HOW THE OPIUM-HABIT IS ACQUIRED. 663 



anecdote, to have dealt with one of these alleged denizens of the 

 human stomach : 



" Prof. Wyman, on entering the office of his friend Dr. Augus- 

 tus A. Gould, an eminent Boston physician, was asked his opin- 

 ion about a curious case. His friend, a clergyman, had just 

 brought in an animal which he said a worthy parishioner of his, a 

 man of unimpeachable veracity, after some years of suffering in 

 his stomach, had recently vomited, while sitting on a rock in an 

 open field. The animal tried to escape, but was caught. Prof. 

 Wyman at once recognized it as a young blacksnake, which could 

 not have lived years in the man's stomach and then been vomited. 

 The clergyman indignantly denied that his worthy parishioner 

 could be mistaken or would deceive, and wanted to argue the 

 case. The professor said he would not waste time in dispute, and 

 with his penknife immediately opened the reptile's stomach and 

 turned out some grasshoppers, beetles, and other remnants of the 

 usual food of such animals. He said to the clergjonan, ' It seems 

 that your parishioner has a liking for a peculiar kind of diet.' " * 



■♦«» 



HOW THE OPIUM-HABIT IS ACQUIRED. 



By VIKGIL G. EATON. 



I AM not one of the persons who raise a great cry about the 

 evils of the " opium-habit." I have no doubt that the con- 

 tinued use of narcotics, whether they be tobacco or opium, is 

 injurious to the nervous system ; but I also firmly believe that 

 the recuperative powers of the body are such that they can largely 

 overcome any harmful results coming from the regular use of 

 these substances. For instance, I know a stone-cutter who resides 

 at Cape Elizabeth, Me., who for the past twenty years has used 

 twenty cents' worth of black " navy plug " tobacco every day. He 

 is a large, vigorous man, weighing over two hundred pounds. His 

 appetite is good ; he sleeps well, and, save for a little heart dis- 

 turbance caused by overstimulation, he is perfectly healthy, and 

 is likely to live until he is fourscore. He is now fifty-one years 

 of age, and he assures me he has used tobacco since he was four- 

 teen, and never had a fit of " swearing off " in his life. A peculiar 

 and, I should say, a rather troublesome habit of his, is to go to bed 

 every night with a big " quid " of hard " plug " tobacco between 



* The writer will gratefully acknowledge the receipt of additio'nal myths of similar char- 

 acter to those here given, with a view to subsequent fuller treatment of the subject. It 

 will be of service if considerable detail be given in regard to the geographical or social 

 boundaries of the superstition, and if tLe latter be stated as explicitly as possible. (Address 

 Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, 17 Arlington St., North Cambridge, Mass.) 



