DANGERS OF CHLORAL-DRINK ING.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1306, 10 April 1883, Page 2

DANGERS OF CHLORAL-DRINK ING.

Chloral has a direct action upon the heart and the brain, so that when either of these organs is in an abnormal condition, the dangers to be apprehended from its use are not a few. Its action differs very much from that of opium, for the victims of the latter seldom die from the immediate influence of the drug but rather from some organic disease brought on by its use. Now, chloral accumulates in the system until such a quantity is present as will stop all organic functions ; but death in these cases generally results from an inter ference with the heart’s action, or from a suspension of the nervous stimuli—tho nature of death thus being not unlike that of chronic alcohlism. Many chloi ial-drinkers have been dipsomaniacs at one time or other and have drifted from that to the chloral bottle or have moderated tneir consumption of alcohol by the conjunction of chloral. Although chloral-drinking is not so apparent as dram-drinking yet it has even a greater power over its victims, and as its immediate effects are not so degrading as those of alcohol they imagine that it is not so ruinous as the latter ; but it is the result of an insatiable desire, and as such, it becomes an infatuating and degrading vice. The consumption during the past few years, fora knowledge of the evils of its indiscriminate use has been acquired. and a proper place in the therapeutics has been assigned to it.—CAamier’K Javr* nal.