THE IDOL 
DR. CANTALA 
OPIUM, HEROIN, 
cTMORPHINE AND 
THEIR KINGDOMS 
BOTWEN PRINTING CO., Inc. 
Publishers 
New York City 
368 Sixth Avenue Copyright, 1924 
by 
Dr. Cantala 
New York, N. Y. 
Printed by 
Botwen Printing Co., Inc. 
368 Sixth Avenue 
New York, U. S. A. Preface 
HOWEVER authorities may differ as to 
certain statements made in this book, they 
all must agree that the author, who has 
had a wide experience in the treatment of drug 
addiction, has presented his subject in an 
extremely fascinating and lucid manner. 
Much has been written upon the subject of 
narcotics and much work, no doubt, remains to 
be done in this tremendous field. The very 
many angles of research medical work and the 
point of view of the sociologist, penologist and 
criminologist, though in variance in some degree 
with each other are nevertheless all uniting and 
focusing attention upon a great menace con- 
fronting civilization. 
As a diamond has many facets, all of which 
contribute towards emanating its glow, so in 
similar manner are there many facets to the 
great question of narcotism. This book is 
written with an open-mindedness that commends 
it as a valuable document. From the continuous struggle with the unfor- 
tunate victims of drug addiction; of the sad 
nights passed beside them, allaying their 
suffering; of their confessions and their tears, 
this book came to life. It is the whole exist- 
ence of a medical student devoted to the fight 
of that monster'. 
DOPE. INTRODUCTION 
THE purpose of this book is to present to the 
public and the medical profession the problem 
of "drug addiction" from an angle not here- 
tofore attempted, that is to say, from a medico-social 
point of view. Until now, most authors have treated 
it either as a problem appertaining only to the 
domain of the police authorities or as a strictly 
technical and scientific problem exclusively within 
the province of the medical profession. 
No one has treated the subject with a view to 
revealing to the general public the true facts, tear- 
ing off the mystery with which it is surrounded, ex- 
posing its ugly nakedness as warning of a danger 
to be avoided and fought with every means at our 
command. The subject has not heretofore been 
discussed with clearness and simplicity, so that the 
general public might know what drug addiction 
really is, what is the psychology of the drug addict, 
why he becomes a drug user, and what are the 
effects of drugs on the human system, as well as 
all the other phases of this pathological drama that 
grips the world to-day. 
The general public knows there are a great number 
of human beings addicted to morphine, cocaine, 
opium and other drugs, but knows nothing concern- 
ing the origin of the habits, nor how the drugs really 
influence and affect the addicts. 
The general public has a vague idea that the matter 
5 6 
THE IDOL 
is or should be under police regulation, and that is 
all. The purpose of this book is to enlighten the 
general public on the subject of drug addiction in the 
same way as that public is being instructed 
on so many other subjects, such as tuberculosis, right 
living, hygiene, etc. This book will take the reader 
through the dark tortuous streets of the world of 
poison and will show him the misery, the struggles 
and sorrows of the poison victims. These pages will 
impart to the reader full and accurate information 
about the horrors and dangers of the evil, will enable 
him to detect the hidden menace, the insidious temp- 
tations that are so artfully put in his way and will 
save him from giving way to them, as so many have 
done through the ignorance of the subject. The 
medical student and the social worker will find in 
this book the results of a life long study of the evil 
and combating thereof. 
And what is perhaps equally if not more im- 
portant, this book will be to the afflicted as a ray 
of hope lighting the way to their cure and redemp- 
tion. This book will indicate to them how their 
salvation may be assured by a properly conducted 
effort, involving a better psychological understand- 
ing of their sufferings, and that in this work in their 
behalf such words as "prison" and "condemned" 
shall give way to the words of consolation- 
"kindness," "love," "science." CONTENTS 
Page 
INTRODUCTION 5 
CHAPTER I 
THE IDOL 9 
THE BLACK IDOL (Opium) 11 
THE PARAPHERNALIA OF OPIUM ADDICTION 15 
THE OPIUM SMOKER 16 
THE EFFECT OF OPIUM 19 
THE OPIUM EATERS 25 
RACIAL RESISTANCES 30 
OPIUM INTOXICATION 33 
CHAPTER II 
THE TEMPLE OF THE IDOL 35 
CHAPTER HI 
THE WHITE IDOL (Morphine) 44 
MORPHIOMANIA 47 
NEEDLEMANIA 58 
THE INITIATION INTO MORPHIOMANIA 62 
THE ADDICT'S DOSE 66 
THE DURATION OF A DRUG ADDICT'S LIFE 69 
THE MORPHIOMANIAC'S DEATH 73 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE MORPHIOMANIAC 75 
THE VICTIM OF MORPHINE 78 
THE SPECTRE 81 
THE UNDERWORLD OF INTOXICATION 82 
CHAPTER IV 
HEROIN 85 
7 Page 
COCAINE 88 
THE INTOXICATION OF COCAINE 91 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE COCAINE ADDICT 93 
CHAPTER V 
CHAPTER VI 
HASHEESH 95 
CHAPTER VII 
CAUSES OF DRUG ADDICTION 101 
MODERN LIFE 102 
THE CRAZE OF PLEASURE 10 4 
PROHIBITION . 105 
RELIGION 107 
IGNORANCE 108 
CHAPTER VIII 
THE DOPE VENDORS 110 
CHAPTER IX 
SOME MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS 120 
CHAPTER X 
TREATMENT (Methods of Cure) 127 
MY TREATMENT 13 6 
CHAPTER XI 
THE MYSTERIES OF THE DRUG EVIL 153 
THE IMMUNES 154 
LOVE AMONG THE ADDICTS 15 6 
CHAPTER XII 
SOCIAL REMEDIES 158 
8 Chapter I. 
THE IDOL 
F^OLLOW me, dear reader, and I shall show you 
an aspect of life which you perhaps totally 
ignore, though so many speak of it. More 
than an aspect of life, it is a sort of new cult born 
of human derangement, a new Idolatry. Let me 
show you the Idol, the Deity of the unfortunate 
poison worshippers. 
What Idol is it? The conception of an Idol best 
personifies the special poisons that man has invented 
to kill himself, to kill his soul, as though there were 
not enough soul poisons in the human world. 
Let me guide you through the haunts of the drug 
vice and show you its victims in the grasp of their 
dread habits. There it is towering above them the 
Idol, worshipped with their furious fanaticism. Its 
name may be Opium, Cocaine, Veronal, Valerian, 
Ether or any other one of similar words, that have 
been and still are pronounced reverently by medical 
men. 
You shall see how men and women are laughing as 
they play with Death. You shall see "Nature," 
"God's" masterpiece, scoffed at. We shall see the 
spirals of opium smoke, the syringe drug filled and 
the needles which pierce the skin to inject the poison 
into the human bodies. 
9 10 
THE IDOL 
You shall see how the hasheesh cigars are rolled, 
and how the cocaine is absorbed. You shall see how 
veronal is drunk and valerian chewed and how all 
these poisons are employed under the impulse of a 
human frenzy. Mankind in its progress towards 
perfection has always found obstacles in its way, be- 
coming more and more difficult to overcome. Some 
are Nature's own obstacles, others are the product 
of man himself, of his vices and of his passions. 
With the evolution of the superman there will come 
into the world a superior, more refined form of self- 
affliction proportionate to him, a form that we cannot 
now conceive. Everything points to this. From Bibli- 
cal times to the present we see man poisoning himself 
with alcohol, with tobacco, with alkaloids. The future 
may find him discarding these for other poisons, 
other forms of debauchery, that we do not dream of 
today. He may then get his intoxication from radium 
or electricity. Who knows? 
The nervous cell today is rudimentary compared 
to what it will be two thousand years from now. 
Man has always had an Idol and within every human 
being there seems to have always been a disposition 
to pay cult to some poison. Man is a born addict. 
Tobacco, alcohol, medicines, diseases, temptations, 
despondencies awaken the dormant tendency. 
The Idol appears and drug vice begins, a vice that 
shall be really classified as a disease. As microbes THE IDOL 
11 
will develop within the healthy body, so can the dis- 
position to drugs be aroused. 
The Black Idol 
OPIUM 
Opium is the origin of drug addiction. Chinese 
legends refer to opium as the first monster from 
which other narcotic drugs have sprung. Opium 
reigned in the earliest history in the Orient and 
spread later by way of the Red and Mediterranean 
Seas into the very heart of European civilization. 
The colonial enterprises of certain empires helped in 
its dissemination, the drug being brought by the 
soldiers and sailors of France, England, Portugal 
and Holland. 
Men in the numerous expeditions sent out by the 
mother countries to the Eastern Colonies, returned 
home inoculated with the opium habit. Opium 
paved the way for other poisons to attack the human 
race and thus began its labor of destruction. 
The history of Opium is very ancient. The Odessy 
speaks of it as of a very remote origin. Hippocrates 
mentioned the juice of the poppy, so does Theophas- 
trus in the third century B. C. Themison mixed it 
with honey and called the mixture "diacodion." 
Andromachus concocted the "Triarca," which merited 
a book by Galeno; and Alexander of Trelles, speak- 12 
THE IDOL 
ing of opium, calls it the ''marvelous medicament." 
Paracelsus praised it in the Middle Ages. Van 
Elmont and Silvio Le Boe studied it, but only in 
1817 were its properties finally discovered by 
Sertuerner, who found Morphia in it. Undoubtedly, 
it must have older historians in Asia, where legend 
has raised it to the dignity of a Myth. 
Opium is a hypnotic or narcotic drug obtained 
from the juice of the plant that produces the poppy, 
that familiar flower that gives its touch of color to 
the yellow fields of wheat. There are several classes 
of poppies: red, black and white. The white poppy 
whose scientific name is "papaver somniferous 
album," is the variety that contains the strongest 
opium. The others have hardly any hypnotic power. 
In America are found two classes: "eschoholtzia 
californica" and "argemona mexicana," both con- 
taining opium of very slight strength. The best 
opium, that is to say the strongest, is obtained from 
the white poppy of Persia, the fruit of which exudes 
a substance in drops or pearls that was given by 
Plinious Secundus the name Opium. The plant is 
cultivated chiefly in Persia, Turkey, India and China, 
and of the several varieties the richest in alkaloids 
is the one known as Smyrna Opium. 
The hypnotic effect of Opium is in the alkaloids, 
which it contains, more than twenty in number, such THE IDOL 
13 
as Morphine, Codeine, Narcotine, Narveine, Papa- 
verine, etc. But of all the Opium alkaloids, Morphine 
stands above the others and can be trully called the 
Soul of Opium. Morphine combines the basic proper- 
ties of Opium from the drug addiction point of view. 
Without this alkaloid the scourge could hardly exist 
and even the smoke of opium would be almost 
innocuous. 
The value of opium is measured by the quantity 
of morphine which it contains. 
This varies from ten to fifteen per centum, ac- 
cording to the plants and methods of production. 
Generally the medical dose of opium for an adult is 
ten centigrammes, containing an average of three 
centigrammes of morphine. The proportion is there- 
fore three parts of morphine to ten of opium. This 
explains how the opium addicts can take doses of 
twenty centigrammes of opium as frequently as ten 
and fifteen times a day. Moreover, the greater part of 
opium consumed by addicts is never pure and seldom 
contains more than five to seven per centum of 
morphine. The impure product is generally mixed 
with other harmless substances presenting the ap- 
pearance of a semi-liquid extract, brownish in color, 
like chocolate. It is sold among addicts in elegant 
metallic boxes, as an exquisite jewel of great value. 
To understand and study the effects of opium on 
the human system, its effects should be observed on 14 
THE IDOL 
normal individuals, unaccustomed to the "habit," as 
the poison acts altogether differently on inveterate 
addicts. When administered in normal doses to non- 
addicts, it produces three principal effects. First 
it deadens pain no matter where the place and what 
the cause, inducing the patient to sleep; secondly, it 
acts on the mucous membranes, especially' of the 
digestive and respiratory organs, diminishing their 
secretions and, thirdly, it produces disturbances in 
the blood circulation, notably in the vessels, that feed 
the skin, hindering perspiration and elimination. The 
action of opium consists essentially of these three 
effects, which cannot be produced individually. On 
the other hand, they are not constant. The calming 
properties, which are the most notable, do not always 
appear and the drug sometimes produces the con- 
trary reaction. 
The effects of opium on addicts are identical to 
the effects of morphine and will be later described 
in the chapter devoted to morphiomaniacs. The 
treatment is likewise identical. Opium has two 
principal classes of addicts: the smokers and the 
eaters of opium. Those of the first class are the 
most numerous and are the classic opium fiends. 
We shall now study the two aspects of the Opium 
Cult: inhalation of the smoke passing into the lungs, 
and injection of the drug by mouth into the stomach. THE IDOL 
15 
The Paraphernalia of Opium Addiction 
The Opium instruments: the pipe, the needles and 
the lamp, all indispensable to practice the cult, and 
in the handling of which such a degree of skill is 
attained as only addiction to a vice makes possible. 
The common belief among the uninitiated is that 
opium is smoked in the same way as tobacco. Only 
with the above named implements is it possible to 
indulge in the oriental craze. 
The pipe is a tube similar in its exterior to a flute 
and fifteen to thirty centimeters in length. One end 
is held in the mouth; at the other end is a small 
metallic disk applied to the lamp. In the Orient, the 
pipes are made of clay or from bamboo cane, but in 
Europe and elsewhere, among the wealthy, they are 
found in rich and costly woods, expensively adorned 
with amber and mother of pearl. The pipe is a most 
precious jewel to the opium smoker and is kept and 
cared for with fanatic zeal. 
The pipe on account o£ its size, is not easy to carry 
or to conceal. Privacy, solitude and repose are neces- 
sary to the enjoyment of its delights. That is why 
the small syringe, with which the poison can be in- 
jected into the blood is such a favorite with the wor- 
shippers. It may be easily hidden in a vest pocket. 
This is also why opium slowly but surely drives its 
victims to morphine. The pipe is moreover an old- 16 
THE IDOL 
fashioned and primitive instrument, proper to the 
indolent life of the Orient. The syringe is a scien- 
tific instrument in keeping with the progress of our 
modern civilization. 
The needles are two small metal bars like match- 
sticks. They are of silver, gold, platinum, or common 
steel, and are used for feeding the pipe with the drug 
which is shortly to change into smoke. The drug 
is picked up with the needles, is heated on the lamp 
and when ready, is placed on the end of the pipe, 
ready for smoking. 
Opium does not burn like tobacco which needs to 
be puffed intermittently to continue burning. Opium 
must be constantly brought in contact with the flame 
of the lamp in order to be converted into smoke. 
That is why the lamp has so important a place in 
the ceremonial of the Cult. It is the source of the 
Sacred Fire, the means by which the solid brownish 
looking substance dissolves into smoke, glorious 
smoke, ethereal, divine, yet treacherous and terrible, 
with its harmless looking delicate spirals that carry 
the deadly morphia, codeine, narceine, papaverine 
into the lungs of the addict. 
The Opium Smoker 
The worst ravages of opium in the world are 
produced by the smoking of it. Opium smoking was 
the precursor of drug addiction in all its forms, THE IDOL 
17 
numerous as the different poisons the drug contains. 
The classic drug fiend of oriental legends, that pale 
looking individual of the yellow and Mohammedan 
races, is an opium smoker, who becomes gradually 
poisoned with the drug as the cigarette smoker does 
with nicotine. The smoke in passing through the 
lungs impregnates the tissues with the alkaloids, 
especially with morphia. 
