CHLORAL VICTIMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 226, 12 January 1877, Page 2

CHLORAL VICTIMS.

;' (jJi.tihj Tdc-jraph) Few people probably arc aware how powerful and dangerous a drug is chloral, lis influence as a, narcotic is extremely potent, and to those who are unaccustomed to its action, its effects are almost magical. Within a few minutes after the dose'lias been taken, sleep ensues, and the consequence is that the patient, who knows perfectly well what it is that has been administered to him, is led to repeat the •experiment on his own account. Chloral is as insidious as opium itself. A few doses of ifc create a habit, and when the habit is once formed it is almost impossible to shalec it oil. There sire some things of which a man, if lie lias only snilicient resolution, can cure himself. Tobacco, or snuff, or even drink can, with a determined struggle, be given up. Chloral is more seductive in its ejects. An habitual drunkard, deprived of his dram suffers more than might be supposed. I'ut his tortures are as nothing compared with those of Uiq habitual chloral taker, unable to procure a dose of his customary narcotic. The dipsomaniac, who cannot obtain stimulants, usually labours under extreme mental depression. But if he has friends about him who are willing and able to do their best to relieve him, he can. as a rule, tide over the day. He will, no doubt, always swallow a dram if he has the chance. He suffers from nervousness, lowness of spirits, and something like chronic hypochondriasis. He. feels, in short, to use a familiar phrase, wretchedly ill. Medical men tell us that few sufferings are more distressing vhan those of the man upon whom delirium tremens is supervening. Chills and cold perspirations make him shiver from head to foot. Although perfectly sober and self-collected, he is yet afraid to stand on his feet lest-Ins legs should give way under liim ; he is afraid to speak lest he should trip in his articulation; he is afraid almost to stir, lest he should make some blunder and be set down as drunk. A terrible anxiety rests upon him, as if some enemy were round the corner waiting to stab him; and he will sit with his back to the wall for fear he should be taken unawares ; while he will nod to his acquaintances, instead of speaking to them.

lest lie should stumble in his -words, and betray the secret. Painful as these symptoms are, they are yet capable of easy, immediate, and efficacious treatment. All that is necessary is that the patients' friends should watch him, and should keep him constantly in their company. Drinking to excess is essentially a seci'et vice bred of loneliness and melancholy, and the worst drunkard can bo reformed if an intelligent and pleasant companion will have him continually under his eyes, and ses him through the dreadful fits of anxiety, or as it is commonly called, "horrors," that come on him'. It is otherwise with the chloral taker. His trouble seizes him at night, when no friends, however kind and attentive, can give him relief. The habitual drunkard, when his fits attack him, can be cheered up —can be made to play billiards, or go fishing or boating, or riding, or can be otherwise amused. The agony of. the chloral-eater overtakes him under circumstances in which the presence of an attendant or nurse would intensify his suffering. In what is perhaps his best known novel, Mr. Charles Iteacle describes the sensations of a man who is locked up for some hours in a dull cell. The chloraltaker, deprived of his favourite dvug, undergoes torments far worse than these ; his limbs ache until he feels as if every bone in his body had been broken on the wheel; an indescribable terror masters him, until ho is afraid to move his hand lest some hidden enemy should grasp it. The arteries in his head throb so that the pulsations of Ids ears drowns the friendly tick of the clock.. The mere rustle of the bedclothes, as he restlessly changes his position, jars upon him and makes him shudder and quiver as if he had been struck with a knife. A 1! this he has to endure, not with companions around him, who can console and cheer him, but in the terrible loneliness of the slow tedious night.