The morphine eater: or, From bondage to freedom : The opium, morphine and kindred habits; their origin, nature and extent, together with the proper method of treatment to be adopted / By Leslie E. Keeley.

  • Keeley, Leslie E., 1842-1900.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The morphine eater: or, From bondage to freedom : The opium, morphine and kindred habits; their origin, nature and extent, together with the proper method of treatment to be adopted / By Leslie E. Keeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    desert with an unreal glory. ♦To the cured morphine eater it seems as though a luring demon had furnished the inspiration of these records in order to wile innocent souls into bondage and doom them to despair! And yet it is difficult to depict with too much color and light the peace, the perfect calm, the blissfnl quietude which opium and its preparations bring to the physical nature. They are the masters of nearly every form of bodily pain. The pangs of physical anguish, which before were unbearable, stinging to madness, are sud- denly repulsed and kept at bay, as Russian wolves are driven back into the outer darkness by the sudden up- leaping of flames from the frightened traveler's camp lire. The tiger fangs of neuralgia are suddenly wrenched apart by the strong hand of the opium giant, and its shrieking victim has hours of blessed rest ! The agony of diseased nerves is quieted. The morphine spirit touches the tossing victim of sleepless nights and days with its soft white hand, and he becomes as quiet and peaceful as a sleeping child. It is a blessed peace, it is a sudden transition from infernal regions to gardens of Paradise! The sweeping condemnation, indulged in by so many, of the exhibition of the various opium sedatives used by the profession, is not founded upon reason. It results from an uninformed sentimentality. Not for nothing- does ]STature, our mother, nurse the pale poppy flower with her kindly soil and out-pouring of sunshine. Like the Buddhist Satan, the opium spirit is dual, an angel of light as well as of darkness. It has for humanity, bless- ings as well as curses. The wise and careful physician uses the drug to allay the torture of disease, for he knows that the torments of agonized nerves may often be as ex- haustive to the vital forces as the malady which causes the anguish. Nor is it the prescriptions of the physician, or a strict compliance with his directions, which, except in a small percentage of cases, leads to the formation of the morphine habit. There are, of course, thoughtless and inexperiencedmeilical men, whoestablishin patients the opium craving by their heedless continuance of the drug. But as a rule, the victims themselves create the tyrannous appetite by continuing the use of morphia or