The opium habit and alcoholism / Fred. Heman Hubbard.

  • Hubbard, Frederick Heman.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The opium habit and alcoholism / Fred. Heman Hubbard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    how impossible it would be to obey, and succeeded in deceiving her husband for some time. On discovering her supposed determination to indulge in the use of opium for its stimulating effects, and her duplicity in deceiving him, his anger was excessive. He notified the druggists with threats, not to sell opium to his wife, or to any one else for her ; and did not consider the matter of sufficient importance to make it necessary that he should inform her of what he had done. She usually obtained the drug as she needed it, keeping no supply on hand. During the day, the young wife, heavy with child, seemed to have a presentiment of the terrible fate in store for her. She said to a companion : I have an awful fear that my husband will do something desperate ; if he stops my morphine I shall surely die. She dis- covered what course he had taken to make her stop by the druggist's refusal to sell her opium. It was now time for her evening dose, and relaxation, induced by undue excitement and worry, began to show itself. Knowing her husband's character, she was confident that an attempt to get the drug in town would be useless. She therefore ordered a black boy to mount a fleet horse and go to a village five miles distant to obtain it. Dur- ing his absence she was seen by the neighbors to stand statute like, holding to the gate, looking intently in the direction the boy had taken. On his return she rushed wildly out, and eagerly listening to what he said, she turned, uttering a loud shriek, and fell down insensible. The neighbors carried her into the house and bur-