The acquiring of the habit is far from agreeable. 
The aspiring proselyte is clumsy, does not know how 
to go about it, burns his fingers, often his mouth, 
and is subject to nausea, violent vomiting and other 
disturbances far from encouraging. Yet in spite of 
it, numberless victimes are attracted to the shrine, 
anxious to fathom the mysteries and hidden ectasies 
of opium, promised by its propaganda, especially the 
world literature on opium that has flourished in 
England and France. 
Acquiring the habit is not an easy enterprise either, 
and cannot be undertaken alone. It requires generally 
the guidance and assistance of a veteran smoker. 
Let us see how he uses the drug. 
The smoker generally adopts a recumbent pos- 
ture lying on the right side. Within easy reach is 
a tray, on which are the pipe, the jar-containing 
opium, and the alcohol lamp and two needles. 
He takes one of these in each hand, introduces 18 
THE IDOL 
them into the jar containing the drug and takes out 
a sufficient quantity, five to ten grains. The opium 
sticks to the needles. He then applies them to the 
flame and manipulates them till he makes a little ball 
or cone of the drugs, which he deposits on the metal 
disc of the pipe, exactly over the small hole in the 
center of the disc. The pipe is now ready. He brings 
the flame near so as to burn the opium continually 
and starts smoking, inhaling deeply. One, two, three, 
four puffs and the little ball disappears. It has 
been converted into smoke and removed from the 
metal disc to the lungs of the smoker. The Idol has 
penetrated the human body, and the whole operation 
has taken but a few moments. 
How many doses or smokes can an addict have a 
day? That depends on the degree of intoxication 
at which he is. At the beginning one, two, or three 
doses are sufficient to produce immediately the ef- 
fects of the drug. In the advanced stages, the addict 
can take eight and ten doses or smokes at a time, 
three or four times a day. 
Opium smoke has not an agreeable odor, and can 
be detected at once in a place where people have been 
smoking it. Even the ventilation does not eradicate 
it altogether. The cumbersome utensils necessary to 
produce it, as well as other details rarely unobserved 
by those familiar with the drug habit, make it rela- 
tively easy to discover the addicts. The indulgence THE IDOL 
19 
and preparation take time and the whole ceremony 
requires a special room or place to practise it. All 
of these facts combine to drive the opium addict in 
the large modern cities to morphine, as a far more 
comfortable and practical indulgence. Today, even 
in the Orient, opium addicts are becoming scarcer, 
swelling however the number of morphine addicts. 
The Opium habit is very expensive, much more 
so than the cocaine or morphine habit, and is only 
within the reach of the wealthy. This is still another 
reason for the spread of morphiomania. 
The Effect of Opium 
The effect of Opium smoke on the human organism 
can be divided into two periods: the period of lassitude 
and the period of sleep. 
Period of lassitude. 
The period of lassitude begins immediately after 
the smoke enters the lungs. Its symptoms are a 
general stimulating, a slight ringing in the ears, a 
dryness of the mouth and drowsiness, which symp- 
toms last from five to twenty minutes and gradually 
disappear, giving place to a pronounced lassitude. 
The sensation of lassitude is marked by a feeling as 
of a weight on the brain and eyes and pleasant 
tickling along the spine, arms and legs. The respira- 
tion becomes quickened and the individual is hardly 20 
THE IDOL 
able to move. It is while the body is in this condi- 
tion that the brain evolves in rapid succession most 
extraordinary visions or illusions, and sensations of 
well being, which completely overpower the smoker. 
This is the characteristic period of opium smoking. 
It should be noted however that it is yet far from 
the sleep effect of opium, and that during this period 
of visions and illusions the smoker is wide awake. 
The period varies in duration according to the in- 
dividual degree of intoxication. It is longer when 
the drug is first used and disappears almost entirely 
after a time. In advanced cases of intoxication sleep 
will follow without any of the symptoms of the 
lassitude period. All that the smoker experiences is 
a sense of soreness after which he falls asleep. 
The Sleep of Opium or second period. 
It is a mistaken belief that the "artificial paradise" 
of opium comes during the sleep. I have already 
stated that the "period of lassitude" is an actual ex- 
citement of the brain developed in a feeling of well 
being, as if the life of the smoker belonged to a world 
of supernatural delights. Immediately after this 
period of sensation comes the sleep, which is the most 
important effect of the drug. It is an abnormal sleep, 
unpleasant to watch, far more so than the one pro- 
duced by alcohol intoxication and more tragic than 
the sleep produced by chloroform. 
The opium sleep following the period of lassitude, THE IDOL 
21 
has two phases, the "light" sleep and the "profound" 
sleep. The first one is marked by great depression, 
immobility and the disappearance of the previous 
symptoms of cerebral excitement as well as of the 
visions and illusions. It is a sweet sleep, bordering 
almost on wakefulness, and accompanied by retarda- 
tion of the pulse and breathing, paleness of the skin 
and slight though general insensibility. The subject 
will answer rather vaguely if he is questioned, the 
artificial paradise has almost vanished and a general 
lethargy of the muscles and the senses has super- 
vened. This condition lasts only a few moments and 
the subject gradually subsides into a profound sleep, 
the real narcotic action of opium, losing all tract of 
sensibility. 
At the beginning of the habit the sleep is longer 
than in the more advanced stages of the habit, and 
seems more normal, but as the habit increases, it 
developes a pathological aspect, that shows in the face 
all the signs of depravity and pain. 
This sleep, so far removed from the normal re- 
vitalizing repose, is a sort of artificial drowsiness 
caused by an excessive flow of blood also observed in 
intoxication by alcohol and other intoxicating sub- 
stances, which likewise inflame the brain. The same 
phenomenon occurs with other kinds of poisoning, 
complete immobility of the body, the heart losing its 22 
THE IDOL 
energy, the pulse becoming weaker and cold perspira- 
tion ensuing. 
In this state, the opium sleep proper, the addict is 
wholly insensible to what happens around him. To 
wake him it is necessary to shout at him and shake 
him vigorously as with alcoholic subjects. 
The duration of sleep in an opium addict in this 
stage of intoxication is from ten to twelve hours. 
On awakening he feels greatly fatigued as though 
he had been making violent physical efforts, and his 
face bears the lines of mental and bodily fatigue. 
After sleeping twelve hours he is not less tired than 
when he fell asleep. This can be readily understood, 
as during those long hours the poison has been acting 
on the brain, congesting it, as well as on the liver and 
kidneys. 
After sleeping profoundly, the opium addict is sub- 
ject to a general malaise. His arms and legs feel 
heavy. His head aches. And he very often has fits 
of nausea and vomiting-his condition is quite the 
reverse of what it is after awakening from normal 
sleep. His mouth is dry and bitter, and the mucous 
membrane of the eyes and of the digestive and res- 
piratory organs are also dry. The drowsiness is such 
that his one desire is to return to bed and continue 
sleeping, the subject being wholly incapacitated for 
any muscular effort. THE IDOL 
23 
Mentally, the addict, after the narcotic effects of 
the drug are over, finds his brain torpid, incoherent, 
with only an unconquerable desire to sleep. 
Morally he experiences a feeling of dejection, and 
deplores his weakness and slavery to the drug. This 
remorse is peculiar to addicts in general. The re- 
morse is sincere and overwhelming; they detest their 
folly, their lack of will power and character; they 
curse the day of their initiation to the drug, and re- 
solve to free themselves from the clutches of their 
tragic Idol. But all to no avail. A few hours later 
they go back to the drug, with an irrational fatalism. 
In the clinical study of the sleep of opium the 
following factors must be kept in mind. 
The subject's sex, because in women the sleep is 
more profound, and of greater duration, the period 
of excitement more marked and nausea and vomit- 
ing are much more common than in men, who are 
more disposed to urinary disturbances. Age, as the 
sleep is much more intense in youth; the subject's 
pathological condition of the intensity of the sleep 
depending on the degree of good health. 
The time of day, it being observed that the sleep 
is more profound at night and during the hours when 
the addict is in the habit of sleeping normally; and 
lastly, but most important of all, the degree to which 
the habit in intoxication has advanced; when the 
habit becomes aggravated, the sleep becomes more 24 
THE IDOL 
abnormal, it being in advanced stages so irregular 
that more than two hours may be required before 
the victim falls into the real opium sleep. 
The sleep of opium must be studied medically, 
otherwise it is easy to lapse into the fantastic and 
literary, thus getting away from the facts. The lure 
of opium is not in its sleep, but in the period of 
lassitude, there is no sensation of pleasure, no beauti- 
ful dreams or illusions; writers who have sung the 
ecstasies of the sleep of opium have either not known 
or not adhered to the realities. 
The agreeable sensations are experienced in those 
brief moments of lassitude. As the habit pro- 
gresses and probably after the first two months they 
disappear altogether. I shall explain later, when 
dealing with Morphia, the poison becomes purely an 
element of vital necessity to the addict's organism and 
loses all the attendant beautiful or ethereal sensa- 
tions. The only effect it then produces is one of 
artificial energy, followed by the lethargic or opium 
sleep. It is therefore wrong and, in its consequences 
criminal, to describe the sleep of opium as filling 
the mind with dreams of untold beauty and pleasure 
and to envelope it in mystery and fascination, as is 
often done by leading writers. The opium addict 
when he sleeps under the drug, is just a dull insen- 
sible animal, incapable of any such mental activity 
as the alleged dreams imply. THE IDOL 
25 
The perusal of the lines just written will doubtless 
surprise the reader. He probably expected that the 
scientific description of the opium sleep would accord 
with the gorgeous picture which he had in mind of 
ineffable ecstasies, of wondrous visions of beauty, of 
sensations beyond the normal perceptions. I have 
torn away the veil of deception and shown the mon- 
ster in all its ugliness so that the reader may realize 
instead, what objects of pity are its unfortunate 
victims. Anything else would be false and so it is to 
deify the poison, and bear in mind that to disguise the 
truth, and hide the horrors of opium with beautiful 
words, is a veritable criminal act. 
The Opium Eaters 
Another class of opium addicts comprises those 
who take it by mouth, either in the form of pills or 
tablets, or in infusions. Addicts of this class are 
known as opiophagi-or opium eaters. This form 
of opium consumption also originated in the East, 
especially in Persia where opium eating is a common 
custom. In early times there were scarcely any 
Persians of quality who did not take a tablet of opium 
every day. Ordinarily a tablet in the morning and 
another one in the afternoon were taken in tea or 
sweetened water, which habit was practiced in the 
belief prevalent in that country that opium in small 26 
THE IDOL 
doses preserved health and lengthened life. Opium 
eating has also spread among the Europeans par- 
ticularly in England, where the number of opium 
eaters has increased fourteenfold in the last forty 
years. Opium eaters as a class are opium smokers 
who for one reason or another are prevented from 
using their pipes. I believe that few addicts in a 
position to smoke opium unobtrusively would ever 
take it by mouth, because the effects of the drug when 
taken by mouth are less productive of exalted fancies 
than when the drug is inhaled in the form of smoke. 
I have kept records of opium eaters, which are very 
interesting and of great medical and social value, 
and by way of illustration will cite a few. 
One is the case of a salesman who, dragging the 
ponderous chain of his opium vice, travelled through 
South America. It seems that while going over the 
high plateaus of Bolivia his pipes were accidentally 
broken, leaving him in the depths of melancholy. 
In desperation and finding himself obliged to use 
the drug in different forms, he finally discovered that 
the effects most similar to those of smoking could be 
attained by drinking infusions of the drug. The sub- 
ject himself told me of his case. He suffered from 
rheumatism and asthma, resulting from the exigen- 
cies of his trade which required him to sleep in the 
open, exposed to the frozen winds of Tierra del Fuego 
and under the scorching sun of Brazil and Ecuador. THE IDOL 
27 
His pipes and opium were to him constant compan- 
ions upon which he depended for spiritual sustenance 
in his weary journeys, and for surcease to the anguish 
of his rheumatism and asthma. In Bolivia, as above 
related, he acquired the habit of taking the drug in 
infusions, drinking it in cupfuls containing from 10 
to 15 grains of opium before and after meals, much 
the same as tea or coffee is taken. Frequently he 
would take as many as 15 or 20 cupfuls a day. The 
intoxication increased apace, particularly affecting his 
digestive apparatus and kidneys. I received reports 
from him for some time, informing me that he was 
having to increase the dose daily and finding more 
and more difficulty in accomplishing his work. Then 
after a period of three months, during which I did not 
receive any letters from him, I learned that he had 
died at Santiago, Chile. 
Another interesting case came under my surveil- 
lance a few years before the Great War, when I was 
surgeon on some of the large ships of the Pacific 
Navigation Company carrying emigrants from 
Europe to South America. I met with numerous 
cases of drug addiction on those ships, but the most 
notable was that of a wealthy Argentenian planter 
who ate opium mixed with cocaine powder. He was 
in the habit of rolling the mixture into little pellets 
which he always carried with him in a handsome 
cigarette case of gold. He always went about with 28 
THE IDOL 
a pellet or two in his mouth and, curiously enough, 
in his nostrils. I was unable to get the clinical his- 
tory of this subject, having lost track of him after 
the trip across. 
I shall cite another case which I observed on 
one of my voyages as ship's surgeon-the case of a 
young German woman, a circus performer, comely 
and with every appearance of good health. Her 
specialty consisted of a dance which she performed 
with serpents in a cage of lions. She confessed to 
me that before entering the cage it was her custom 
to take several tablets of opium and three or four 
sips of ether. On the trip 1 had occasion to watch 
her take the drug several times, especially on evenings 
of festivities or dances, which she attended in a state 
characteristically disclosing her addiction to the drug. 
Most addicts of the class here discussed take the 
opium not in its pure state but mixed with other sub- 
stances such as sugar or licorice powder. The prep- 
aration of the drug in this manner is very simple; 
mixture being rolled into pellets which vary from 1 
to 2 grams and have a pleasant taste. 
The effects of opium when taken by mouth are not 
produced as quickly and are not as marked as when 
smoked. In order to experience the same sensations 
as those derived from the pipe, it is necessary to in- 
crease the daily dose one-third. Moreover, the effects 
are not as invigorating, so that the period of lassitude THE IDOL 
29 
is not so often accompanied by visions and halluci- 
nations. 
Opium taken by mouth in small doses is not as 
destructive as other drugs, and it is possible to with- 
stand the intoxication for many years, the visible 
effects being an anaemia disclosed in paleness of the 
epidermis. But in the large doses the drug may prove 
disastrous, among other reasons, because of its direct 
action on the digestive tract and kidneys. All drug 
addicts are afflicted with intestinal paralysis, but 
opium eaters are more susceptible to this condition, 
which is the principal cause of the aggravation of 
their intoxication and frequently of their death. 
Few cases of opium eaters are ever observed. The 
opium eater remains in this class of drug addiction 
only for a short time, soon falling into the clutches 
of morphiomania in his quest for a stronger intoxica- 
tion. For this reason when the subjects finally resort 
to medical treatment, most of them are morphioma- 
niacs and not opium eaters. Medically, the most 
frequently encountered addicts in this class are 
those who are primarily opium smokers and who 
are driven to opium eating by circumstances which 
render it difficult or impossible for them to smoke, 
opium eating being a vice which may be more secretly 
indulged in. Opium eating requires the consumption 
of very much larger doses than does opium smoking, 30 
THE IDOL 
but it is devoid of the peculiar attraction which the 
addict finds in the smoke. 
