THE DEMON OF CHLORAL

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1080, 28 April 1882, Page 2

THE DEMON OF CHLORAL

♦ A woman who would have shuddered at the idea of drinking too much wine, thinks little of taking repeated doses of chloral — the small, innooentlooking phial so constantly in demand is thought nothing ot And yet the brandybottlo may be safer of the twa We see a woman lolling languidly in her carriage, in her box at the opera, or even at her own table, with a filmy r dazed look in her eyes, an absent manner, and a half unconscious way of listening and replying to those about her. We at once account for it: "chloral" We see a man who was once the incarnation of life and energy brisk in business, intellectual, cultivated. We see him dulled, ' nerveless, his brighter self effiwed, his business faculties dwindling, Blovenly in mind as person, inoacurate i$ statement, and careless as to linen; and we say—- " chloral" Therd are*, in onr merry England, beings who areaswhpjjy under the domination of morphiaaaever were Chinese under that of opitrm. Women have yielded by degree* to its fatal fascination, until at last they prick the skin a dozen times a day with the tiny syringe that has such terrible results The operation is almost painless; the immediate effects plesaant A delicious languor supervenes. Happy thoughts, bright imaginings fill tbe mind. Some see beautiful vidom ; others feel only a pervading* sensation of comfort and well-being. Bat at the very highest of the enchanffttat the influenoe of the morphia begins to subside. The sensation of comfort gives place to one of discomfort, 4r> ritation, dven pain. And thfe &tdt The punishment is Mttible indeed, By degrees the mutt, becomes darkened. Hideous haUucina^auLdfeise igtonit Self-control is lost Imbecility «vertakes the weak. Madness threatens the strong. These are- the personal consequences. There areojtarst%be bequeathed fb sons and daughters ana to later generations. These can be guessed at The new vice haa not reigned sufficiently long for the world to have seen them exemplified ; But a dark array of possibilities suggestaitself but too readily. The heritage of insanity, of inebriety, wiß in future days be traced back to those tiny tubes which mett" once looked as to a blessed means of relieving pain, forgetting that blessings a&d oatae»go hand in hand in a csaoked -world, Dipsomania has now a poweHttl rival speedier in its results than ita own revolting process, and eventually as degrading. The names of tiie laterborn sister-fiend is Morphiomanm.— Truth.