Composition Of Opium

Opium is the evaporated sap that flows from incisions made in the unripe capsules of certain Asiatic species of poppy. It contains a large number of chemical compounds which belong to the alkaloid group. The chief alkaloids in opium are codein, narcotin, and morphin, the most active being morphin, which has a chemical formula of C17H19N03. Other alkaloids are of similar composition. The general effects and the uses of the crude opium and the refined morphin may be considered together. The latter, being more concentrated, is used in much smaller quantities.

The effect upon the body of either opium or of morphin is that of benumbing the nerves and producing sleep. Opium illustrates in a typical manner the progressive stages by which both the body and the mind may become enslaved to the influence of a narcotic. The last stages of the opium or of the morphin slave is probably the lowest state of depravity into which the human being can sink.

Effect Of Opium

Origin of the morphin habit.

Opium is eaten or smoked by the Chinese and by other Asiatic races to a very great extent. This habit is considered the worst form of slavery to drugs that is known. In this country the morphin habit is the more common form. Morphin is either taken internally or is injected beneath the skin by a hypodermic syringe. It is estimated that ninety-five per cent of the morphin slaves in this country begin the use of this drug under "their" doctor's prescription.

The several uses of mor-phin.

The use of opium as prescribed by medical men is chiefly for the relief of either pain or of insomnia. Its employment in cases of great agony is probably justifiable, but the repeated taking of this drug until the habit is formed becomes a criminal blunder for which the doctor who prescribed it should be held responsible. Unfortunately this is only one of the uses to which opium is put by the medical profession. Prescriptions containing either opium or morphin are frequently given to relieve pain, or to produce sleep, when the primary trouble is chronic, and should be treated by removing the causes, and not alleviated by stupifying the nerves. In the majority of such cases, if the diet is balanced according to age, activity, and climate, and vigorous intestinal peristalsis created, sleep will follow, and other disorders will gradually disappear.

Opium in patent medicines.

The dangers that lurk in the use of opium are so well known, and the habit has become so unpopular, that tricks are resorted to by manufacturers of this drug to deceive the people into believing that they are using some "harmless" substance, while it is the influence of the opium that gives the medicine its apparent good effect. Patent medicines which claim to kill pain, soothe nerves, and produce sleep, usually contain opium. The popular "Soothing Sirups" for children are nearly all opium products, and have been given to millions of babies in this country by deluded mothers, in the belief that because it soothed, their innocent child was being benefited. These are the crimes of greed passed on to innocent childhood through ignorance.