Racial Resistances 
The action of opium on the different races man- 
ifests itself in different ways. Of course, no race 
is immune from the fatal consequences of the drug, 
but some races seem to have a greater resistance to 
its destructive work, than others. 
The negro race is the least resistant, but on the 
other hand is the least inclined to the drug habit. The 
recorded cases of drug addiction among negroes are 
few as compared with those among the yellow race. 
All of the negro drug addicts who have come under 
my personal observation have impressed me with their 
low organic resistance to the drug. I recall especially 
the case of a negro chef on a German sailing vessel, 
whom I treated while in the Bay of Pernambuco for 
a small injury which he suffered on board. He was 
a young man, strong, virile and organically sound. 
When I next ran across him in a European port, I 
found him in a lamentable state of emaciation and 
physical debility. The unfortunate man confessed to 
me that he had been addicted to opium for ten months, 
in which short space of time the drug had brought 
him to the lowest state of bodily degeneration. 
Another case is that of a negro maid servant who, THE IDOL 
31 
contaminated by the opium habit of her mistress (a 
patient of mine), had also fallen a prey to the habit. 
This young negress had been smoking opium for only 
two years, and yet I found her in the most advanced 
stage of intoxication as though she had been using 
the drug for many years. 
The treatment of this case was very difficult by the 
weakened state of the patient and the many compli- 
cations which had set in. 
I have witnessed many cases like the foregoing, all 
demonstrating the low resistance of the negro race to 
opium, although as already observed, drug addiction 
among individuals of that race is very limited. 
The white race is more resistant to opium than the 
negro. A white man may live under the influence 
of the drug for as long as ten years, provided the 
dose be within bounds and the organism of the sub- 
ject be normal, without lesions or diseases. Many 
white addicts do not show the slightest external signs 
of intoxication for many years, until there comes a 
moment when the organism gives in-so to speak- 
in its fight against the drug, and the subject dies 
within a few weeks from the inroads of the Idol. 
During the first six months of the intoxication 
more symptoms manifest themselves than after that 
time. It seems that the organism at first protests 
against the drug, but that after that time the organs 
become accustomed to the poison and there comes a 32 
THE IDOL 
sort of equilibrium in the bodily function as though 
the drug were being more readily assimilated, than 
in the early stages of intoxication. 
The yellow race is without doubt the most resistant 
to the deadly action of opium. Among the Chinese 
there are remarkable examples of such resistance, as 
though the drug, after acting on so many generations 
of the yellow race, had imparted to it a sort of heredi- 
tary immunity. 
I remember the case of a Chinaman in Antofa- 
gasta, Chile. He was a man of senile aspect, with 
very low organic function. I found him to be a most 
notable example, however, of organic resistance to 
the drug, for I learned that he was seventy-five years 
of age and had been smoking opium since he was 
eighteen. Cases like this, in my judgment, can only 
be found among the yellow race. I do not believe 
a white man could ever withstand so prolonged an 
intoxication, even under moderate doses and proper 
regulation of the intestinal and kidney functions. 
However, this endurance of the yellow race does 
not justify the legends and literary descriptions so 
frequently encountered of the life in the Orient, 
which would make it appear that millions and mil- 
lions live a life of bliss devoted to smoking opium. 
This is only the element of color with which the 
authors draw their pictures, but nothing is said about 
the lamentable misery and tragedy of countless human THE IDOL 
33 
beings who pass away unnoticed or live a wretched 
existence like so many repulsive reptiles. 
It is not in the works of fiction of European or 
American authors that the drama of opium addiction 
should be studied, but in the poverty, diseases and 
degeneration with which the Orient is afflicted 
through Opium. 
But this difference in the coefficient of resistance 
to opium of the different races, however interesting, 
is hardly a subject of primary importance in the uni- 
versal and human problem of opiomania. 
Opium Intoxication 
Let us see how the Idol grips its victim, the human 
body, entering stealthily either through the lungs or 
stomach and slowly gnawing the very vitals of moral 
and physical life. In the destruction wrought by the 
drug there is a marked intoxication, that is to say 
one having two different effects, the one moral, the 
other organic. A consequence of the first is the mania 
for the drug which turns the addict into a different 
individual, altogether distinct, in his morals, in his 
habits, his thoughts and every other manifestation, 
making of him a typical drug addict. The organic 
intoxication has, as a consequence, through the direct 
action of the alkaloids, the physical disturbance and 
degeneration of the life functions. 34 
THE IDOL 
The opium intoxication is very interesting and 
complex, altogether similar to that of morphia, for 
which reason I shall speak of it in a later chapter. 
I shall there dwell at length on the psychology of the 
addict and the disturbances produced in the system. 
I may say right here that the opium intoxication is 
slower and the final collapse less sudden than with 
morphia. In the opium addict the lesions are not so 
serious as in the syringe addict, although the disturb- 
ances which finally cause death are identical. 
And now, dear reader, I shall lead you on through 
the hidden paths of this hideous vice and show you 
horrors that you may have never imagined. I have 
shown you the shrines of the drug worshippers and 
will take you to one of the shrines, where men destroy 
their own lives. Similar shrines may be found in all 
lands. 
I have visited them in London, Paris, Nice, Naples, 
Barcelona, Cairo, Constantinople, Port Said, Buenos 
Aires. The Cult is universal, far more fervent than 
what was ever vouchsafed to any religious creed, even 
by the intolerant monks of the Middle Ages. CHAPTER II 
THE TEMPLE OF THE IDOL 
IT IS in Paris, the City of Light, the gathering 
place of the world, with all its eccentricities and 
follies. All the wealthy pleasure seekers go to 
Paris from all parts of the world. Science and art 
from the four corners of the globe have chosen it as 
their clearing house, and from that atmosphere of 
refinement and vice present-day civilization has 
sprung. Paris is the emporium of modern thought, 
but it is also the center of universal tragedy. 
Montmartre of Paris, the district of cabarets and 
restaurants, of dance halls, of exotic theatres, and 
dens of pleasure-is also the centre of the drug vice. 
Every tourist that visits Paris visits Montmartre. 
There he will have dinner in one of the quaint restau- 
rants, hear the music, witness a theatrical perform- 
ance, step into a cabaret and lose his composure for 
a while, drink champagne, and live for a few hours 
in the heavy atmosphere of a thousand follies. It is 
in this district that the Idol has thousands of wor- 
shippers. 
Let us enter a cabaret. The orchestra plays, the 
crowd dances, eats and drinks. In the fantastic 
whirl, women in decollete, the professional beauties, 
go to and fro. Other women remain seated watching 
passively the thousand and one eccentricities. One 
of these women especially attracts our attention. Her 
pallor, her brilliant, though unexpressive eyes arouse 
35 36 
THE IDOL 
our suspicions. Absent-minded she sits sipping cham- 
pagne from the delicate baccarat glass, smoking cigar- 
ettes in a distant reverie. Her elegance and bearing 
mark her as a woman of distinction. Her melan- 
choly, her statue-like indifference and rigidity tell us 
she is a morphine addict. She appears to be asleep 
with eyes wide open. If we observe her she will show 
us how the Morphine-Idol is worshipped in the caba- 
rets of Paris. Let us not lose sight of her. She will 
remain seated where she is probably for two or three 
hours, motionless, detached from the surroundings, 
absorbed in her own thoughts. Presently she will rise, 
pretending to fix her makeup. We shall see her dis- 
appear into an adjoining hall. All about the room 
are feminine articles-mirrors, brushes, perfume bot- 
tles, everything appertaining to a beauty parlor. An 
old lady is in charge. The visitor will ask her to help 
her fix her hair or to put a drop of atropine in her 
tired eyes and then in a low voice ask: "Dear Mama, 
what is a gramme of Morphine worth today?" The 
old lady then informs her that it is very high and 
that the stuff she has is real, pure, and not mixed with 
sugar of milk or sulfat of magnesia as it is in other 
places. The visitor orders a bottle of the drug and 
requests that she be given an immediate injection as 
she is unable to inject it herself. Her wishes are com- 
plied with fifteen centigrammes; the old lady produc- 
ing the fatal syringe, dissolving the tablets in warm 
water, taking the dose and injecting it into the leg of THE IDOL 
37 
our beautiful customer. For a few moments she 
remains motionless, then her face livens up and a bril- 
liancy begins to show in her eyes. She is herself 
again. A touch of rouge to the lips, a dab of powder, 
and full of joy and animation she prances out through 
the same door and enters the cabaret, joining in the 
mirth and dancing of the crowd. 
And now we see an elegant and well dressed man 
leave the cabaret and go into the street, nervously, 
anxiously, looking for an empty taxicab. He is sure 
to find one, for the drivers are ever on the lookout 
for the passengers leaving the cabarets. He looks 
about suspiciously, for he does not want to be seen. 
Before entering, he softly murmurs to the chauffeur: 
"Take me through a dark street and drive slowly. I 
shall tip you well, you know." "Be assured, sir, no- 
body will see you. Just knock on the glass when you 
want me to stop." And off goes the taxicab. It will 
not go very far before the passenger orders the driver 
to stop, while he sends the poison into his system. He 
dries the needle, puts it back in his pocket and returns 
to the cabaret full of energy and mirth. 
In one of the "cafes," that typical European insti- 
tution where people gather for pleasure and enjoy- 
ment and to transact so much of the business of life, 
we see all sorts of people sitting about around the 
numerous small tables. In a corner two men and two 
young women, all speaking in low tones, now and 
again turn their faces away as if to sneeze. One of 38 
THE IDOL 
the young women takes from her hand-bag a little 
gold case studded with diamonds and takes a pinch of 
white, crystalline powder and snuffs it. It is cocaine. 
She passes the beautiful little case to her companions. 
See them repeat the snuffing, two, three, four, ten, 
fifteen times. Between times, the liquor goes around. 
Benedictine, absinthe, ment. Later in the night, we 
meet the two couples, arm in arm, pale and livid, with 
tearful eyes, colorless lips, walking uncertainly as if 
intoxicated with alcohol. Something in their faces 
betrays them. Their nostrils glitter with the trans- 
parent crystals of the poison. 
In another cabaret, jazz and the tango share 
honors. The excitement and noise is the same as 
elsewhere. 
In one of the boxes, among the spectators, a man 
stands up shouting, making gestures like a madman. 
He bounds, like a wounded beast half mad. His eyes, 
open and fiery, are terrifying. The maniac has lost 
control over his acts and starts to upset tables and 
break glasses and bottles, gnashes his teeth and bites 
whoever dares to touch him. Then suddenly he quiets 
down. It is the depression produced by the drug. 
He no longer roars, he weeps like a child and trembles 
with fright, hiding his eyes as if to shut out horrible 
visions. He has been smoking hasheesh. 
Places where drugs are taken individually are nu- 
merous in Paris. Generally, they are places of amuse- 
ment, where alcohol is freely indulged in, which leads THE IDOL 
39 
the uninformed to shrug their shoulders at the sight 
of any queerly acting visitor, with the remark: "Too 
many cocktails." Montmartre is full of such little 
temples. Of course, all dope is forbidden by the laws, 
but to no avail. 
The real "Temples of the Idol" are secret and 
secluded. In them the worshippers of Morphine con- 
gregate in great numbers. There is no dancing or 
music there, and the ceremonies take place with great 
solemnity. It is difficult to gain access to such tem- 
ples. Such access can only be had through friends 
and under extreme precautions. These shrines are 
identical everywhere, in Alexandria, in Naples or in 
any other large city. Only the degree of luxury va- 
ries, from the humblest and poorest enclosure within 
four bare walls and only wooden chairs to sit on, to 
gorgeous halls of Oriental splendor. But the Cult is 
the same in all-the worship of Morphine. 
We shall visit one of these shrines of the rich, on 
the outskirts of Paris. A wealthy devotee will take 
us there in a car. We will have to ride through the 
wonderful city, through her grandest and her most 
miserable quarters, through wealth, through poverty, 
through civilization and through sloth. Going through 
the various sections of Paris, one cannot but reflect 
on the causes that have given birth, in European cen- 
ters, to the morbid spiritual disintegration of the 
European races. Europe is tired of life. Europe is 
feeling old and its inhabitants are morally worn out. 40 
THE IDOL 
Health and the desire to struggle are not there. Am- 
bition is dead and the field seems to be favorable only 
to the germ of the Vice. Hope is no longer there, 
it is across the ocean. The land of hope is America, 
the land of youth. Europe is old, skeptical and cynical. 
The car has stopped in front of a large though un- 
pretentious building. Our friend is well known to 
the "concierge." Crossing a yard, we enter through 
a garage and find ourselves in a spacious hall, richly 
furnished, a thick carpet on the floor and large Turk- 
ish cushions strewn about. The hall is dimly lighted 
and on small black ebony tables are silver trays 
wrought and chiseled in strange designs. Sitting or 
lying on the cushions on the floor are about twenty 
people, smoking silently and drowsily from pipes. The 
hostess, an elderly woman, crosses the room with a 
tray carrying the fatal dose to her customers. 
Most of the drug worshippers are women between 
thirty and forty years of age. The rest are young 
men, a few merely boys. All these addicts are already 
in an advanced stage of intoxication and frequent 
such places because they do not have in their homes 
the necessary facilities and comforts for smoking. 
They are inveterate dope fiends. Now and again a 
newcomer is admitted who through curiosity wants 
only to see what Opiomania is like. 
It will not take him long to repent his curiosity. 
Although it may be too late to escape the Idol. 
It is commonly thought that dope fiends come to THE IDOL 
41 
these places to indulge at their leisure in the sleep 
produced by the drug. This, however, is not so. The 
majority remain there only the necessary time to 
smoke their numerous pipes, and then go home to 
enjoy in their own beds the artificial sleep of opium. 
In the opium underworld it is interesting to ob- 
serve not only the addicts but also the proprietors of 
the vice dens. As can be easily imagined, they are 
people devoid of every vestige of moral principle, all 
unscrupulous beings of the shrewdest type, capable 
of the boldest and most atrocious deeds. What makes 
them so is the impunity with which they can work, pro- 
tected as they are by their own victims, many of them 
powerful and influential personages who can go to 
any length in keeping the smoking halls surrounded 
by the strictest secrecy. The places are generally in 
charge of elderly women, most of them well educated 
and refined, models of perspicacity and discretion. 
Access to these Temples is only for the rich and 
for the artistically inclined who enjoy the protection 
and friendship of their wealthier associates. Order 
is strictly maintained and no scandals allowed so as 
not to attract the authorities. The stories of crimes 
perpetrated of them are wholly untrue. Only in cer- 
tain larger cities, like London, Naples and Alexandria 
are to be found the classic opium dens frequented by 
criminals and rogues, where prostitution, morphine 
and other crimes alternate with one another. 
No drug addict will ever give himself away before 42 
THE IDOL 
strangers, but in the presence of other addicts, even 
though they be entirely unknown to him, he will have 
not the slightest timidity about disclosing his addic- 
tion. A peculiar brotherhood seems to exist between 
addicts-they are bound by a tie, which in spite of 
the physiological and psychic pleasure involved, is a 
bond of misfortune. That is why a wealthy addict 
will extend a helping hand to a poorer fellow addict 
in all possible circumstances. 
Addicts have also other ways of getting together. 
