THE POPULAR USE OF NARCOTICS. [TO THE EDITOR OP THH
'SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your article last week, headed "Dr. Richardson on Nar- cotics," is the hint upon which I speak. Not wishing to be " cross-examined " on this or any other subject, I withhold my name ; but should you publish what I have to say, your readers will not be misled thereby. I am a country chemist, of "the lower grade," one of four (of whom I am not the chief) in two contiguous villages, which together have not more than 4,500 inhabitants. I sell, as nearly as I can judge, about two gallons of laudanum per month, solely by retail ; besides, say, some sixteen or twenty ounces of opium itself. Most of this is sold to women of the poorer class, who must pinch themselves seriously in many ways to be able to purchase this "luxury." Most of them are evidently ashamed of their habit of opium-eating, or laudanum-taking, as the case may be, but some quite other- wise. Many will consume an ounce of opium every week, and some considerably more. One man I know who will take at a dose twenty grains of muriate of morphia,—and this dose, I believe, he has occasionally swallowed twice in one day.
These are facts. As to the explanation of them, I am hardly pre- pared to speak of that. The " crave " (your word, Sir) I believe to be a natural one, at least in these parts. How first induced, if in- duced at all, I know not. It is apparently partly of a physical, partly of a moral origin. Women of low vitality and poor spirit seem most subject to it. Opium is their refuge from "the dumps." In fact, as you suppose, it supplies to them the place of alcoholic liquors. May I conclude with a question ? Is the trade in this drug an immoral one P—I am, Sir, &c., A LINCOLNSHIRE DRUGGIST.
Previous page
