122 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



DOCTORS AND THE OPIUM-HABIT. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



IN the September number of " The Popular 

 Science Monthly," Mr. Virgil G. Eaton 

 makes the following statement in his article 

 on "How the Opium-Ilabit is acquired": 

 " The parties who are responsible for the 

 increase of the habit are the physicians who 

 give the prescriptions. . . . Opium effects 

 immediate relief, and the doctors, knowing 

 this, and wishing to stand well with their 

 patients, prescribe it more and more. Their 

 design is to effect a cure. The result is to 

 convert their patients into opium-slaves. 

 The doctors are to blame for so large a con- 

 sumption of opium, and they are the men 

 who need reforming " (p. 666). While there 

 may be exceptional cases where physicians 

 are responsible for a patient acquiring the 

 opium-habit, this charge against the entire 

 medical profession is unjust and misleading. 

 No class of men is better acquainted with 

 the dangers due to a prolonged use of opiates 

 than the medical practitioners, but it does not 

 follow that a knowledge of the fact should 

 lead any one of them to abandon the use of 

 this valuable anodyne in suitable cases. No 

 physician will question Mr. Eaton's statement 

 that opiates are prescribed very frequently. 

 If Mr. Eaton had taken the trouble to inquire 

 from physicians why this is so, he would 

 probably have ascertained that a large num- 

 ber of patients suffer considerably during 

 their sickness, and that, to alleviate these 

 sufferings, and give the patients the best 

 chances for recovering their health, opiates 

 arc often prescribed, and not merely because 

 the physician wants to " stand well with his 

 patient," or even to " effect a owre." Surely, 

 no honest practitioner would be brutal enough 

 to withhold an anodyne to relieve the intense 

 pain due to a " stone in the gall-duct " (and 

 if it were in Mr. Eaton's personal gall-duct), 

 provided the anodyne caused no other serious 

 injury. In this case the anodyne is not 

 given to " effect a cure," but to permit the 

 passage of the stone through the duct with 

 less pain to the proprietor of the duct than 

 were possible without the drug. 



_ While putting the responsibility for the 

 opium-habit on the physicians, Mr. Eaton 

 says (p. 665), " From a conversation with a 

 druggist, I learned that the proprietary or 

 ' patent ' medicines which have the larcrest 

 sales were those containing opiates." Wliile 

 Mr. Eaton's article proves his knowledge of 

 the practice of medicine to be very limited, 

 he can hardly be ignorant of the fact that 

 the members of the medical profession have 

 been and arc to this day warning their 

 patients and the public against the use of 



all nostrums. This is done by physicians, 

 not for selfish purposes, as Mr. Eaton prob- 

 ably thinks, but because they have some 

 thought for the health and well-being of their 

 patients. 



Immediately after telling us that the 

 doctors are the men who need reforming, Mr. 

 Eaton gives us two means for preventing the 

 opium-habit. Here we find that he does not 

 mention the method of reformation, but 

 recommends that the renewal of prescribed 

 medicines containing opiates, without the 

 consent of the physician, be prohibited. Now 

 this is a very good recommendation, but, as 

 "there is nothing new under the sun," so 

 this suggestion is not original. A perusal 

 of medical literature would demonstrate that 

 the medical profession, as individuals, and 

 through their associations, have for years 

 past protested and advised against renewing 

 prescribed medicines without the physician's 

 consent. They would not, however, have it 

 limited to opiates, but have it apply to all 

 medicines, for very good and not solely selfish 

 reasons. After such good advice from Mr. 

 Eaton, it is a great disappointment to find in 

 the second and last suggestion that again no 

 method of reforming the doctors is given, 

 but here he mentions the very good but not 

 always practical preventive for the opium- 

 habit is not to get sick. True, Mr. Eaton 

 does not put it in these words, but it is prac- 

 tically the same as to say : " Avoid sickness 

 by living according to "the laws of health. 

 If you are not sick, you will not require 

 medicine ; and if you don't take medicine, 

 you will not become a victim of the opium- 

 habit." 



After so clearly showing that "patent" 

 medicines, and the druggists, who so willing- 

 ly refill prescriptions, are to a very great 

 degree responsible for the alarming increase 

 of the opium-habit, Mr. Eaton's charges 

 against the physicians are entirely out of 

 place. A. F. Stifkl. 



Wheeling, W. Va., Avgmt, 29, 1868. 



OUR ASTRONOMY CLASS. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthhj : 



In Chapter IX of " Prince Otto," by Rob- 

 ert Louis Stevenson, better known to fame 

 as the author of " Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," 

 the hero goes to an appointment with the 

 countess, "as the bell beats /wo" in the 

 morning. At this hour, we are told, "a 

 shaving of new moon had lately arisen ; but 

 was still too small and too low down in 

 heaven to contend with the immense host of 

 lesser luminaries, and the rough face of the 

 earth was drenched with starlight." 