Some gatherings take place in the homes of addicts, 
where fellow-addicts are invited to tea. The party 
begins as with normal people in every respect. Little 
by little the social atmosphere of the gathering 
changes. The host or hostess will in the most natural 
manner bring out the pipe and offer it to one of the 
guests, whereupon adoration of the Idol commences. 
The expression and bearing of the worshippers 
change, acquiring a serious, solemn trend. Lamps, 
syringes and needles are brought in, and conversation 
turns to glorification of the Idol. Discussions ensue 
as the drug doses, the effect of the poison according 
to its action on the different individuals present, their 
sufferings and their social status, their future welfare, 
the measures and persecutions contemplated against 
them and other such matters concerning life in their 
special world of dope. 
It is here that they may be studied to advantage and 
really understood from the medical and social stand- THE IDOL 
43 
point. It is here that they will show themselves as 
they really are, stripped of the dissimulation to which 
they are constantly forced. Their brotherly senti- 
ments toward each other are here shown and how 
eager each is to help the other. If one has been un- 
able to procure the drug, the host will immediately 
provide him with several doses. It is remarkable 
what honesty and punctiliousness prevail in their 
transaction, for commercialism, profit and exploita- 
tion do not concern them. Men and women are alike, 
the distinctions of classes and wealth disappear, they 
are but addicts, morphine and opium worshippers, 
come to pay adepts of the Cult to the Idol. Sex loses its 
disparity, and men and women mingle without mani- 
festing any of the distinction that exists in normal life. 
In most of these homes every member of it is an 
addict, the servants, the porter, the chauffeur, in- 
cluded, and I have known of an instance where even 
the dog would come in for his injection of morphine. 
Against such an institution, if one may call it such, 
stronger than any religion or affinity of mind, social 
or police persecution must be unavailing. In a sense 
it encourages the vice, by developing infinite resources, 
shrewdness and means of counteracting such persecu- 
tion. Addicts have become more cautious and their 
ranks increase because they must live by and for the 
drug only. THE WHITE IDOL 
CHAPTER III 
MORPHINE 
WE HAVE already made the acquaintance of 
opium and know something of its deadly 
work. We have seen the lives of its addicts 
and the haunts where it is worshipped. We have 
seen how its unfortunate victims absorb the terrible 
smoke. We still recall the hideous smell of the opium 
smoking dens. Each delicate spiral that is inhaled 
from the lungs of the victims carries with it a year of 
human life in every ripple. The small pyramidal 
cones of the drug with which the pipe is fed are 
to me a scourge to mankind. Accursed opium. 
Opium is not alone in its labor of destruction and 
evil. It has its derivatives, as terrible, and perhaps 
more so in their effects. These derivatives are called 
alkaloids and opium has a great number of them. I 
shall describe only the most important: Morphine, 
Codeine, Heroin, Papaverin and Narceine. These 
organic drugs, though invaluable for medicinal pur- 
poses, have been prostituted and turned into instru- 
ments of vice. From the point of view of drug addic- 
tion the most interesting are Morphine and Heroin. 
The other drugs offer less interest in the scope of this 
treatise, since drug addicts do not use them. 
Morphine has the most addicts. This is the drug 
that today is finding its way into every stratum of 
44 THE IDOL 
45 
society, destroying human beings by thousands, nay, 
by the millions. It is more disastrous in its physical 
and moral effects than either cancer or tuberculosis. 
Morphine is invading the world and has addicts in 
every country on the globe. The number is constantly 
growing. Up to the present time the vice was re- 
stricted to the wealthy and higher classes of society. 
But today no class of society is entirely free of it. 
Morphine, as already pointed out, is an alkaloid of 
opium. It is a white powder similar in appearance 
to common talcum powder and is generally com- 
pressed into small cubes of the size of dice or into 
tablets. The majority of addicts use the latter form, 
because it is easier to carry, to make solutions and to 
measure the doses injected into the body. 
Morphine is one of the drugs that have rendered 
the most useful service to medicine. It can be truly 
said that it is the only really effective weapon against 
pain. On the other hand it is killing thousands who 
for different reasons have become habituated to it. 
This is why I have always endeavored to keep my 
patients away from it, urging them under all circum- 
stances to resist pain, however great the physical suf- 
fering, rather than take the first dose of such a 
treacherous drug. One or two doses taken, when 
suffering pain, will of course not have any ill effect 
on the human body. However, the patient will always 
remember its effects, however faintly, and who knows 
but what that memory may later awaken in the pa- 46 
THE IDOL 
tient the inclination or desire that will lead him to 
drug addiction. Avoid, therefore, any acquaintance 
with morphine. In another part of this work, in 
describing the causes of morphiomania, I shall en- 
deavor to prove that if this advice were followed 
there would be fewer victims of the drug. 
I believe it the duty of every woman, as mother, 
as wife, not to forget this advice and always firmly 
to oppose the use of this terrible drug in her family, 
except in a case of extreme necessity, and then only 
after having exhausted every other means. Even so, 
the morphine should be taken by mouth, notwith- 
standing the doses would be larger. The injection of 
morphine should be absolutely avoided. I shall later 
prove that injection is itself one of the causes of 
morphiomania. 
Summarizing the above considerations, I might say 
that every patient that has once taken morphine has 
in him the embryo of morphiomania. 
Morphine today, no one knows how, has become 
popular and has fallen into the hands of all classes of 
people, rich and poor, high and low, educated and 
illiterate. Not only the addicts themselves, but also 
others speak nowadays of morphine in the most famil- 
iar way and are apt to recommend its use for the 
slightest twingle or pain. The practitioner is openly 
asked to administer it, and it is used as readily as 
though it were only a harmless ordinary drug such 
as quinine. THE IDOL 
47 
The other alkaloids of opium have hardly any ad- 
dicts to speak of. It is only in medical practice that 
now and again such addicts are met with and the 
majority of these use such alkaloids in combination 
with other drugs. An example of this class of drug 
fiends was the case of a patient addicted to taking 
veronal mixed with codeine. Such cases are most 
unusual. I have never seen another of this type. 
Morphine and opium are the two principal drugs 
that are today affecting society. Both have the same 
effects from the drug addiction point of view, and 
destroy and kill in the same way. The only difference 
is that with opium the destruction is slower and the 
breakdown of his moral structure not so easily 
brought about as with morphine. The disturbances 
that differentiate them are of a clinical order and have 
only a professional interest. 
I am not going to speak of morphine as a drug in 
a medical sense. My theme has a much wider and 
more important scope. I am going to show the dis- 
turbances that the morphine vice produces in the 
human race, and shall describe the manifestations of 
the patient that has fallen a victim to its deadly effects. 
Morphiomania 
We have already had a glimpse of the dregs and 
madness of vice. We have seen how drugs cause the 
self-destruction of men. We have met the Idol, the 
drug evil. Some views have passed before our eyes 48 
THE IDOL 
of the haunts where human beings are driven to kill 
themselves. What has been shown to you is nothing 
compared to what now will be revealed. There will 
be unfolded before your eyes the most gruesome and 
nauseating picture conceivable. I am going to show 
and describe to you what morphiomania is. 
The morphine intoxication produces morphioma- 
nia. This intoxication, to be really classified as such, 
is not an occasional indulgence of the drug. One or 
two doses are not sufficient to enlist you as a mor- 
phiomaniac. It is a slow and gradual process. 
There are several medical theories as to causes of 
morphiomania. In my opinion the most plausible of 
these is that which ascribes it to the slow elimination 
of the poison from the system. Once the human body 
is morphinized it feels the need of keeping up the pois- 
oning. And it is my own view that as the poison is 
accumulated in the body it attacks with greater de- 
structive power the moral foundations of the patient, 
annihilating his subjective functions, especially the 
will. Thus the effects are two-fold, the morphiomania 
of the body and morphiomania of the spirit. 
The principal point to be established at the outset 
is that morphiomania persists from the necessity un- 
der which the addict is of continuing to poison him- 
self with the drug and that once the intoxication has 
started, however mildly, the necessity of taking the 
poison sets in. As the intoxication grows, the neces- 
sity grows, reaching to such a degree that morphine THE IDOL 
49 
becomes to a morphiomaniac almost as vital an ele- 
ment as the air he breathes. Those who possess only 
a superficial knowledge of the subject believe that 
this necessity is only a moral condition and that it is 
therefore possible to liberate an addict in the same 
way as a smoker drops the tobacco habit. This is a 
great mistake. Morphiomania in the beginning, per- 
haps, can be treated as a moral vice, but in less than 
a month the poison becomes a vital element for the 
patient-as coal is vital to a boiler. Its soot slowly 
corrodes the boiler, but also gives it its power. 
I have divided morphiomania into three periods: 
namely, the first period, the Initiation period or Vice 
Period; the second period, the Intoxication Period or 
Necessity Period; and the third period, the Advanced 
Intoxication or the Destruction Period. 
The first period is distinguished by the absence of 
any marked organic or psychological symptoms. The 
symptoms are hardly perceptible. I call this the first 
or vice period because the normal person who begins 
to take the drug does so not from necessity but 
through vice. The future victim begins the habit with 
one small injection a day and generally at night. Be- 
fore a few weeks have passed he gives himself two 
injections a day. 
During the first period morphine produces only its 
regular effects on every normal person. There is a 
short period of nervousness after the injection, ac- 
companied by a contraction of tlje-^t^jb of <he eyes, 50 
THE IDOL 
a dryness of the nose and throat, a very slight numb- 
ness of the arms and legs and a feeling of heaviness 
which begins at the back of the neck and runs along 
the spinal column and the stomach. At this point the 
brain becomes excited and "artificial dreams" take 
place. These "artificial dreams" are practically auto- 
suggestions created during these moments of lethargy. 
At the beginning of the intoxication these sensations 
last from two to three hours. As the intoxication 
grows, artificial dreams become shorter until they 
last no longer than from fifteen to thirty minutes. 
During this first period no physical injuries present 
themselves, so that the patient does not realize or 
cannot understand the gravity of the vice he is acquir- 
ing. He has a vague idea of a peril which he believes 
has been overrated, but firmly relies on his will power 
to shake it off whenever he decides to quit. 
In the majority of cases the injections are first ad- 
ministered in the legs or hips. The novice, although 
not very familiar with the details of taking drugs, 
takes extraordinary care regarding the disinfection 
of the needle and the size of the dose. This is due to 
the fact that he is somewhat afraid. 
A state of depression follows the period of excite- 
ment and then the real sleep. The sleep, however, is 
fatiguing and does not restore the forces of the body. 
It produces headaches and general lassitude, some- 
times accompanied by pains in the stomach. This 
lasts generally from ten to twelve hours, and the THE IDOL 
51 
victim wakes up feeling ill-humored, and unable to 
point out precisely where his pains are or what ails 
him. 
Why does a normally healthy person take morphine 
during this period? I believe that in the majority of 
cases he does so through the lure of vice, curiosity, 
or the love of the mysterious. During this period 
there is not enough poison in the system to necessitate 
taking more. The individual during this period can 
not be called a morphiomaniac. He can still give up 
the drug without any physical suffering, for his sys- 
tem is not as yet poisoned. The patient looks normal 
during this period. He works as usual. His face 
shows great fatigue which he ascribes to real or imag- 
inary illness. He never attributes it to the use of 
morphine. 
The second period of morphiomania, or the period 
of necessity, is marked by the necessity of taking the 
poison. It is hard to draw the line separating one 
period from another. The following may serve as 
an explanation: 
Let us suppose an individual beginning to take the 
drug and after a few days to be unable to continue 
the injections. He then feels a slight nervousness 
which he can easily appease with some other drug, or 
he might be able to forget about morphine by means 
of some treatment. The only disturbance he will feel 
is that he will not be able to fall asleep easily. His 
nerves will regain their calm only after a few hours. 52 
T HE IDOL 
He will then sleep well and awake feeling fine. We 
can then say that this is the first period of intoxica- 
tion. If the same individual feels ill without the drug 
and suffers pain, is unable to walk about, lies awake 
for hours and reaps no benefit from other drugs, then 
he is in a second period or necessity period. This is 
when morphine will restore him to apparent normalcy. 
This is the interesting period of morphiomania. It 
is specially marked by the fact that the drug no longer 
brings to the patient the "artificial dreams of para- 
dise"; it produces only a brief and agreeable sensa- 
tion along the spinal column and in the stomach, of 
from thirty to fifty minutes' duration. It is now that 
he takes an injection which will lend him unusual 
strength and energy to carry out any undertaking. 
This artificial stimulus will not generally last more 
than two or three hours, effecting itself and leaving 
a pronounced weakness, followed later on by sleep. 
It is by means of these physical changes that we see 
a morphiomaniac lapsing abruptly from activity to a 
state of inertia and an inclination to fall asleep. It is 
not easy to determine the exact number of injections 
the addict takes at this period. My experience leads 
me to believe that he takes four daily; one in the 
morning, one in the afternoon and two at night. The 
doses taken at night are generally stronger than the 
others. Sleep during this period is heavier than dur- 
ing the first period. I may point out that the addict 
of the necessity period cannot sleep for two or three THE IDOL 
53 
hours after the injection. This explains why the mor- 
phiomaniac is not an early riser. He needs from ten 
to twelve hours of sleep daily. But this sleep is tiring 
to the morphiomaniac. He leaves his bed in a state 
of prostration and is hardly able to move. He is 
obliged to take another injection in order to acquire 
renewed artificial energy. This morning depression 
is accompanied principally by a profound drowsiness, 
a buzzing of the ears, an unpleasant taste in the 
mouth, and a very heavy feeling in the arms and legs. 
He is utterly unfit for the slightest exertion. 
It can be seen from the aforesaid that the unfor- 
tunate victim of the drug lives in a sort of vicious 
atmosphere. His only hope seems to lie in increasing 
the dose of poison. During the day he needs it to 
acquire energy to get around and at night he must 
have it in order to sleep. While during the initiation 
period morphiomania does not produce any outward 
signs, there appear evident signs of physical and or- 
ganic disturbances during the second or intoxication 
period. The first symptom which is notably visible is 
an emaciation of the face, a dull expression of the 
eyes, a sharpening of the nose, the drooping of the 
eyelids, and colorless lips, a transparent appearance 
of the ears, a thinness of the neck and a wrinkled 
condition of the skin. An examination of the skin 
displays innumerable traces of needle punctures all 
over the body. The patient no longer confines the 
injections to the legs and hips. Any part of the body 54 
THE IDOL 
will do. I believe that however acute the physical 
sufferings of the patient may be, his moral sufferings 
are just as great. The lack of energy goes hand in 
hand with the loss of his will power. He now feels 
that the poison has him in its horrible clutches anu 
he suffers because he cannot escape from it. He 
knows that he is being hurried into the abyss. 
However, he always entertains a ray of hope and 
feels that some day he will unexpectedly find a new 
drug, medicine or treatment which will cure him. He 
realizes the external signs of the poison and avoids 
appearing among his friends. When he is compelled 
to appear before friends he complains at once of some 
imaginary illness so as not to arouse suspicion. 
At this time it is important to describe "necessity" 
for the drug in his absence. An hour later than the 
customary time of taking it the patient begins to feel 
the "necessity," followed by pains. It generally 
causes an extremely excited condition, a feeling of 
anguish, a difficulty in breathing, shooting pain in 
the arms, legs and back, an increase in the secretions 
of the nose and eyes, sneezing, headache, fatigue, lack 
of strength and a depression so great that the addict 
is practically motionless. 
