THE MORPHIA CRAVE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 306, 28 February 1879, Page 15

THE MORPHIA CRAVE.

Mobphia, as most people know, is one of the principal constituent? of opium, and acts on the body in very much the same way. It is used for sleeplessness and the relief of pain, and if for any other purpose, these are sufficient for our object. What a boon these drugs have been to humanity, only those who have been racked with pain and troubled with sleepless, weary nights, can tell. It was found, however, 1 hat both morphia and opium have a vicious effect on the stomach and intestinal canal, or that their use could not long be preserved in without evil consequences to the general system. No other known drug was so efficient or powerful in tbe affections for which these were employed, and therefore the medical profession had to cast about for another method of administration, which would mitigate, if not altogether do away with, their evil effects. It is now a good many years since Dr. Alexander Wood, of Edinburgh, suggested the use of morphia by me«ins of subcutaneous injection ; a method by which the action o£ the drug is rendered quicker and more certain, its bad effects— when to ba used for a short a time — fewer, and a much smaller dose is required. The mechanical actions of morphia on the alimentary canal were to a certain extent got rid of. A considerable time elapsed. before the practice became anything like general, for the profession looked askance at so dangerous a method of using a powerful drug. Of late years, however, the administration of morphia by means of injection beneath the skin has spread very widely. No doubt as used in this way morphia is tiuly marvelous in its effects, and has proved a real godsend to both medical men and their patients. The profession was carried away by the wonderful power they had got hold of, and, as they themselves confess, did not always use it with the discrimination that was necessary in dealing with so powerful, subtle and alluring a drug. It is little to be wondered at, in these days of universal knowledge, that patients in time wormed themselves into the secret, and did their best to spread the fame of the new mode of exhibition among their friends and felloe-sufferers. So far little harm might have been done, but in an evil day medical men lent their patients the power of relieving their own sufferings, real or imaginary. As a consequence, morphia injections are now used by many private persons for other reasons than the relief of pain and the banishing of wakef ulness. Indeed, we have reason to believe that among certain classes of society it is becoming too commonly used, and bids fair soon to grow into a very general vice. — Spectator,