Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
November,  1902.  / 
Acquirement  of  the  Drug  Habit. 
551 
and  while  we  agree  with  them  that  those  who  could  give  the  most 
valuable  information  would  be  the  last  to  offer  it,  we  believe  the 
results  will  prove  interesting  and  be  of  some  value. 
From  the  reports  made,  and  because  "  those  who  knew  the  least 
said  the  most,"  and  supported  by  t,vo  commendably  frank  gentle- 
men who  had  been  in  favorable  positions  to  know — one  in  the  "  ten- 
derloin "  of  Philadelphia,  the  other  in  a  "  peculiar  locality  "  of  New 
York,  and  who  reported  habitues  by  the  (i  hundred  and  more," — we 
believe  it  is  quite  safe  to  estimate  that  at  least  five  different  unfor- 
tunates of  this  class  are  known  to  every  pharmacist,  making  at  least 
200,000  in  this  country,  or  about  three  to  every  1,000  of  our  popu- 
lation. 
The  use  of  cocaine  by  unfortunate  women  generally  and  by  negroes 
in  certain  parts  of  the  country  is  simply  appalling.  No  idea  of  this 
can  be  had  unless  personally  investigated.  The  police  officers  of 
these  questionable  districts  tell  us  that  the  habitues  are  made 
madly  wild  by  cocaine,  which  they  have  no  difficulty  at  all  in  buy- 
ing, it  sometimes  being  peddled  around  from  door  to  door,  but 
always  adulterated  with  acetanilid.  Touching  this  special  phase  of 
the  practice,  we  are  allowed  to  quote  the  two  correspondents  to 
whom  we  have  referred  in  full.  One  reports  over  two  hundred 
habitues,  2  using  opium,  5  using  laudanum,  100  cocaine,  100  mor- 
phine, 20  trional,  5  sulfonal.  He  writes:  "  Being  in  a  peculiar  neigh- 
borhood I  find  the  above-mentioned  drugs  abused  to  an  awful 
extent.    Very  few  care  to  better  themselves  if  it  were  possible." 
Another  pharmacist  writes  interestingly  as  follows:  "I  spent  a 
few  months  in  a  pharmacy  located  in  what  is  known  as  the  '  tender- 
loin district '  in  this  city.  From  my  personal  observation  I  can  say 
that  the  number  of  men  and  women,  in  the  prime  of  life,  addicted 
to  the  laudanum,  paregoric,  morphine  and  cocaine  habits  is  appal- 
ling. 
"  Cocaine,  of  which  the  muriate  is  generally  sold,  is  dispensed  in 
crystals  and  also  in  solution,  as  ordered  by  the  customer,  and  is 
used  by  the  fiend  by  mouth  and  hypodermically.  A  considerable 
amount  of  cocaine  is  also  disposed  of  in  the  form  of  catarrh  snuff ; 
the  buyers  of  this  article,  being  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  it, 
buy  it  to  get  the  desired  effect. 
"One  case,  in  particular,  that  came  under  my  notice  is  a  young 
man,  I  should  judge  not  over  thirty  years  of  age,  whose  limbs  were 
