Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1884 — Opium Eating on the Increase. [ARTICLE]

Opium Eating on the Increase.

The opium habit is spreading in this country, and especially among the higher* classes, professional people for the most part. Morphine, which yon know is six times the strength of opium, and extracted from it, is the favorite form in which the drug is used. The habit is usually contracted quite innocently, perhaps through a physician's prescription, persisted in without Ids knowledge. Once fixed, it is impossible for the habitue to leave it without assistance. He may accustom himself to taking from ten to twenty grains a day. I once had a patient who took 180 grains daily. Was he cured?

Certainly. By tegular but gradual reduction in the amount of his dose. Such cases require the most careful watching and medical oversight. The only absolute security is in isolation, for relapse is commonly fatal.—Dr. Meylert, in New York Tribune ,