All these disturbances make of the patient a total 
wreck. He suffers pain all over the body so great 
that he feels as if life were slipping from him. It is 
now that the morphiomaniac becomes dangerous, for 
in order to get the drug he will do anything. He THE IDOL 
55 
needs his dose of morphine to lend him his artificial 
normalcy. 
I call the third period of morphiomania the destruc- 
tion period because the patient reaches the lowest pos- 
sible moral and physical condition. Before entering 
the third period of morphiomania the drug addict can 
still be considered as a human being, despite the evil 
that has been wrought upon him. On entering the 
third period, however, the addict is converted into 
an unspeakable monster with almost every physical 
trait deformed and every physical attribute distorted 
to the utmost. Every remnant that is fine and worthy 
in a human being is destroyed. Only the skeleton 
remains with the flesh torn to pieces by the claws of 
the drug. The worst specimen of misery and trag- 
edy that society can produce does not compare with 
the morphiomaniac in the third period. Imagine the 
shadow of a human being impregnated with poison, 
the ghastly and cadaverous face, pale as wax, and 
tinged with green as in death, the lips of a dark blue, 
the ears almost black and thin as paper. This is the 
morphiomaniac. Only the eyes show that the corpse 
is living. They shine brilliantly at times with the 
fiery or are deadened by the approach of death. The 
bony frame of the thorax is only left. The arms ana 
legs have lost their muscles and the skin, dry ane. 
yellow, remains covering the bones as if on a mummy 
of thousands of years ago. The signs of the injections 
cover the body. The skin shows the punctures of the 56 
THE IDOL 
needle where the accursed poison found its way into 
the delicate and healthy system. The addict is a liv- 
ing skeleton still clinging to life in order to be fed 
with morphine. 
In this third degree of poisoning it is usual to find 
the patient's skin filled with abscesses or small sores 
filled with pus. The origin of these abscesses lieb 
within the body itself and perhaps in the blood. I 
have studied certain cases where the abscesses ap- 
peared notwithstanding the fact that the injections 
were made under strictest aseptic conditions. The 
abscesses appear principally on the hips and legs and 
very rarely on the arms. They are very painful but 
easy to cure. An incision and simple bandage will 
make them disappear in twenty-four hours without 
any further treatment. 
The number of injections the patient takes during 
this period varies considerably. Every patient pre- 
sents a different case. It may be said, however, that 
the average number of injections ranges from twelve 
to fifteen a day, one or more every two hours. An 
injection can be taken every hour during the advanced 
stage of intoxication. 
While the two first periods of intoxication by 
morphine produce moments of well being to the pa- 
tients, the "artificial bliss" no longer comes to the 
addict during the third period and he does not feel 
any sensation along the spinal column or stomach. 
After the injection the patient recovers from the THE IDOL 
57 
lethargy in which he is always submerged and recu- 
perates his strength during a period of two hours, 
after which he must resort to another injection to 
keep up his strength. Sleep becomes more and more 
abnormal during this condition and its restorative 
powers diminish accordingly with pains and disturb- 
ances constantly increasing. It is very interesting to 
observe one of these patients at the moment of wak- 
ing up. His cadaverous appearance suggests the pic- 
ture of death coming to life again. It is a far more 
ghastly sight than that of a consumptive in the last 
stage of the disease. 
During this period the morals of the patient are 
destroyed as well as the body. Man as such has 
ceased to exist. All interest in life has disappeared. 
His only thought is of more poison. The poison has 
killed his will power. I have mentioned briefly the 
principal features of the drug addict during the three 
periods of morphiomania. I have dwelt only upon 
the poisoning and have hardly touched upon or con- 
sidered the addict. I will write on the psychology of 
the morphiomaniac in another chapter. 
We have so far learned that morphiomania is the 
poisoning of the system by morphine. The act of 
introducing the poison deserves special notice and in 
my opinion constitutes the vice in itself aside from 
the drug. I therefore consider drug addiction as 
having two phases: Morphiomania and Needlemania. 
I will now consider the latter phase. 58 
THE IDOL 
Needlemania 
Dr. Pravaz, the inventor of the hypodermic syringe 
which bears his name, undoubtedly conferred a bless- 
ing on mankind. But this instrument has also been 
prejudiced in an unexpected way. Everybody knows 
how medical science has been benefited by its facili- 
tating the direct introduction of drugs into the sys- 
tem without passing them through the stomach where 
they undergo a series of changes in the process of 
digestion. The introduction of the syringe has also 
fostered the study and administration of serums. 
But against these advantages is the evil that has been 
wrought by the same instrument in enabling man to 
adopt the terrible vice. 
Morphiomania without the syringe would not be 
half the scourge it is, and the number of addicts 
would not be as great. In the first place morphine 
taken by mouth would not kill as the intoxication 
would not be as rapid, and in the second place, the 
cure of the vice would be easier. I blame the syringe 
for at least fifty per cent of the number of addicts. 
The morphiomaniac has great love for the injection. 
It is not only for the pleasure the narcotic gives, but 
also the joy the addict experiences in the act of in- 
jecting himself. The injection has a distinct sensa- 
tion, apart from that caused by the drug. I have 
given to this fondness the name of Needlemania. One 
need only observe the morphiomaniac to note his 
pleasure in injecting himself. The addict keeps and THE IDOL 
59 
handles the instruments, the needles and the syringe, 
with a religious devotion. These instruments are 
dearer to him than life. With them he pays the cult 
to the Idol he adores. The pleasure he receives from 
his vice he attributes in part to the syringe. 
If one should propose to an addict that he swallow 
the poison instead of injecting it, offering him a 
larger dose for so doing, he would prefer a smaller 
dose as long as he could use the needle. I have made 
this experiment numberless times, with the same re- 
sults. I have never found a patient willing to give 
up the needle. This uncontrollable love for the needle 
has various causes. I believe the principal one is 
the addict's physical disturbances which produce a 
saddic tendency which finds joy in the act of pierc- 
ing the skin with the instrument, notwithstanding 
the fact that a puncture is much more painful to a 
drug addict than to a normal person. The mania 
manifests itself in several forms, from the simple 
puncture with a clean, sharp needle, rapidly carried 
out, to puncture with a blunt, dirty needle in almost 
any part of the body. Several interesting cases have 
come under my observation. 
A man engaged in business and leading a very ac- 
tive life came to me for morphiomania treatment. 
He wanted to be cured of the habit. His case was 
not in a very advanced stage, and his physical and 
moral condition was far from hopeless. After being 
in my office for a few moments he asked me to ac- 60 
THE IDOL 
company him home in his car. On our way he calmly 
produced a syringe, and a small bottle containing the 
narcotic solution. I asked him what he was about 
to do. He answered by simply injecting himself on 
the thigh, right through his trousers. He told me 
he always administered the injections in that way, 
as they did not produce such good results in any other 
manner. He had started the habit thus through lack 
of time. He used an unusually large needle which 
must have caused him great pain. 
I pressed him for details of the origin of his habit 
and became quickly convinced that it was a case of 
saddism in the form of needlemania. 
A curious case was that of a woman about forty 
years of age. She had been a renowned opera singer 
and was in the third period of intoxication, when I 
saw her. She remained in bed most of the time, get- 
ting up only for a few hours during the night. Her 
general condition was pitiful. Her face was cadave- 
rous, her body extremely emaciated, and her swollen 
legs showed that the kidneys no longer functioned 
satisfactorily. Her needlemania consisted in the use 
of an old blunt needle, with which she injected her- 
self in the neck. The operation was a terrifying sight 
as she seemed likely to pierce the jugular vein near 
the throat, that once produced the golden voice. She 
told me she had often tried to substitute the old, blunt 
needle with a new and proper instrument, but had 
gone back to the former because it gave better results. THE IDOL 
61 
Another terrifying picture was a needlemaniac of 
most extraordinary type whom I shall not easily for- 
get. He was in an advanced stage of intoxication, 
his body covered with needle marks and painful ab- 
scesses. He was like a mass of flesh torn and bruised 
by some wild animal. The way he injected himself 
was dreadful. His favorite place for the puncture 
was underneath the tongue, which was torn and lac- 
erated. It was a terrible sight even to the eyes of 
a hardened medical practitioner. 
One of the most difficult things in the treatment 
of the morphiomaniac is the cure of the needlemania. 
The patient falls prey to an overwhelming mental de- 
pression on being deprived of the syringe and needle 
and being forced to take the poison by mouth. He 
craves the needle as much as the poison. After a 
patient becomes cured-and when I say cured I mean 
when he abhors the drug-there always lingers in his 
memory a faint reminiscence, a sort of a cloudy, 
dreamy memory of the injection. When the cured 
patient thinks of the past, he feels that he has mirac- 
ulously escaped some awful danger. He does not feel 
the same, however, as regards the injection, of which 
he always retains a pleasant recollection. Most pa- 
tients who have been cured or have been treated con- 
fess that although the poison has been forgotten, the 
injection is still remembered now and then. 
To me, therefore, the syringe seems the symbol 
of morphiomania. It is interesting to note that the 62 
THE IDOL 
drugs most to be dreaded are those driven into the 
circulatory system by means of instruments. Other 
drugs, such as cocaine, that are taken by mouth, have 
hardly as serious consequences as drug addiction 
agents. 
The Initiation Into Morphiomania 
The predisposing causes of morphiomania, the 
three roads leading to it, are: Disease, Nervous Pros- 
tration and Vice. We will find that every addict 
becomes a victim of Morphiomania in one of these 
three ways. I have already said something about 
disease as a starting point, when writing on the sub- 
ject of Morphine. I have stated that any patient who 
has ever taken morphine is a potential drug addict. 
This is readily understood when we consider that the 
patient was relieved from excruciating pain under 
the drug. He can never forget the indescribable com- 
fort derived from it and will be always grateful for 
it. He may forget it in good health, but a relapse 
to pain will bring the drug back to memory. The 
patient is doomed, however, if his second illness fol- 
lows shortly after the first, unless it be of short dura- 
tion. I am not referring to those unfortunate victims 
who suffer from fatal lingering diseases as cancer. 
Their pain should be alleviated by morphine. I am 
going to point out a great menace in connection with 
the administration of morphine in pain. Visitors, 
friends and relatives are often present, who have THE IDOL 
63 
some knowledge of the drug. They see the suffering 
of the patient relieved. Those who are not strong- 
minded but temperamental and inclined towards the 
lurid and fantastic, are tempted to get acquainted 
with the mysteries of morphine which appeals to their 
imagination. They try the drug and soon become 
addicts. 
Nervous prostration is one of the conditions that 
most often lead to the use of the drug. Today man 
is unfortunately loosing the stamina and courage to 
bear the strain of life and the great demands made 
on his moral fibre. When he is unable to stand it any 
longer, how often he resorts to artificial means of 
forgetting his worries! 
The intellectual worker is generally prone to these 
disturbances which manifest themselves in lack of 
sleep, nervous debility, or fits of sadness. 
These moral crises are the most favorable mo- 
ments to fall under the spell of morphine. Only the 
very ignorant and illiterate at the present time, and 
not even they, have sufficient will power to weather 
the storms of depression and moral anguish that are 
the distressing characteristics of modern civilization. 
Cultured people, through reading and the wide- 
spread discussion of the theme in books and maga- 
zines, are familiar with all the details and temptations 
of the drug, and are, therefore, living close to the 
subject. 
Though the skeptical may scorn, there is another 64 
THE IDOL 
special ailment which is one of the causes of drug 
addiction. No matter how reluctantly we may say 
so, we must consider love as one of its causes. 
The pangs of love, of jealousy and desertion, lead 
many to drug addiction. These victims manifest a 
redeeming feature. They are the ones that most 
regret having fallen into the clutches of morphine. 
Strange to say, these addicts never remember what 
induced them to fall into the habit. 
It may doubtless be said that a normal, healthy per- 
son cannot become a morphiomaniac, since such a 
person is a stranger to weaknesses. 
I believe that vices, like disease, are contagious. 
The principal cause of morphiomania is the human 
unhealthy inclination to vice. The lure of novelty, 
new sensations, and the corruption of society are the 
responsible agents of drug addiction. Another cause 
is the mystery with which the drug is surrounded. 
Some people think it is refined to use the drug and 
that it is something exclusively for the select and 
super-intellectual. As a consequence they desire to 
be up to date and experienced in everything. Therein 
lies the danger. I have known people who never saw 
morphine yet boasted of being drug users, only be- 
cause they thought it "smart." 
Woman is much more easily carried away than 
men by this desire to be "smart," which so often leads 
to fatal consequences. I recall a young artist telling 
me before a number of her friends that she was a THE IDOL 
65 
morphiomaniac. Yet I knew she was nothing of the 
sort. She had tried but one injection. I could tell 
directly that she was only pretending, for on trying 
to inject herself in my presence she disclosed she did 
not know how to handle the instruments. She said 
she was tired of life, and insisted she was a morphio- 
maniac. I told her she was not a morphine addict 
and was simply trying to follow the dictates of a fad. 
Another artist, a famous violinist, told me he could 
never play without first snuffing cocaine. He would 
make this statement simply to impress addicts with 
his genius. 
The danger, of course, is not with the amateurs just 
described, but with the silent propaganda carried on 
principally by the real addicts among the unsophisti- 
cated. It is remarkable how interested the morphio- 
maniac is in making proselytes for his vice; although 
strangely enough his interest is not with criminal 
intent. I do not believe drug addicts, as such, are 
really criminals, as I shall later explain when discuss- 
ing his psychology. Nevertheless, he is dangerous 
to society because of his effectiveness in spreading 
the evil. Addicts when cured become bitter enemies 
of morphine addiction and most efficient preachers 
against its injurious effects. 
I have pointed out the three ways to morphiomania, 
which must not, however, be mistaken for the actual 
causes of drug addiction, of which I shall speak later. 66 
THE IDOL 
The Addict's D'ose 
It is important to consider the size of the morphio- 
maniac's dose. The usual dose for an adult is from 
one to five centigrammes, varying with the weight 
of the individual and the method of administration. 
When taken by mouth the dose must be increased 
from ten to fifteen per cent, to get results equal to 
those of injection. In the latter case a centigramme 
is sufficient. 
The usual dose gives us an estimate of the frightful 
degree of intoxication which addicts may reach. The 
maximum dose for an average normal is of ten 
centigrammes; and a smaller dose will often cause 
death. Normally a human being has little resistance 
to morphine, much less than such animals as dogs 
and cats. I have observed from experiments made 
with cats that they can stand the enormous dose of 
six centigrammes in one injection. 
The dose taken by addicts varies much. As already 
stated, they begin the intoxication with one or two 
centigrammes, and gradually increase the dose to in- 
credible quantities after a few weeks. The subject 
at the end of the second month is taking as much as 
five centigrammes in each injection, twice a day, 
making a total of ten centigrammes every twenty- 
four hours. It is not easy to give the average quan- 
tity which a morphiomaniac takes in the advanced 
stages of intoxication. According to my observa- 
tions it runs as high as one gramme every twenty- THE IDOL 
67 
four hours. I have records of cases of still heavier 
doses, some in combination with other drugs, going 
to show the great natural defenses of the system 
against such quantities of poison. 
