648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The persons who become habituated to chloral hydrate are of two 

 or three classes as a rule. Some have originally taken the narcotic to 

 relieve pain, using it in the earliest application of it for a true medici- 

 nal and legitimate object, probably under medical direction. Finding 

 that it gave relief and repose, they have continued the use of it, and 

 at last have got so abnormally under its influence that they can not get 

 to sleep if they fail to resort to it. A second class of persons who 

 take to chloral are alcoholic inebriates who have arrived at that stage 

 of alcoholism when sleep is always disturbed, and often nearly impos- 

 sible. These persons at first wake many times in the night with cold- 

 ness of the lower limbs, cold sweatings, startings, and restless dream- 

 ings. In a little time they become nervous about submitting them- 

 selves to sleep, and before long habituate themselves to watchfulness 

 and restlessness, until a confirmed insomnia is the result. Worn out 

 with sleeplessness, and failing to find any relief that is satisfactory or 

 safe in their .false friend alcohol, they turn to chloral, and in it find for 

 a season the oblivion which they desire, and which they call rest. It 

 is a kind of rest, and is no doubt better than no rest at all ; but it leads 

 to the unhealthy states that we are now conversant with, and it rather 

 promotes than destroys the craving for alcohol. In short, the man 

 who takes to chloral after alcohol enlists two cravings for a single 

 craving, and is double-shotted in the worst sense. A third class of men 

 who become habituated to the use of chloral are men of extremely 

 nervous and excitable temperament, who by nature, and often by the 

 labors in which they are occupied, become bad sleepers. A little thing 

 in the course of their daily routine oppresses them. "What to other 

 men is passing annoyance, thrown off with the next step, is to these 

 men a worry and anxiety of hours. They are over-susceptible of what 

 is said of them, and of their work, however good the work may be. 

 They are too elated when praised, and too depressed when not praised, 

 or dispraised. They fail to play character-parts on the stage of this 

 world, and as they lie down to rest they take all their cares and anxie- 

 ties into bed with them, in the liveliest state of perturbation. Unable 

 in this condition to sleep, and not knowing a more natural remedy, 

 they resort to the use of such an instrument as chloral hydrate. They 

 begin with a moderate dose ; increase the dose as occasion seems to 

 demand, and at last, in what they consider a safe and moderate sys- 

 tem of employing it, they depend on the narcotic for their falsified 

 repose. 



Among these classes of men the use of chloral hydrate is on the 

 increase. The use is essentially a bad business at the best, and while 

 I do not wish in the least to exaggerate the danger springing from it 

 while, indeed, I am willing to state that I have never been able to 

 trace out a series of fatal organic changes of a structural character 

 from such use I have certainly seen a great deal of temporary dis- 

 turbance and enfeeblement from it, without any corresponding advan- 



