55o 
Acquirement  of  the  Drug  Habit. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I   November,  1902. 
ing:  Opium  (gum),  laudanum  (including  deod.  tr.  and  McMunn's 
elixir),  paregoric,  morphine  (including  hypodermic  use),  cocaine, 
trional,  sulfonal,  headache  cures  ? 
Four  hundred  were  sent  to  pharmacists  in  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn, 250  to  pharmacists  and  physicians  in  Philadelphia,  100  to 
pharmacists  in  Baltimore,  1 00  to  physicians  in  Baltimore,  50  to 
pharmacists  in  towns  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  with  results 
given  in  following  table  : 
Towns.  j 
Philadelphia. 
Baltimore. 
u 
V 
Pharmacists. 
Physicians. 
Averages. 
1  Percentage  of  those  to  whom  cards  were  sent 
50 
36 
22 
21 
22 
16 
26 
2  Average  number  of  habitues  known  to  each 
7 
3 
5 
5 
4 
6 
5 
3  Percentage  reporting  an  unwarranted  use  of 
8 
12 
27 
14 
19 
33 
18 
4  Percentage  reporting  no  unwarranted  use  of 
92 
68 
53 
70 
50 
57 
66 
5  Percentage  not  reporting  on  sulfonal  and  trional 
0 
20 
20 
16 
31 
10 
16 
6  Percentage  reporting  a  belief  that  habits  are 
50 
24 
70 
42 
54 
90 
57 
7  Percentage  reporting  any  unbelief  that  habits 
42 
60 
10 
43 
14 
1 
28 
8  Percentage  not  reporting  on  headache  cures  . 
8 
16 
20 
15 
32 
1 
15 
9  Percentage  of  habitues  using  gum  opium  .  .  . 
20 
2 
7 
8 
6 
7 
8 
10  Percentage  of  habitues  using  laudanum  .... 
32 
17 
?5 
11 
20 
9 
17 
11  Percentage  of  habitues  using  paregoric  .  .  .  . 
4 
15 
10 
9 
9 
10 
9 
12  Percentage  of  habitues  using  morphine  .... 
50 
18 
20 
25 
18 
30 
26 
35 
10 
11 
18 
6 
13 
15 
17 
2 
3 
4 
2 
4 
5 
16 
1 
2 
3 
0 
3 
4 
16  Percentage  of  habitues  using  headache  cures  . 
7 
19 
28 
22 
30 
25 
21 
The  responses  were  better  than  is  usual  from  such  efforts  which 
have  always  proven  to  be  the  most  effective  for  securing  statistics. 
We  hereby  thank  and  commend  all  those  who  were  kind  enough  to 
respond ;  the  attention  is  highly  appreciated  by  the  committee. 
Although  several  of  our  kind  friends  advised  us  that  it  was  "  a  poor 
way  to  get  such  information"  they  did  not  suggest  any  better  plan, 
