24 
ON THE HABITUAL USE Or OPIUM 
“ ed. My eyelids are glued so that they cannot be opened. My 
<f nose discharges profusely, I feel a tightness in my chest with sense 
“ of suffocation. My bones are sore, my head aches and is giddy 
li and I loathe the very sight of food.” Such is her account of her 
daily misery. The other female occasionally indulges in arrack, and 
then she has no craving for opium. Both were constipated general¬ 
ly 5 to 6 days ; with the one the venereal appetite was much dimi¬ 
nished, with the other nearly destroyed. 
In entering the second shop I was struck with the miserable ske¬ 
leton like appearance of the owner, who sat behind his small counter 
doling out the drug. He had smoked for 30 years and his allow¬ 
ance was one chin or the one-tenth of a tael daily, about the value of 
#■ 6 monthly. Of 12 men whom I examined, three had smoked for 
10 years, one for 15, four for 6 years, one for 5, and the rest be¬ 
tween 8 to 10 years, one Chinaman, who is a petty shopkeeper con¬ 
sumes #10 monthly of the drug. He states that in 100 Chinaman, 
70 smoke, almost all the coolies do so more or less. If a eooly earns 
# 5 monthly, # 1 goes for food, 20 cents for house rent, a small 
outlay for a jacket and trowsers once in six months, and all the rest 
goes in opium. From his own experience and what he has seen of 
others, he would say if a man has been accustomed to smoke opium 
for 7 or 8years and gives it up for a day, he is attacked with a diar¬ 
rhoea, frequently having from 20 to 30 evacuations daily, while during 
the time he is smoking he is constipated, frequently for 8 to 10 days, 
micturition is performed with difficulty and much tediousness, the 
venereal appetite is much impaired, nearly lost, what desire remains 
is wretchedness from the inability to consummate. Men long habi¬ 
tuated to opium do not beget children nor women bear them. At 
first the venereal appetite is increased; hence many for that purpose 
are induced to become opium smokers ; but speedily it is diminished. 
A great many women smoke, generally the wives of opium smokers. 
He who commences with I hoon daily will shortly require 2 to pro¬ 
duce the same state of eesfcacy necessary for his comfort.” Further 
he states, that after his quantity is consumed he feels no desire for 
sleep till 12 or 2 in the morning, then lie falls into disturbed slumbers 
