A CLEAR MIND THE NEED OF THE DAY 331 



in emergencies they have been of incalculable benefit. But 

 most of them have an unfortunate tendency to create an 

 appetite, before which in the end the user becomes helpless. 

 A person begins with a small dose, perhaps at the advice of a 

 physician to relieve pain, and continues to repeat it either 

 for the same purpose or for some other reason, until the habit 

 of frequently using the narcotic is formed. The small doses 

 cease to have the desired effect, the more it is used the more it 

 is craved and the larger are the amounts taken. Surely and 

 even rapidly this undermines the health and destroys the will 

 power until the man becomes a wreck. Usually he does not 

 appreciate the fact that he is coming under the influence of 

 the drug until he becomes its slave, and when he does recog- 

 nize that he is being ruined he is usually too far gone to wish 

 to reform, or his will power is too much shattered to enable 

 him to do so. 



There are few more difficult habits to conquer than the 

 opium habit and the only safe way to escape this great danger 

 is by avoiding the use of this narcotic entirely. The same 

 applies to the use of cocaine and chloral. The amount of in- 

 jury done to children by the ignorant use of soothing syrups 

 by their mothers or nurses cannot be calculated, and it is 

 doubtless true that many a child's death is due to the use of 

 such drugs, most of which contain opium or a similar narcotic. 

 One should hesitate about the continued use of any drugs 

 which rapidly relieve pain or induce sleep, though some are 

 more injurious than others. 



Alcohol. The most commonly used drug belonging to the 

 class of narcotics is alcohol. The dispute about the food value 

 of alcohol has already been mentioned, but there is no ques- 

 tion about classing alcohol as a drug which provokes the 

 brain to abnormal action. If it is used constantly and in 

 large amounts, it not only affects the brain but other organs. 

 An inflammation in the form of chronic catarrh is produced 

 in the stomach, and the functional activities of that organ are 



