CHLORAL-EATING IN ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 348, 24 July 1875, Page 3

CHLORAL-EATING IN ENGLAND.

A contemporary publishes the following summary of an article whica appeared in a recent number of Belgravla on the above Bubject :

George Stables, M.D., R.N., in the April number of Selgravia, gives hia experience as a chloral-eater. Most persons have read Thomas de Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium-eater," which was more calculated by its literary charm and the romantic halo thrown around that indulgence in opium, toi impress in favor of the practice of opiumeating than to deter anybody from resort to that fascinating but perilous stimulant. In the Lancet of last December it was stated that there was » great deal of chloral-eating, although chloral was a poison for which it was doubtfnl whether there was any antidote; and Dr Stables comes forward, impelled by public duty and inspired by the hope that he may save " not a few from one of the most lingering and awful of deaths, and avert misery and ruin from many a family in England." The source of the great danger of which he is apprehensive is a " horrid drug," which he describes as a salt, of a burning, pungent taste, having a great affinity for water; its basis, chloroform, into which the accepted opinion is that it is changed in the blood. A small dose is stimulating and antispasmodic; a large dose, narcotic, deadly as the electric bolt. It is so far like opium, and indeed like all stimulants, that to keep up the same effect the dose must be increased, The effect of chloral on a 'real chloral-eater" is in part stimulating, in part soothing; the stimulation, however, unlike that caused by opium or alcohol, is not exhilarating, and excites neither to bodily nor mental activity, but raises the mind above cares and sorrows and fatigues; and bathes the world, the past, the present, and the future, in a roseate light, at the same time banishing affection and love from this condition of perfect peace. The subject of the influence of this extraordinary drug grows apathetic and careless of everything but his own ease and comfort, and becomes merely "a living, breathing vegetable," who could stand by his mother's deathbed smiling and wear an air of placid triumph on the threshold of the gallows. A second dose without an interval of rest makes the chloralist drunk; his eyelids droop and his gait becomes unsteady. Drunk in the " first degree," your chloralist is by no means an unpleasant companion—genial, and though not brilliant, a good listener. He may be roused into fierce outbursts of passion, which die away, leaving him perfectly placid. So far in the general. We now come to our essayist's own experience. In the early stages he used to take a " pick-me-up " when going on a railway journey, with the happy result of banishing all sense of fatigue, and of the unpleasant motion of the cars. He was "lifted out of himself"—a spirit travelling by train —and the ever varying scenery " went past me like an enchanted diorama." Unlike opium, which creates beautiful hallucinations, chloral " merely increases the power of enjoying the real." In the December of 1871, when medical men were lauding chloral to the skies, Dr Stables became a chloralist, together with other friends, who quickly succumbed and died, having passed through the agonies of despair, characteristic of the later stages of chloralism. Being overworked be could not sleep, and took a dose

of chloral, whereupon he slept like a top until morning. Having repeated the dose every night for a week he tried to sleep one. night without the aid of it and fai'ed. He, of course, took to it again, and found after some time that he had little satisfaction from his sleep. After a month he began to feel a strai ge heat on the top of his head, together with a, sense of fulness in it, and his nervebegan to be shaken. At length he had to fh into the country, and, what with the pure, bracing air, he was enabled to reduce his dose by one half and to take long walks though after a brief space he again surrendered himself to "King Chloral." He began 1o lose flesh , crowsfeet gathered under his eyes ; bis pulse grew " thready," and by June, 1872, he is at the seaside a confirmed invalid, his bodily sufferings very great and his mind a chaos. His eyes are constantly dilated, and the least excitement runs his pulse from sixty to a hundred. He takes three draebms of chloral when he goes to bed —a dose sufficient to kill as many men. Three months pass, and he is taking three and a half drachms at bedtime and one at early morning ; he can barely walk one hundred yards without sitting or laying down ; the irritability of the brain is changed into agony if he attempts to rise from a chair; th(,>re is a horrid sense of strangulation. Three months more, and he is pronounced hopelessly gone with heart. disease, and he constantly contemplates suicide. He has lost all power of reading, writing or speaking aloud ; and toward night every vein seems inflamed and swollen to idouble the size ; and when given up by one medical man auother arrives, who destroys all his chloral. The first night passed without chloral was dreadful—sleep impossible . and for over a week he never slept a wink. He became delirious, but recovery came at length though tediously. In three months, however, he could walk os many miles aud Bleep returned to bless him.