MORPHIOMANIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2501, 15 January 1887, Page 2

MORPHIOMANIA.

In the course of thelas'tlfew years ■■ the disease which the doctors :'4O- - has made • headway all over' Prance. 'ln the capital its victims almost rival those: of alcoholism. At Bellevue-a. great hospital opened- for tlie care,' ■ and, .if possible, fthe -these ; patients,-v'Here.at; leistfyll thlsymp.' \ toms of^he'deseasel;nifty r be;'.studied,' and curious statistics of-its course and of. the, character-of .ife.victims have been collected,-' Thedisease in/its pre-sentform-is necessarily but of recent origin, Morphia itself- msonly djjh,' covered in the'year 1816.' The cureW it is vory rare. It is found .that both the use and the deprivation of the drug leads the victims almost inevitably to suicide, and at Bellevue-there are cushioned' rooms for some of, the patients and a constant watch kept on all. One is not surprised to hear that the chief sufferers are women. Aftei women come.doctors. One oan seethe reason, of .this, A .few years agcr* the injection of morphia "was almost a' Burgioal operation. -Doctor's: would ■have, most opportunity and least fear jjjf ttie results. Now, unfortimately, the ,-iustrumonts : have : been -made so per- •; te'ct .that the. use:of them has ceased totf •bVeither painful; or- formidable.