614 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



lent tliat opium acts as a preservative against the effects of a damp 

 climate, many of the inhabitants have in this way become addicted to 

 its use. 



Another and even more reprehensible form of the opium evil among 

 tlie lower classes is to be found in the practice of administering sooth- 

 ing mixtures to young children for the purpose of keeping them quiet. 

 In one instance, a mother, because her child was unwell, has been 

 known to place a piece of crude opium in its mouth to suck, the death 

 of the child being naturally the consequence ; and though cases of such 

 gross and culpable ignorance as this are no doubt rare, it is certain 

 that the administration of soothing sirups and cordials is too com- 

 monly resorted to. In large manuiacturing towns, where mothers are 

 often employed in factories during the day, their infants are frequently 

 placed for the time in the care of nurses ; and these women seldom 

 feel any compunction in administering an opiate to a child who is 

 troublesome. It cannot be too widely known how gi'eatly such a 

 practice tends not only to the direct increase of infant mortality, but 

 also to the permanent injury of the constitution, by inducing convul- 

 sions and other similar nervous diseases. 



Opium in one of its forms enters largely into the composition of 

 many of the pain-killers and patent medicines so freely advertised fDr 

 domestic use in the present day, and for this reason the greatest care 

 is needed in having recourse to any of them. Taken, perhaps, in the 

 first instance, to alleviate the torments of neuralgia or toothache, 

 what proves to be a remedy soon becomes a source of gratification, 

 which the wretchedness that follows on abstinence renders increasing- 

 ly difficult to lay aside. The same must be said of narcotics, such as 

 bromide of potassium and hydrate of chloral, frequently resorted to 

 as a remedy for sleeplessness : the system quickly becomes habituated 

 to their use, and they can then be relinquished only at the cost of 

 much suffering. Indeed, the last-mentioned of these two drugs obtains 

 over the mind a power which may be compared to that of opium, and 

 is, moreover, liable to occasion the disease known as chloralism, by 

 which the system ultimately becomes a complete wreck. 



Looking at the whole question of the medicinal use of narcotics, it 

 is perhaps not too much to say that they should never be employed 

 except with the authority of a competent medical adviser. 



Turning; again to the narcotics of savage or but semi-civilized 

 races, we find a species of fungus {Amanita muscaria) employed by 

 the natives of Kamtchatka and the adjoining provinces of Siberia. 

 It grows plentifully in parts of Kamtchatka, and is there generally 

 prepared for use in several ways. The inhabitants either gather it 

 during the hottest months, and hang it in strings to dry in the open air, 

 or leave it to ripen and dry in the ground, when it possesses stronger 

 narcotic qualities. Small-sized specimens, covered with warty excres- 

 cences and deeply-colored, are also considered more valuable than 



