OPIUM AS A FACTOR IN PRODUCTION OF DISEASES. 65 



RESULTS OF THE HABITUAL USE OF OPIUM AND THE DISEASES PRODUCED 

 BY IT. 



As a rule, confirmed opium consumers owing to the life they lead are 

 predisposed to all varieties of acute or chronic diseases. The narcotic 

 influences which affect the entire system, physically, morally and men- 

 tally, act as a sufficiently predisposing factor, but there are many 

 diseases which I believe, are due to the direct action of the opium upon 

 the individual system, although the drug can not be considered as a 

 direct pathogenic cause. 



The alimentary canal. — The immediate, specific and remote action of 

 opium on the alimentary canal when the drug is taken per oram is well 

 known. Habitual opium consumers always suffer from dyspepsia. Ow- 

 ing to the action of the drug on the intestines, its consumers are 

 constipated. However, among chronic users of the drug when very 

 large doses are employed, the splanchnic nerves are paralyzed in such 

 degree that diarrhoea (called by the Chinese "opium diarrhoea)" results. 

 This is regarded as a serious and fatal malady, as many persons succumb 

 to it. Opium smokers are always anasmic, partially because the bronchial 

 tubes are continually filled with smoke, with a resultant interference 

 with perfect oxidation. They also suffer from a general, chronic ca- 

 tarrhal condition of the entire respiratory tract, due to the constant and 

 direct irritating action of the smoke on the mucous membrane. The 

 depressing effect of opium on the respiratory centers diminishes the 

 movements of the chest. For these reasons opium users are predis- 

 posed to lung troubles and, to judge from my experience in practice, 

 in the greater number of cases the cause of death among these persons 

 is either tuberculosis of the lungs, bronchitis or not uncommonly hy- 

 postatic pneumonia, which is produced by the recumbent position which 

 the consumers always assume. As a whole, without attempting to go 

 into the details, I may say that nearly all the parts of the body are in- 

 fluenced by the use of opium. The brain is usually the chief organ 

 affected, the subject is always drowsy, nervous, weak in character, want- 

 ing in energy, and utterly unfit for work. There is a general perversion 

 of the mental faculties, self-control and judgment being weakened. 

 When the craving is satisfied by using the drug, there is a brief period 

 of excitement and exaltation which is generally described as a stimula- 

 tion, but in reality I do not believe it to be so. In fact, this period con- 

 sists rather in depression of the sensibility, by which the unfortunate 

 person becomes unconcious of the miseries of his condition, and so 

 accordingly he may be able to perform his duties, and to maintain his 

 appearance better than when deprived of the poison. Melancholia and 

 dementia are not infrequently seen among the habitues of the drug, as a 



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