STIMULANT AND SEDATIVE POISONING 



175 



It is not our intent to write, except in the briefest manner, upon 

 these poisons, as their effects are fully considered in special works 

 and are also contained in all the ordinary textbooks dealing with 

 general medicine. Notwithstanding this, we feel that a few 

 remarks dealing with these drugs in the tropics are necessary. 



Alcohol. — ^We have already referred to our belief that this is 

 a personal and a racial poison, and we would warn our readers 

 not to be misled by statistics on this point, and if they wish further 

 information to refer to Adami on Karl Pearson {vide references). 

 Alcoholism is unfortunately on the increase among tropical natives, 

 and is doing great harm in the form of indigenous stimulants such 

 as arrack, which is almost directly the cause of a large percentage 

 of the violent crime in Ceylon, as was shown by the fact that the 

 accident wards of the hospitals were nearly empty in the pro- 

 scribed regions during the period of a social prohibition. 



More dangerous, in our opinion, are the imported cheaper 

 alcoholic drinks, such as the cheap whiskies, gins, and rums, which, 

 being cheap, are drunk in quantity and greatly deteriorate native 

 races. These bad effects are not due to fusel oil, which is not 

 present in these cheap forms of spirit, which in many ways are 

 the purest form of alcohol to be obtained, and hence their effect 

 is truly due to alcohol and to alcohol only, and their real danger 

 is simply because they are cheap. Methyl alcohol is a direct 

 poison to man, a fact but little understood at the present time. 



Opium is eaten in Persia, India, and Africa, and smoked in 

 Malaya, Indo-China, and China, but for the latter process it has 

 to be specially prepared. On the Eastern mind opium is said to 

 have two possible effects: either it produces a sense of absolute 

 blank, or it produces fancy dreams and visions. The effects of 

 chronic morphinism are loss of appetite, emaciation, and exhaus- 

 tion, and hence inability to think or work. 



It is, however, probable that the effects of opium are not as 

 bad as those of alcohol, and, used in moderation, it may not be 

 more harmful than the use of tobacco. 



Cocaine has been used much of late in India as an intoxicant 

 or stimulant, to counteract the effects, or in lieu, of opium, owing 

 to the restrictions on the sale of opium. Unfortunately, children 

 have begun habitually to use the drug. The cocaine is chewed 

 with betel and chunam (slaked lime), and produces at first loss 

 of sensation in the tongue and lips, follov/ed by dryness of the 

 mouth and fauces. The temperature does not rise, but the pulse 

 becomes full and quick, and at this stage the inebriate likes to 

 be left alone, and firmly closes his lips lest the saliva should flow 

 out. His ears become hot and red, his cheeks pale, and the tip 

 of his nose cold. Perspiration breaks out, and the maximum 

 amount of the so-called hilarity or exaltation, due to overstimula- 

 tion of the nervous system, now appears, but is speedily followed 

 by depression, which induces the victim to take another dose. 

 The teeth and tongue of the confirmed cocaine-eater turn jet- 