Among the cases of extraordinarily high doses of 
morphine may be called that of an addict, a pharma- 
cist, who acquired the habit through the treatment of 
facial neuralgia. He began with the normal dose of 
one to two centigrammes a day and was soon taking 
as much as a gramme a day. This patient used the 
morphine with cocaine, the latter to kill pain of the 
injection. He had begun to increase the dose of co- 
caine almost immediately. He came to me four years 
after contracting the habit, and was by then taking 
a gramme of cocaine and two grammes of morphine 
daily. This is almost unbelievable, considering what 
the normal dose is. I might add that this patient 
submitted to the treatment and was entirely cured. 
These examples prove the high value of nature in 
the preservation of life. Only the biological law of 
adaptation can account for the long resistance of 
morphiomaniacs to poison in doses that would rapidly 
kill a normal human being. 
I have also seen cases of extreme intoxication from 
small doses. These cases offer the same difficulties 
in treatment as those of addicts accustomed to very 
high doses. A patient who injected himself with only 
five centigrammes of morphine daily required four 
months treatment before he was entirely cured. His 68 
THE IDOL 
friend who took one gramme a day and underwent 
treatment at the same time was cured in three months. 
I have observed in connection with the size of the 
doses of morphine taken during the period of ad- 
vanced intoxication some interesting facts which have 
led me to conclude that, with respect to each addict, 
two doses are to be considered-namely, the vital dose 
and the de luxe, or luxury dose. 
The vital dose is the minimum quantity of mor- 
phine which the addict requires in order to live with- 
out pain and without the "artificial ecstasies." Medi- 
cal authorities are not in agreement as to the size of 
this dose. My own opinion is that the vital dose 
should be equivalent approximately to two-thirds of 
the total amount he takes in twenty-four hours. Thus, 
the vital dose for an addict who uses sixty centi- 
grammes of morphine daily is about forty centi- 
grammes. He requires this minimum amount to be 
free from pain and functional disturbances. Any de- 
crease of this dose of forty centigrammes will give 
rise to the necessity for more of the drug and cause 
disturbances of the patient's system. 
The de luxe or luxury dose is the excess quantity 
of the drug taken by the addict over and above the 
vital dose. Where the addict takes sixty centi- 
grammes daily the de luxe, or luxury dose would be 
twenty centigrammes. This overdose is superfluous 
so far as the comfort and regular life of the patient 
is concerned and only excites in him the "artificial THE IDOL 
69 
ecstasies" for a short period. An excessive dose of 
the drug makes the addict to suffer as much as an 
insufficient dose, causing him great fatigue. In the 
chapter on the psychology of morphiomaniacs I shall 
explain how one of the reasons for the excess in the 
dose is the fear of insomnia at night. This impels 
the patient, on retiring, to stress the dose in order to 
obviate sleeplesness. 
The de luxe or luxury dose is very easy to suppress. 
When the subjects voluntarily submit to treatment 
they feel encouraged when they notice that only this 
excessive dose is gradually withheld until the vital 
dose limit is reached. It is then that the real difficul- 
ties of the treatment commence. 
The Duration of a Drug Addict's Life 
How long does a morphiomaniac live? This is not 
easily answered. The resistance of the human body 
and its adaptability to the drug are very important 
factors. In hospital wards only desperate cases which 
end in death can be observed with reference to dura- 
tion of life. There is, of course, no telling how long 
those that are cured would have continued to live 
under the drug. 
I have mentioned the cases of Chinese living from 
thirty to forty years using drugs. They were cases of 
opium smokers, not morphine users. Opium is less 
deadly. The morphiomaniac may, however, live for 
several years. Yet, it has been seen that the use of 
morphine may cause death often in a few months. 70 
THE IDOL 
While at the Casino one night in Deauville, France, 
watching the roulette, my attention was attracted to 
one of the players who seemed to show the character- 
istics of a drug user. He appeared to be very nervous 
and played feverishly on the green cloth, apparently 
without heed of the considerable sums he was wag- 
ering. Shortly afterward he disappeared and then 
returned to his seat. His eyes flashed with energy, 
his lips held a cigar firmly and a monocle over his 
right eye showed the fine condition of his nerves. I 
immediately gathered from his appearance that he 
had taken an injection. After watching him for a 
few moments I accosted him frankly. Knowing the 
psychology of morphiomaniacs, I spoke to him as 
these patients should be spoken to, and we were 
soon on the best terms. He was an extremely 
wealthy man, highly educated and had acquired the 
drug habit during an attack of appendicitis. He 
answered all my questions and told me he had been 
a drug addict for the last twenty-six years. I have 
never heard, nor do I believe I ever will hear again, 
of a case of such long duration. From the great num- 
ber of cases, among all classes, that I have treated, 
I had believed it impossible for the human body to 
resist the constant action of such a poison for twenty- 
six years. It also startled me to learn that his average 
dose for the last seven years had been fifty centi- 
grammes daily. 
On another occasion I was traveling by train from 
Paris to the Riviera. The train was crowded with THE IDOL 
71 
people leaving the cold of Northern France for the 
balmy climate of the Mediterranean shores. These 
migrations of the wealthy of Europe to Nice and 
Monte Carlo are always very interesting. One will 
observe elegant women garbed in luxurious and ex- 
pensive furs, beautiful little children with their 
nurses, dignified Englishmen, and also Russians, 
Swedes and other nationalities. These gatherings 
afford a wonderful field of observation to the medical 
student of morphiomania. He is seldom disappointed. 
I began to scrutinize the faces to find in some of them 
traces of the vice that has always been to me a sub- 
ject of profound interest and study. I noticed in some 
of the passengers signs that aroused my suspicions. 
It was difficult, however, to ascertain if the emacia- 
tion noticeable in some of them was due to morphine, 
or to the fatigue of travel. I finally concentrated my 
attention on one of the passengers. She was still an 
interesting woman, petit and pretty, of delicate and 
refined appearance. Her face was very pale. The 
conviction grew on me, from her looks and other 
details, that she was a morphiomaniac. I hardly 
dared to approach her directly, and so resorted to a 
stratagem. I drew from my bag a hypodermic 
syringe, wrapping it loosely with a piece of paper, and 
then waited until she went out of the corridor of the 
car. I followed, passed very close to her, begging 
her pardon, and at the same time let the package drop 
to the floor. She immediately changed her expres- 72 
THE IDOL 
sion. We quickly became friends. I told her I was 
a specialist in morphiomania, and before long the 
wax-doll beauty took me into her confidence. She 
was a Russian Princess of the highest aristocracy, 
and occupied an important position at the Russian 
Court. She had an interesting and engaging person- 
ality not only because of her appearance and distinc- 
tion, but because of her misfortune. She explained 
her case to me in detail and astounded me by saying 
that she had been taking the deadly poison uninter- 
ruptedly for eighteen years. This is another case of 
almost unbelievable duration. 
In contradiction to these cases I may mention that 
of Captain Z of the French navy. His brother came 
to me and asked me to examine the patient. I found 
him in a deplorable condition, consumptive and full 
of the abscesses characteristic of the third period of 
intoxication. He had been in the clutches of the poi- 
son only seven months and in that short time became 
a living corpse. Two months later he died. Morphine 
had done its deadly work in the two last months. 
Another case is that of a French doctor who had 
lived for a long time in the French colony of Tonkin, 
where he had acquired the opium smoking habit. He 
had begun with a dose of five centigrammes daily. 
His entire system began to give way at the end of 
three months, and he died then. 
All of these cases are extreme ones, and cannot 
serve as a basis to determine the length of life of a 
morphiomaniac. I have referred to them only because THE IDOL 
73 
of their interest. My experience has led me to the 
conclusion that the average life of a morphiomaniac 
is four years. 
The morphiomaniac's death is tragic and ghastly. 
It is the climax of a life of abject misery and terrible 
suffering. The invalid of most other diseases is un- 
conscious during the last moments of his life and 
slowly leaves this world with the pulsations of the 
heart as the only visible sign of life. This extreme 
compassion is denied the drug addict, as if the drug 
delighted in the last ordeal. The consumptive dies 
apparently embracing death lovingly, and to my mind 
with all the mental faculties gone. An infectious 
fever deadens the brain. Traumatism deranges the 
brain and death from hemorrhage is very rapid, 
hardly allowing a brief moment of consciousness. The 
morphiomaniac, however, retains his lucidity to the 
last moment to witness his own agony and feels the 
poison choking him to death. The morphiomaniac 
dies from one of two causes, either the lack or the 
excess of morphine. It is dangerous to keep the drug 
from a patient in the second degree of intoxication. 
The greater the intoxication is the greater the risk, 
and serious derangements are frequent when the drug 
is withheld. Patients subjected to treatment by sud- 
den suppression and quick elimination of the drug 
are liable to collapses that endanger their lives. The 
uninformed believe that death was caused by the poi- 
The Morphiomaniac's Death 74 
THE IDOL 
son in such cases. The reverse is true. Death being 
caused by want of the drug. If death does not come 
immediately after suppression of the drug it may 
come through complications originating in the demor- 
phinization of the patient. 
Such complications may be pneumonia, neuritis, 
meningitis, or abdominal infection. These do not con- 
stitute the ordinary cause of death of morphine ad- 
dicts. Addicts generally die from the excess of 
morphine. Death from morphine is a terrific and 
heart-rending sight, a picture of disintegration and 
a fitting deterrent to this widespread vice. 
Death from morphine is marked by a decided dis- 
turbance of all of the normal bodily functions, except 
that the brain continues entirely clear and regular. 
Every other part of the body, to the last cell, is sat- 
urated with the morphine. The system no longer 
functions normally, but simply obeys the dictates of 
the drug. The patient is but a living skeleton with 
eyes and hair. The voice is weak, with a continuous 
plaintive murmur. The patient must have his injec- 
tions continuously, every hour, half hour or even 
more often. Abscesses appear all over the skin, leav- 
ing hardly a healthy spot at which to introduce new 
doses. The legs are swollen through inflammation 
of the kidneys, the abdomen sunk in, the arms but 
two squalid bones. The patient emanates nauseating 
and repulsive odors. 
I have tried in vain to study patients in their last 
stages before death in order to get a glimpse into their THE IDOL 
75 
moral state during those last moments. They hardly 
move or talk, though wholly conscious of what is hap- 
pening around them. 
Thus die the victims of this new cancer invented 
by men, the victims of dope, the unmerciful Idol, 
which tortures its worshippers till the end. These 
are the effects of morphine, more tragic and destruc- 
tive than any plague. 
The morphine addict is not characteristically a de- 
generate, nor is he disabled in mind; he is simply a 
sick man, or woman. If one who succumbs to purely 
physical stress through lack of physical strength is 
merely regarded as physically weak, so also should 
one who ignorantly and through lack of moral forti- 
tude yields to drugs be treated merely as an invalid. 
\ We all feel endowed with a remarkable will power 
as to our future conduct, we feel confident that we 
can make ourselves do or refrain from doing what- 
ever we so will. This self-confidence runs through 
all human activities; but is especially marked in the 
morphine addict. If the addict knew in advance what 
sufferings were in store for him, he very probably 
would never yield to the vice. But he feels sure of 
himself and honestly believes that he will give up the 
vice before it gets the best of him. It is curious to 
observe that this self-assurance does not disappear 
even in very advanced cases of intoxication. The 
patient, unable to resist the lure of the drug, still per- 
The Psychology of the Morphiomaniac 76 
THE IDOL 
sists in believing that some day he will be able to 
muster enough will power to cast aside the drug. 
Drug addicts as a class have it in their will and 
intention to quit the vice. Of course there are de- 
generates among them, but these are primarily of a 
great nervous disorder, but they are not typical drug 
addicts but patients suffering from a nervous dis- 
order complicated with, but not originating in drug 
addiction. 
The morphiomaniac as such is simply a person ad- 
dicted to the use of morphine. He is devoid of any 
cerebral or organic lesion. In other words he is pecu- 
liarly a morphiomaniac. 
The public, uninformed in such matters, is often 
inclined to regard these poor unfortunates as insane, 
as degenerates or as criminals, which is a grave in- 
justice. I do not believe that morphiomania produces 
any more delinquents than any other disease. In this 
connection I wish to repeat that the morphine addict 
is neither insane, nor a degenerate, nor a criminal, 
but merely a person who is sick. Sick like one inhal- 
ing mercury while working in the mines, like one 
poisoned by acids in a laboratory, or like one infected 
with bacteria. In the last analysis, one as well as the 
other, is suffering from disease. 
It should be thoroughly realized that the drug ad- 
dict, as such, is a person free from any moral tur- 
pitude of the poison, he is a perfectly normal being. 
Those who have no actual good reason for acquir- 
ing the habit can blame it on their ignorance. The THE IDOL 
77 
addict as a patient, therefore, is entitled to as much 
sympathy and kindness as any other patient, if no 
more. 
Why should they receive more consideration than 
the others in this respect? I can testify to the sym- 
pathetic natures of addicts. Their moral suffering 
so far surpasses that of other patients that they be- 
come extremely sensitive to the sufferings of others. 
They are generally highly impressionable to mental 
suffering though hardly so as to bodily ones. 
The most noticeable trait in the patients is their 
lack of stamina in the struggle for life. The nature 
of their ailment renders them thoughtful and critical. 
They all study and meditate on their condition with 
wonderful accuracy and insight, observing other ad- 
dicts until they acquire a clear conception of the evil. 
They call a doctor while in this condition. 
If he is not competent and well informed on the 
subject of drug addiction, they laugh at him, and the 
doctor may then come to the conclusion that he is 
dealing with a degenerate or an insane person, where- 
upon his treatment fails from the beginning. The 
patient and the doctor do not work in accord. This 
is often the case. 
In the treatment of other diseases medical skill will 
enable the doctor to diagnose and ascertain facts con- 
cerning the malady of the patient without delving 
into his moral condition. It is impossible in the treat- 
ment of morphiomania to diagnose unless there is a 78 
THE IDOL 
mutual understanding established with the patient. 
My knowledge of morphiomaniacs has come from the 
patient study of them, but I must confess that they 
have taught me more as friends than as patients. 
The reason for the disappointments experienced in 
the study and treatment of morphiomania is due to 
the lack of knowledge of the psychology of the ad- 
dicts. One is lost without this knowledge. It is essen- 
tial, in order to treat these patients, to establish a deep 
friendship with them. It requires the co-operation 
of the patient in order to diagnose the symptoms and 
to achieve results. 
The Victim of Morphine 
The morphine addict is the victim as much of the 
intolerant attitude of society as well as of the poison- 
ous drug. Patients could be easily cured if the causes 
of morphiomania were better understood. They are 
obliged, however, to hide their infirmity until the last 
stages of intoxication, when their condition is almost 
beyond hope. It is difficult to understand this pop- 
ular prejudice against the morphine addict. It prob- 
ably should be attributed to ignorance and to the 
propaganda made against it, presenting it in the light 
of a social crime. The patient is forced either to 
dissemble or to ostracize himself. The world for 
him is peopled by beings different from him. He 
experiences only the harshest treatment and the cruel 
sneers and contempt of his fellow men, which literally 
pushes him to his ruin. THE IDOL 
79 
Even those patients who have adopted the habit 
through their own free will are punished in a way 
they do not deserve. All classes of addicts are looked 
upon as social offenders of the worst type, instead of 
as patients. There is no consideration shown them. 
It is a daily torture that is inflicted upon them, moral 
and physical. They are not only under society's in- 
dictment, but they have the daily agony of drugs. And 
yet no other patient is more deserving of our sym- 
pathy than the drug addict. 
The poorer classes especially are objects of pity. 
