78o 
Opium  in  China. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
^    December,  1919. 
up  the  home  and  destroyed  the  body").  The  confirmed  opium 
smoker  is  described  as  black-faced,  weak-voiced,  watery-eyed, 
brown-teethed,  with  prolapse  of  the  bowels,  and  prospects  of  an 
early  death. 
One  would  naturally  be  surprised  at  the  large  doses  quoted 
above,  and  that  such  did  not  produce  death.  As  compared  with  the 
other  forms  of  opium  addiction,  smoking  takes  longer  time  to  form 
a  real  habit,  works  less  physical  and  mental  injury  when  once 
formed  and  is  easier  to  cure.  In  smoking,  the  morphine  is  not  all 
consumed  and  a  large  amount  remains  in  the  ash.  Amounts  of 
opium  are  smoked  which,  if  taken  by  the  mouth  would  certainly 
produce  death.  The  burning  of  this  extract  in  an  incomplete  man- 
ner, as  practiced  by  the  Chinese  smokers,  yields  a  smoke  containing 
sundry  empyreumatic  compounds  unknown  to  the  chemists,  but  pro- 
ducing by  absorption  into  the  pulmonary  vessels  a  stimulant,  or 
some  indescribable  effect  unknown  to  all  but  the  actual  smoker. 
Though  opium  had  been  used  as  an  analgesic  to  a  certain  extent, 
its  place  among  the  medicines  is  quite  unimportant  among  the 
Chinese.  Being  a  poison,  it  has  been  employed  for  suicidal  pur- 
poses, and  this  is  most  common  among  women.  When  the  crop  is 
in  the  unhappy  women  who  have  been  waiting  for  it  (for  women 
abhor  a  violent  death)  seize  their  opportunity.  When  the  drug  was 
at  its  highest  point  of  abundance,  such  suicidal  cases  happened  every 
day  and  everywhere,  for  that  was  the  only  poison  within  her  reach 
when  some  poor  woman  thought  to  end  her  sorrows.  However,  the 
continual  rise  in  the  price  and  the  restricted  sale  of  opium  have 
manifestly  decreased  the  number  of  attempts  at  suicide  by  the 
taking  of  this  drug. 
On  account  of  the  prohibition,  and  the  realization  of  the  deadly 
effects  of  the  poison,  smokers  began  to  seek  means  for  getting  rid 
of  the  habit.  The  failures  were  far  more  frequent  than  the  cures, 
from  the  fact  that  it  requires  the  exhibition  of  great  will  power  on 
the  part  of  those  whose  will  power  had  already  been  weakened  and 
partly  enslaved.  Tonics,  stimulants,  anti-opium  pills,  anti-opium 
tea,  etc.,  have  been  put  up  by  physicians  and  others  to  suit  the  pur- 
pose. Many  of  these  did  more  harm  than  good,  because  they  con- 
tained morphine  which  is  a  more  severe  narcotic.  Thoughtful 
smokers  with  strong  will  power  and  self-control,  have  been  success- 
ful in  ridding  themselves  of  the  habit  just  by  decreasing  the  doses 
day  by  day  until  there  was  a  complete  extinction  of  the  opium. 
