$8 
ON THE HABITUAL USE OF OPIUM 
hot spices. The outward appearance of the man changes. The firm 
fat is replaced by an oily secretion, which, in its turn becomes ab¬ 
sorbed, the muscles lose their torosity, becoming loose and flabby, 
disinclination to work hastens their decay, and a dull gnawing pain for 
hours in the morning becomes a daily oceurance. 
The upright manly figure begins to stoop, and a shuffle in the gait 
5s soon noticed, a well marked index of an opium smoker. But it 
Is in the eye that he who runs may read the effect of the vice, for 
Its lustre has gone and its brilliancy disappeared. It seems to have 
sunk into its socket, while the eyebrows have become more drooping, 
its color from a pure white is now a dingy yellow, and the blackness 
of the lower eyelid tells how deranged the general system is. Not¬ 
withstanding all these symptoms, there seems as yet no structural 
derangement, no inflammation of any part, but as the opium smoker 
still madly hastens on in his carreer, his rest becomes disturbed, he 
sleeps by snatches, he wakens unrefreshed, his appetite has nearly 
left him, what food he fakes he rejects, and all fluids are vomited un¬ 
til he indulges in his pipe, then these symptoms are a little alleviated- 
His digestion is now thoroughly disturbed, in fact destroyed, lie com. 
plains of incessant pain in the stomach, only to be allayed by the drug. 
Diarrhoea more or less is present, a gradual wasting of the body fol¬ 
lows which is thus pithily described by Mr. Koo King Shan a lite¬ 
rary gentleman of Keang Ling—from the robust who smoke, flesh 
« £ is gradually consumed and worn away, and their skin hangs down 
like bags. The faces of the weak who smoke are cadaverous and 
i( black, and their bones naked as billets of wood.” Diarrhoea ending 
in dysentery frequently follows, while the alvine secretions are in a 
most disordered state. The difficulty in micturition, along with other 
causes, lays the foun dation for renal disease, the kidney soon pre¬ 
senting Brights degeneration one of the exciting causes of dropsy 
which attacks so many opium smokers; vesical disease is also induc¬ 
ed and a deranged turbid, and mucus state of the urine is found in al¬ 
most every smoker. Sometimes the chest is the part most affected, 
and while for years the victim has complained of tightness there, he 
now complains of difficulty of breathing, gradually increasing to a 