The drug poison is equally disastrous pathologically 
to all other classes. The possession of means, how- 
ever, goes a long way towards alleviating the suffer- 
ing of the afflicted. But the poor addict, who is 
obliged to work for his living, is indeed worthy of 
consideration, and every effort should be made to cure 
him. 
All the patients I have treated concur in their as- 
sertion that the most tragic and cruel moments of 
their infirmity is when they have to leave their beds 
before having slept at least twelve hours. Another 
source of suffering is when they realize that their 
condition has been detected by strangers. And they 
will all shudder at the anguish of their situation when 
their supply of poison has been exhausted, forcing 
them to the streets in search for more. They must 
undergo incredible humiliations, blackmail, exploita- 
tion of every kind at the hands of criminal, soulless 80 
THE IDOL 
dealers, and part with the money they need for their 
rent and for the necessities of life. Words cannot 
adequately describe the helplessness in which they 
are obliged to carry out these merciless and terrible 
transactions, in hidden places with subdued voices, 
trembling with the fear of the law, begging on their 
knees for the drug, more essential to their lives than 
food itself. And yet one reads in stupid and com- 
mercialized fiction, in magazine stories, and popular 
comment of the happiness and enjoyment derived 
from this vice. 
Pleasure and enjoyment? Yes, they do experience 
it when the hateful poison passes from the needle 
into the body. It is the pleasure of killing pain and 
physical torture. It consists of a few moments of 
relaxation and insensibility. It is an artificial state 
of coma which passes rapidly, followed then by an 
agony which day by day and year by year increases 
the misery of the patient. Added to this, is the loss 
of every vestige of will power which is one of the 
psychological effects of the poison. In this connec- 
tion a patient once remarked to me, "The disintegra- 
tion of the human elements is so great that even the 
stamina to commit suicide is denied to us." 
Continuous human suffering will easily make a 
renegade of any person. Drug addicts are so perse- 
cuted by all sorts of cruelties that it is small wonder 
they become criminals. They lead a life of helpless- 
ness in a world of cruelty and scorn. They are most THE IDOL 
81 
sensitive and appreciative of the smallest kindness 
and sympathy shown them. They are even eager to 
take refuge in a friendly bosom that will speak words 
of human understanding to them. They open their 
hearts instantly. And this is precisely the relation 
that the medical adviser must establish with the pa- 
tient from the very outset. 
The fear of night is another psychological feature 
of the morphiomaniac. They dread the unending 
hours of insomnia during which they reflect most 
keenly on their dire plight. The majority can not 
sleep until three hours after retiring. While healthy 
individuals sleep, the morphine victim lies awake in 
mental torture, draining his tragic misery to the last 
drop. 
The drug fiend shows some peculiar traits exter- 
nally that betray him to the expert. He has a tend- 
ency to wander as if he did not have any idea as to 
where he was going. His pale and greenish complex- 
ion denotes his persistent fatigue and disgust with 
life. The sharpened nose, the transparency of his 
ears, his drooping shoulders and lack of energy all 
betray his condition, especially in the advanced stages, 
when the drug addict is like a spectre of his former 
self. 
He remains motionless when sitting and stares at 
some object. His eyes soon close. He will make 
super-human efforts to open them, but to no avail. His 
The Spectre 82 
THE IDOL 
speech is lucid and brilliant at times but will suddenly 
become indistinct and hardly audible. He gradually 
becomes silent and remains motionless, with his glance 
fixed on one spot as though hypnotized. 
What is the true condition of the morphiomaniac 
in such moments? He is shut out from the outer 
world. He is internally awake and more sensitive 
than a normal being to his interior sensations. This 
is probably due to the effect of the drug on the liver 
and solar plexus. He has complete control over his 
periferic nerves, and this enables him to remain ab- 
solutely passive. 
In his outward appearance he is careless and indif- 
ferent to tidiness and cleanliness. His social and fi- 
nancial conditions have no effect on him. His vanity 
is entirely dormant. 
The Underworld of Intoxication 
Disease tends to separate people from each other. 
Charitable sentiment causes the healthy to visit the 
sick. But it is only momentarily. This is a biological 
law which is also found among animals. As soon as 
a man enters a pathologic state he is a different being 
because his functions are different. This is why mor- 
phiomania has given rise to a sort of underworld, 
perfectly independent and different from the normal 
world. The drug addict lives and moves within a 
sphere of abnormalities and ends by losing contact 
with what is real and normal. THE IDOL 
83 
One of my patients told me that morphine so 
changed his life that he could not understand how 
people could live without it. He also said: "I watch 
my little Pekinese dog sleeping and I wonder how he 
can get along without an injection. I look at you and 
other healthy men, only to become confused when I 
think of it, of life without morphine. It is my world 
-you call it the world of poison-but I cannot con- 
ceive of a world of any other sort." This is probably 
the state of mind of all morphine addicts. They mar- 
vel at us as we marvel at them. Their understanding 
between themselves is astonishing. They love each 
other. They understand each other. I have often 
seen women addicts of refinement, education and high 
station in life love uncultured and common addicts. 
All the artificial and social attributes of life disap- 
pear. Morphine has driven them into a world of 
their own with its own peculiar ethics. They live 
among us as an exotic species in wonder and fear. 
Science, ever watchful of the relief of human suf- 
ferings, has made great strides in the treatment of 
morphiomania in spite of this sombre picture. 
It is possible now to wrench many victims from 
the clutches of the poison. A rational treatment will 
bring them back and restore them to the normal life. 
I say "rational treatment," because I do not so regard 
any treatment which consists in shutting a patient up 
within four walls under constant vigilance and forc- 
ibly separating him from the drug. This would be 84 
THE IDOL 
making a martyr of him. A "rational treatment'' 
consists in having the patient give up the poison grad- 
ually with the least possible suffering and until he 
experiences a joy of normal life. When this is ac- 
complished he may well say that he has been reborn. 
The patient who has the good fortune to get cured 
of the drug habit returns to life with the unbounded 
spirit of happiness and feels that everything has been 
newly created for him. 
I have seen patients of advanced age regain this 
sensation of youth and optimism. They recall their 
past with horror, and Nature, in her wisdom, fulfills 
the law of compensation to the utmost. The differ- 
ent organs regain their normal functions without aid 
of drugs. Within a few months they are again work- 
ing to marvelous perfection. Chapter IV 
HEROIN 
Heroine is another derivative of opium, another 
daughter of the Idol which is even more deadly than 
morphine. Its development among the drug addicts 
increased during the last few years, more than other 
drugs and with more destructive power than mor- 
phine and opium. 
Socially, heroin is today a big problem; clinically, 
I do not think that there is a big difference between 
the intoxication produced by heroin, and that of mor- 
phine or opium. 
The heroin addict is absolutely the same as the 
user of opium or morphine, his mentality, his psy- 
chology and his intoxication does not show any char- 
acteristic symptom or stigma. 
The peculiar action of this drug is to destroy rap- 
idly and to push the addict into the dangerous and 
deep abyss, difficult to be cured. Its power is stronger 
than morphine and its victims die more rapidly than 
from other drugs. 
The cure of heroin addicts is of course more dif- 
ficult than that of other drug addicts. I always ad- 
vise those patients to give up heroin of their own 
free will and take morphine instead before beginning 
any treatment. 
85 86 
THE IDOL 
It is interesting to observe the increase nowadays 
in the number of the heroin addicts; the only reason 
can be found if we remember that the drug addict 
in his delirium for the poison always tries to increase 
the action of the drug, and consequently his feelings. 
I do not think it necessary to make a distinct sep- 
aration between morphine and heroin; each works in 
the same way, each belongs to the same group in med- 
icine and each presents about the same difficulties in 
the treatment. 
The drug addict affected by heroin uses his poison 
by injection. The strong power of the drug renders 
the doses smaller than those of other poisons. An 
addict who takes, for instance, seventy or eighty cen- 
tigrammes of heroin a day must be considered a de- 
generate and advanced drug addict. 
Among the cases that I have observed, I remember 
a patient who took a gramme and ten centigrammes 
a day of this drug, a quantity in excess to correspond 
to more than two grammes of morphine in considera- 
tion of the power of the drug. 
The simple heroin addict is not often found. In 
many cases the use of this drug starts after the pa- 
tient has lived a certain time using morphine or 
opium. It is rare to see the heroin addict initiated 
in a depraved life, by the use of heroin only. Fre- 
quently the patient is an old morphiomaniac who seeks 
new ways to gratify his vicious instincts. 
The duration of the heroin maniac's life is shorter THE IDOL 
87 
than that of a patient addicted to another drug. 
In three or four years heroin may destroy and kill 
with terrific power. 
In medicine heroin has not the value of morphine. 
Its use is only indicated in certain cases and rarely 
eases pain. 
According to official reports the use of heroin has 
increased only in America. In other countries, for 
instance, France, morphine is still preferred by users 
of opium derivatives. 
I shall make no further remarks about heroin as 
its effects are the same as those of morphine. 
After the chapter on morphiomania the description 
of heroin cannot present a new type of drug addiction. CHAPTER V 
COCAINE 
WE now enter an entirely new field. Cocaine 
produces an intoxication peculiarly its own. 
Its destructive action, symptoms, and clinical 
aspects are different. The psychological and physical 
conditions of the addict differ as much from those of 
the opium and morphine addict as those of an alco- 
holic drinker differ from a smoker of hasheesh. 
The popular belief is that all drug addicts are 
alike. This is a very common mistake. Of course 
the final result, the moral and physical destruction of 
the individual is identical. The use of morphine can 
be compared to a dangerous fall over a precipice and 
the use of cocaine to a slow descent into an abyss 
that can be halted at almost any time with little 
effort. 
Cocaine is the alkaloid of a plant named "Peruvian 
Coca" {Erytroxylum Coca) that grows in several 
South American countries, especially in Brazil, 
Bolivia, Argentina and Peru. This alkaloid is used 
in medicine as a local anesthetic for minor surgical 
operations. The doses vary from one to five centi- 
grammes. Larger quantities may cause disturbances 
dangerous to life. Confirmed addicts take incredibly 
large doses, as much as five grammes daily. 
88 THE IDOL 
89 
This drug has an enormous number of addicts. 
In South America not only is the drug taken pure 
as in other countries, but also the inhabitants chew 
the leaves of "Coca" as a daily stimulation. 
The Indians of Bolivia and Peru walk long dis- 
tances with only meager food and a large supply of 
"Coca" plants. 
It is the principal aid they have in their work and 
they are seen continually chewing the leaves. It is 
not a food as is often supposed. But its action on 
the mucous membranes of the stomach produces a 
slight anesthesia that numbs the feeling of hunger 
and thirst. It produces a slight nervous stimulus 
also. The Indians erroneously believe that it gives 
them energy when covering long distances. 
What effect the long use of this drug has on the 
system is not known. I have witnessed the most 
surprising things connected with it. Some Indians 
show marked signs of extreme malnutrition and 
symptoms of tuberculosis from its use. Others of 
the same tribe, also chewers of coca, are perfectly 
strong and healthy and capable of an incredible 
capacity for work and resistance to fatigue, beyond 
comparison to what a man of the white race could 
stand. I have met scores of Indians in Bolivia who 
were over eighty and one hundred years of age and 
who have chewed coca leaves since youth. In spite of 
the miserable life they lead under all sorts of hard- 
ships, these Indians attain that extremely old age in 90 
THE IDOL 
perfect health. I talked with a woman who had com- 
pleted her one hundred and sixteenth birthday after 
chewing coca leaves all her life. How can this be 
explained by science? Let us compare these natives 
to a modern athlete who, if he takes to drug ad- 
diction, finds himself within six months on his death 
bed. 
Cocaine, like morphine, attracts new addicts every 
day. The extremely nervous lay hands on any poison 
regardless of the consequences. Cocaine is in great 
favor. 
The number of its users is probably greater than 
the number of morphine addicts. It is easier to get 
and is also easier to take as it does not require the 
use of a syringe or needle. 
Morphiomania should be considered as a real 
disease or infirmity, whereas the cocaine habit can 
be treated only as a vice. It is taken in different 
ways: by chewing the leaves, by injection or by 
snuffing it through the nose. Those who inject it 
are really morphiomaniacs, as they usually take it 
mixed with morphine or heroin. 
One of my patients used to inject herself with 
morphine between the toes. Before doing so she 
would inject cocaine into her foot to deaden the pain. 
I often noticed that she would use the cocaine in 
her left foot and then inject the morphine into her 
right one. The majority take cocaine through the 
nose or mouth. They place the white crystallized THE IDOL 
91 
powder on the palm of the hand and sniff it strongly 
through the nose. Some others simply put the dose 
in their mouth until it is absorbed. The drug is 
always kept by addicts in fancy cases. Some of 
these cases are often made of gold and studded with 
diamonds. Cocaine is very much in vogue among 
the "demi mondaines" of the large cities, who claim 
for it special consolatory virtues for romantic ail- 
ments of the heart. 
The variety of forms in which cocaine is taken is 
amazing. An elderly lady, whom I treated, a person 
of means and distinction, would introduce the powder 
into her mouth and rub her gums until they bled. 
She seemed to experience great delight in doing so. 
When she felt the poison was nearly absorbed she 
would drink one or two glasses of champagne, and 
wash down the remaining powder. 
Another patient, a post office clerk, who suffered 
from impaired hearing and had often had his ears 
syringed, used to make a solution of cocaine and 
syringe his ear with it. 
The intoxication produced by cocaine is not so 
complicated as that of morphine. And the effects 
are much milder. In my opinion, it resembles the 
intoxication produced by alcohol. It may be lighter 
still than that produced by alcohol, because the cocaine 
addict is not an "addict from necessity." The mor- 
phiomaniac is subject to great pain and discomfort 
The Intoxication of Cocaine 92 
THE IDOL 
when the effects of the drug disappear, whereas the 
cocaine addict suffers no pain or disturbances what- 
soever except a slight nervous excitement. The 
morphiomaniac is a sick person before and after his 
dose of poison, whereas the cocaine addict is per- 
fectly normal when the effects of the drug are 
dispelled. Hardly any signs will show on the cocaine 
addict revealing his habit except the emaciated ap- 
pearance of all persons addicted to the use of drugs 
and during intoxication. He seems like a drunkard 
during the period of intoxication. The eyes are wide 
open, as in delirium, the face very pale, and the 
breathing frequent. The general aspect is that of an 
insane person. The mouth will often contract in 
spasms of the inferior maxilarry as in tetanus and 
epilepsy. 
The addict of the advanced stage cannot sleep and 
is subject to visions and delirium. He feels as if 
there are flies biting him and running over him. This 
is due probably to the action of the drug on the peri- 
pheric nervous system. He feels as if he were being 
pursued and is extremely fearful of being alone as a 
consequence. This delirium lasts about three hours 
after which he falls asleep for a period of about fifteen 
hours. These symptoms occur in the advanced stages 
of intoxication. 
Generally they are more moderate and confined 
to nervousness and semi-consciousness. THE IDOL 
93 
The Psychology of the Cocaine Addict 
The cocaine addict does not deserve the same 
sympathy and consideration that should be shown to 
a morphiomaniac. The morphiomaniac, once in the 
clutches of morphine, cannot live without it, whereas 
the cocaine fiend can drop the habit without suffering, 
except for a slight annoyance and discomfort. The 
cocaine addict is really a degenerate by nature if he 
does not discontinue its use. The sympathetic nature 
and truthfulness of the morphiomaniac is absent in 
the cocaine addict. My experience with the cocaine 
addict has been disappointing. He is inclined to lie 
and cheat and never acts in good faith with the doctor. 
