&N THE HABITUAL USE OB OPIUM 
26 
been addicted to the smoking 1 of opium was 7 years and some odd 
months. The average individual amount of wages of these 31 men 
was four dollars and seventy seven cents, and the value of the opium 
consumed monthly by each man at the rate of 0 boons daily was %3 
60c. Upstairs I found one women who had been an opium smoker for 
3 years, at the average rate of 6 hoons daily, she stated that she had 
2 children, but they were very sickly and always crying, and how did 
she stifle their cries ? Oil women ! if ye have a spark of motherly 
feeling in you, ye will join with me in execrating this vice, whose 
practices are so horrible, that if I could not vouch for it, credulity 
itself might turn a deaf ear to my cry, while humanity would thun¬ 
der nay. I saw the woman pressing to her shrivelled, sapless, breasts, 
her weeping offspring whose thin and yellow face, and withered 
limbs showed what little sustenance was to be obtained there. Its 
shrill cries and convulsed limbs seemed now to excite the attention 
of the mother, who was all the time enjoying her pipe, when, to my 
horror and astonishment, she conveyed from her lips to that of the 
child’s the fresh drawn opiate vapour, which the babe inspired. This 
was repeated twice, when it fell back a senseless mass into its mo¬ 
ther’s arms, and allowed her quietly to finish her unholy repast. 
This practice she had often recourse to as her child was very trou¬ 
blesome, adding that it was no uncommon thing for mothers to do so. 
With this extract from my notes, I will finish, as much I have 
seen is not meet for the public eye, and will proceed to describe the 
physical evils resulting from the habitual use of Opium, premising, 
that it is from the examination of above 301) Opium smokers that 
the succeeding account is derived. 
A state of excitement, or one of sedative tranquillity, is what is 
primarily desired by the Opium smoker, and which at first is effect¬ 
ed by a small quantity of the drug. That small quantity soon loses 
its effect, and to produce the same amount of excitement the dose 
must be doubled, and that again increased until I have known the 
original quantity multiplied one hundred fold. 
The first evils resulting from the habitual use of Opium seem to 
be connected, with the nervous system; disturbed sleep, wakefullness, 
