552  Acquirement  of  the  Drug  Habit.  {ANove0mbe?ffS' 
literally  covered  with  marks  from  the  hypodermic  needle.  Lauda- 
num sold  to  fiends  is,  as  a  rule,  a  50  per  cent,  preparation,  i.e.,  tinc- 
ture of  opium  diluted  with  an  equal  volume  of  diluted  alcohol  and 
colored  with  caramel. 
"  The  amount  of  paregoric  sold  in  the  <  tenderloin '  is  compara- 
tively small." 
All  this  in  spite  of  a  friend  who  writes  us,  "  some  people  think  a 
flea  is  an  elephant;  there  is  not  one  person  in  a  thousand  who  has  a 
drug  habit."  Three  to  one  thousand  was  the  exact  number,  with 
pronounced  habits,  committed  to  one  of  our  city  jails  during  the 
last  two  years.  The  comparative  extent  to  which  the  several  drugs 
are  used  is  given  in  the  table.  It  is  only  necessary,  in  this  connec- 
tion, to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  quite  a  percentage  of  phar- 
macists and  physicians  are  of  the  opinion  that  habits  are  formed 
for  sulfonal,  trional  and  the  popular  headache  remedies — an  amply 
sufficient  number  to  warrant  a  thorough  investigation  of  this  par- 
ticular part  of  the  subject,  and  to  suggest  caution  in  the  use  of 
these  products. 
It  is  not  the  opinion  of  this  committee  that  narcotics  are  largely 
used  in  headache  cures,  nor  do  we  believe  seduction  comes  from 
the  caffeine  or  the  acetanilid  alone,  but  to  the  combination  of  these, 
or  a  product  of  the  combination.  Preparations  containing  caffeine 
and  potassium  bromide  and  no  acetanilid  do  not  appear  to  produce 
the  pleasantly  stimulating  effect  that  the  addition  of  the  latter 
gives.    All  this  offers  another  subject  worthy  of  investigation. 
Besides  the  drugs  and  preparations  listed,  habits  were  reported  for 
chloroform,  ether,  bromidia  and  several  brands  of  cartarrh  snuff.  Our 
correspondents,  in  considerable  number,  condemn  these  snuffs  as 
being  extremely  vicious.  They  have  no  doubt  that  they  contain 
cocaine,  and  believe  their  sale  should  be  suppressed.  Fear  is  also 
expressed  that  the  danger  of  continuing  the  use  of  suppositories 
containing  opium  or  morphine  is  often  overlooked.  Besides  the 
information  to  which  we  have  already  referred,  we  have  consulted 
police  officers,  jail  physicians  and  eminent  specialists  in  nervous  and 
mental  diseases,  physicians  to  insane  asylums  and  sanatoriums,  and 
they  all  unite  in  declaring  the  abuse  of  narcotic  drugs  to  be  on  the 
increase,  with  results  indescribably  bad.  Much  of  the  insanity  and 
nervous  derangement  prevalent  is  noticeably  due  to  the  drug  habit 
and  crime  is  often  directly  traceable  to  its  impulses.    Opium  and 
