those 10 days again." — Indianapolis News, t