4i2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the consciousness. Often this is a form of alcohol. A friend will 

 advise a glass of whiskey at bedtime, may be two or more; beer is 

 popular for this purpose; some special form of wine is often recom- 

 mended, and (deplorable as it may seem) too often by the physician. 



The entering wedge is so easy, and in the main agreeable in its 

 primary effects, that the habit of tippling is thus readily established. 

 Or again the chemists' shops are filled with ' simple harmless remedies 

 for insomnia.' The sign boards in all public places glisten with 

 advice. Every acquaintance is ready with counsel, especially those 

 numerous well intentioned women with little else to do but to prattle 

 of their shallow convictions on matters coming within the narrow 

 range of their experience, medical, spiritual or social. It is never 

 safe to play with drugs; to trifle with agencies often hurtful to a pro- 

 found degree in their ultimate effects. Idiosyncracies exist, too, 

 whereby what may harm one not at all produces in another far-reaching 

 derangements of vital organs. One of the most dangerous lunatics 

 I ever saw was a man possessed by sudden homicidal tendencies. He 

 would have remained so had not it been discovered, by providential 

 accident, that he was accustomed to use habitually moderately large 

 doses of some bromide. The obsession promptly and permanently 

 disappeared by total withdrawal and the use of an antidote. We 

 physicians, especially those who see many instances of nervous derange- 

 ments, are constantly coming in contact with the deplorable derange- 

 ments caused by hypnotic drugs, many of which are ordinarily classed 

 as innocent. The action of narcotics presents none of the character- 

 istics of normal sleep except the temporary arrest of consciousness; 

 hence narcosis is not true sleep. It does not refresh and regenerate 

 vigor as does normal sleep. To be sure, drug unconsciousness may 

 and often does pass into sleep. Again there are those who have be- 

 come so accustomed to narcotics that, when deprived of them, they 

 can not sleep. This would seem to prove a sort of antagonism be- 

 tween the drug effect and natural sleep. In brief, whatever agents 

 inhibit cerebral activity, inducing local anemia, hence permitting sleep 

 or narcosis, are harmless provided they do not derange nutrition or 

 cause other ill effects. All narcotic drugs invite these evil effects in 

 varying degrees and hence are to be avoided, and only used in extreme 

 cases and under guidance of a competent physician. 



The other peril lies in the fact that derangements of sleep often 

 foreshadow serious structural damage of the heart, arteries or other 

 organs or tissues. Hence unless the phenomena be estimated intel- 

 ligently, in the light of other than obvious data only to be secured 

 through careful medical examination, a deadly disease process may 

 escape detection until too late to accomplish full repair. 



To secure regular consecutive sleep it is best to assume that posi- 