He generally has other vices besides being a drug 
fiend. He is immoral sexually and, on the whole, 
hard to deal with. 
The cocaine fiend usually indulges at night-time in 
his libations. He will keep on absorbing the poison 
until he feels the effects coming. Then he stops. These 
addicts like to get intoxicated together and never 
alone. They frequently gather together and indulge 
in a veritable orgy. 
I may mention a very interesting form of cocaine 
addict for whom I have no scientific explanation to 
offer. Many of these addicts wrap themselves in 
towels or sheets impregnated with cologne water or 
strong perfume so that the drug will have a stronger 
effect. They then absorb the cocaine through the 94 
THE IDOL 
nostrils. The odor of the perfume and the drug 
throws them into a delirium. 
The treatment is much simpler for these addicts 
than for those addicted to the other poisons. The co- 
caine habit can be easily substituted. The elimination 
of the poison can be hastened by the use of alcohol 
and certain drugs. The morals of the patient must 
be uplifted as this is part of the treatment. 
This is practically all there is to this minor form 
of drug addiction called cocaine-mania. Chapter VI 
HASHEESH 
IN THE distant Orient, where the first spiral of 
opium smoke soared into the air, there grows 
another plant that produces a poisonous drug, as 
dangerous and harmful as the rest that compose the 
drug addiction family. The first smokers of hasheesh 
were not content with the juice of the poppy and set 
out to look for another narcotic that would set the 
muscles in vibration, and in the sunburned fields of 
Central and Western Asia they found the plant scien- 
tifically called Cannabis Indica or Cannabis Sativa, 
that produces hasheesh. 
Hasheesh is a narcotic drug that comes from the 
plant in the form of Rosin. The plant is a tropical 
one and though it grows in other countries it does not 
produce an adequate toxic. Egypt and Mexico also 
grow it, and in the latter country its use has extended 
considerably among the natives under the name of 
mariguana. Its intoxicating effect is very much 
appreciated in the Orient among the Turks and Egyp- 
tians, who describe it as Maslac and Mojuch respec- 
tively. It is also highly valued among the Indians of 
Indostan, where it has received the famous name of 
Hasheesh, which means weed or herb. The word 
hasheesh applies equally to the Rosin, the flower or 
the infusions of the leaves of the plant, to which other 
substances they are often added. 
95 96 
THE IDOL 
The intoxication of hasheesh is produced in three 
ways: by smoking, chewing and infusion. Its widest 
use is in cigarettes made with the flowers of the plant, 
or either pure or mixed with the other aromatic sub- 
stances or drugs such as opium, camphor, musk and 
cantharis. 
It is prepared for chewing purposes in tabloid form 
mixed with licorice or other sweet substances agree- 
able to the palate. The infusion is made with the 
leaves and flowers added to tea or coffee. The Arabs 
use a mixture of aromatic perfumes with great relish 
because of its narcotic properties. 
The customary use of hasheesh is in the form of 
cigarettes made with the rosin and tobacco mixed. Its 
effects are very different from those of opium. The 
habit does not take hold as easily as it does with opium. 
I believe that with hasheesh the "necessity" is not 
pronounced as it is with opium or morphine. The 
addict does not stiffer the profound disturbances if 
suddenly deprived of it, as in the case of other drugs 
named. The action of the narcotic and the sensations 
of the smoker are also different to those of opium. 
In order to understand them I shall quote a descrip- 
tion by one of the addicts: 
"On finishing my second cigarette I try to walk, 
and feel a tickling sensation in the feet and a sense 
of oppression in the head, that quickly vanishes. I 
feel as if my head were empty. Everything that I 
look at seems to change. The face of my friend has THE IDOL 
97 
the funniest aspect imaginable. I start laughing vio- 
lently and continue doing so for an hour or more with- 
out the least provocation. The most extravagant and 
absurd ideas pass through my mind with incredible 
rapidity. On the other hand, I am without the least 
pain. There is no present, no past or future in my 
life. My senses slowly begin to die out and fade, and 
a desire to sleep overcomes me. 
"On awakening I remember everything that has 
passed. My head is not drowsy, my tongue is not 
pasty as after opium or morphine, and a cup of tea 
or coffee is sufficient to make me feel the same as 
before smoking hasheesh. These sensations were my 
sensations during the first period of my addiction to 
the drug. Later on, when the dose became larger, 
other symptoms appeared, that I cannot describe ex- 
actly, as hallucinations and delirium would deprive 
me of consciousness, but I can say that the sensations 
are of an extraordinary intensity of pleasure. The 
slightest movement, however, would destroy the ex- 
tatic feeling. The eyelids would close to the effects 
of light. The queerest and strangest ideas would fill 
my thoughts, accompanied with violent fits of laugh- 
ing and uncontrollable loquaciousness, followed by 
an intense sensation of hunger. After this I would 
have a strong feeling of oppression in the head, a 
desire to move, to break everything within my reach 
until I finally lose consciousness. . . ." 
The continued use of hasheesh is more harmful 98 
THE IDOL 
than opium and the physical disturbances are espec- 
ially acute. According to a report by Dr. Nehemed 
Aly Bey, Director of the Moriston Asylum in Cairo, 
ninety-five per cent of the interned in that institution 
were smokers of hasheesh. This fact led the Gov- 
ernment to prohibit the cultivation of the plant in 
Egypt. The ravages of the drug are seen in Mexico, 
where often, without apparent cause, addicts are 
seized with the attack of mad frenzy, attacking and 
killing passersby. It is the mariguana that caused 
the seizure. 
Large doses of this drug sometimes produce a form 
of catalepsy, which causes complete suppression of 
consciousness and intelligence, local anesthesia in the 
arms and legs, after the period of nervous excitement. 
An Egyptian student, an old addict of hasheesh, 
had lived four years in France without smoking the 
drug. A friend one night invited him to smoke has- 
heesh and he indulged in a great number of cigarettes. 
He was seized with a furious attack that lasted more 
than an hour, at the end of which he fell into a state 
of catalepsy that lasted for three days, dying on the 
fourth day of heart failure. 
The action of hasheesh is mainly on the brain. The 
symptoms will vary according to the temperament and 
character of the individual. The effects are much 
stronger than those of opium. Sometimes, though 
rarely, hasheesh has a profoundly depressing effect. 
Hallucinations are often the results of its use. Opium THE IDOL 
99 
produces a serene and quieting effect on the individ- 
ual, while hasheesh causes violent manifestations. A 
very curious effect of hasheesh is the loss of all 
notions of space and time. This does not occur with 
the use of opium. 
The hallucinations affect the eyesight as well as 
the hearing, but rarely the sense of smell. Fits of 
weeping alternate with extreme mirth and loquacity. 
The patient often believes he hears melodies or else 
sings himself. He often thinks he is riding on horse- 
back, driving or flying. I have seen some cases end- 
ing in persecutory mania, which causes the addict to 
fear persons around him. In such cases the addicts 
would dislike children, hide under tables, behind 
chairs, and crouch with fear in a corner. The effects 
of the intoxication of hasheesh are just opposite to 
those of opium. The social dangers of the use of 
hasheesh are very grave for the addicts generally 
wind up as lunatics. The addict of other drugs re- 
turns to a normal state, when cured, or at the worst 
with some complications of the heart or kidneys. The 
hasheesh addict ends with brain trouble and is liable 
to madness even after being cured. 
Fortunately, the use of this drug is not so common 
as opium and morphine. In some countries like Mex- 
ico, the "mariguana" is used to a great extent due to 
the great abundance of the plant, which makes it hard 
to combat the evil. 100 
THE IDOL 
I believe that the "mariguana" of Mexico produces 
effects of stronger convulsive force than the plant of 
Egypt, while the Asiatic variety attacks the lungs, 
producing congestions not perceived with the "mari- 
guana." These symptoms of the lungs and hem- 
orrhages have been frequently noted, when the fresh 
rosin or leaves of the plant are used. 
One can easily understand the terrible effects of 
hasheesh. The addict who has not used the drug too 
long can be cured after two or three months of treat- 
ment. If he has been using it for a long time he is 
a patient afflicted by an affection of the brain. 
I have applied successfully in simple cases the 
method of the instant suppression of the drug, replac- 
ing it by opium or its derivatives during the first 
days when the patient is subject to intense nervous- 
ness and suffers from lack of sleep. The treatment 
involves the exercise of a great deal of prudence be- 
cause the addict is exposed to the temptation of using 
opium or any other drug that is available. 
Hasheesh does not present a problem so important 
as morphine or opium. Chapter VII 
CAUSES OF DRUG ADDICTION 
world is going through a veritable crisis, 
as if groping in the dark. There is a tremen- 
dous upheaval going on, a ferment that will 
require years to quell. A great change is being ef- 
fected in human life, and the great war was only 
an episode of that change. Some great movement 
similar to those that history records is in the making. 
The force that started it in 1914 is still at work and 
whatever its ultimate result, everything will have 
changed. The evolution is gradual and slow, but even 
now we can aver that men are not the same as they 
were before the war. 
Its influence on humanity has made itself felt in 
different ways, and to the scientific mind the biological 
problem towers above all alse. Thousands and thou- 
sands of men have been tortured with appalling suf- 
fering, and have been irradiating "waves of pain" 
that have been absorbed by the minds of other men, 
and we may ask if the continuous irradiation of these 
"waves of pain" have not acted upon our physique 
and upon our physical condition, transforming them 
in some way or other. 
If we consider things that were logical and not ex- 
travagant to our forefathers and compare them to 
101 102 
THE IDOL 
the modern conception of things, what a change we 
shall find! We are living, therefore, in an age of 
rapid transformation, an age replete with passions 
and crime, where lust is rampant and virtue and 
honor a mere mockery. Our nerves and souls no 
longer conform to the healthy simplicity of yore, but 
seek feverishly the exotic mysteries of what is new 
and extravagant. It is thus that we have changed 
from the indulgence in alcohol to the more deadly one 
of morphine and its auxiliaries. 
This is the age of dope. The new vice is in its 
infancy, and is already menacing mankind, with an 
overwhelming impetus. The field for its propagation 
has been so favorable because one-half of the people 
of today are in a state of neurosis, and the nerves 
require the deeper stimulus of active poison. Alcohol 
was not satisfactory. What are the causes of this 
phenomenon ? 
Modern Life 
The whole trend of modern life seems to have been 
especially designed to shatter the nervous system. 
The noise, the constant bustle, the ceaseless activity, 
must wear out the muscles. It cannot be denied that 
science tries to keep pace in this mad race toward 
annihilation and that the methods of hygiene and 
physical culture do their utmost to stem the tide, but 
new diseases and new forms of destruction are ever 
springing up and retarding progress. THE IDOL 
103 
Man today suffers from neurosis, because the stress 
of civilization is too much for him. Steel and ma- 
chinery are his greatest enemies. An endless motion 
that conquers his resistance fills the atmosphere, the 
very air that we breathe, the incessant noise, tax the 
nerves to their utmost, wearing them down slowly 
like the drop of water that perforates the rock. The 
struggle for life and even the mammoth buildings, 
with their perspectives, act on the tired brain by their 
size and effrontery. 
Improper food is another of the causes. Modern 
commercialization, the adulteration of natural prod- 
ucts, chemical substances, canned foods, all contribute 
to the intoxication of the system and weaken the 
nerves. We live in a hurry. Life is being shortened 
and we are obliged to cover distance in a short time. 
This acceleration of life can be borne only at the ex- 
pense of the human engine. The greater the energy 
we expend, the greater the wear, and as we do not give 
the body and mind sufficient rest, we lose the vigor 
originating in the nerve centers. Hence the modern 
neurosis. 
Of course people suffered from neurosis in bygone 
days, but it took a different form. The weakened of 
today present a morbid condition from which our 
ancestors were free. Stimulants are necessary to re- 
lieve the depressing conditions and only the poisonous 
drugs offer such relief. Drug addiction is a conse- 
quence of modern life. It is not that the Orient in- 104 
THE IDOL 
troduced it to our more highly civilized races. On 
the contrary, we went to those distant countries in 
quest of it. Our over-wrought nerves needed some- 
thing to enliven our tired brains. We could not afford 
to give ourselves rest, sleep, fresh air and proper food. 
So we resorted to dope to give us those artificial sen- 
sations that replace the exhilarating buoyancy we 
ought to feel should we lead a moral life. 
What has the future in store for us? Will drug 
addiction prevail today, affecting those of tomorrow, 
born under such influences as we have just described? 
Will education and hygiene be able to cope with heri- 
tage and surroundings ? 
The Craze of Pleasure 
The men and women of today begin to enjoy life 
at an early age, and the majority at twenty, have 
imbibed deeply into the passions and physical pleas- 
ures of life. The human being is biologically far 
from being invincible in body or in mind at the pres- 
ent time. After ten years of this intense race in quest 
of amusement, the modern man or woman is already 
worn out and at the early age of thirty the symptoms 
of premature decay appear. Woman, who is much 
less resistant than man, feels this initial destruction 
much sooner, and her nervous system gives way with 
greater rapidity. There is no moral control to this 
mad whirlwind. Temptation in all its magnetic at- 
tractions are within the easy reach of all. Literature, THE IDOL 
105 
the theatre, the dance craze, meet us everywhere we 
go and what is perhaps worse, we have developed 
a certain attitude or state of mind, in which we keep 
up certain forms and appearances of restraint and 
are satisfied with the apparent propriety of our con- 
duct. This feverish and silly abuse of pleasure leads 
to depression and indifference to the finer things of 
life and to premature old age and diseases of the 
nervous system and mind. Our will gradually weak- 
ens and we fall a prey to neurosis with its consequent 
craving for new sensations, pleasures and new stim- 
ulants, which will give us the illusion of force and 
resistance to indulge in them. We then fall an easy 
prey to the insidious and perfidious propaganda, have 
recourse to drugs and finally become addicts. The 
smallest pretext will hurry us into the world of poi- 
son. Our minds and our bodies are prepared for it 
and a slight pain, or a moral flurry is sufficient to 
make us fall into the dark and hellish pit of drug 
addiction. Thus the lack of moral restraint and the 
craze for amusement are other causes of the evil. 
Prohibition 
It is very important to study the influence of pro- 
hibition upon drug addiction. 
In France and England, for example, the morphine 
addict has within reach all the alcohol he wishes. 
Still, there is no indication showing that the number 106 
THE IDOL 
of dope fiends is on the decline in those countries. A 
great deal of confusion exists in regard to the alcohol 
craze and drug addiction. 
The morphine addict does not care for alcohol, or 
rather is not interested in it in a fundamental way. 
He cares for nothing outside of morphine. In my 
practice and study of dope fiends I have devoted 
special attention to prohibition, not with the reference 
to the problem in itself, but in relation to the possi- 
bility of alcohol as a help in the treatment of mor- 
phiomania. I reached the following conclusions: 
The morphine addict never gets intoxicated by al- 
cohol. When under the influence of morphine he 
drinks liquor not because he is addicted to its use, but 
as a minor and unessential habit, or at most to induce 
and intensify the sleep of morphine. He can very 
well do without it, for alcohol will not replace the 
effects of the drug. It will not cause the pain to dis- 
appear. On the contrary, it will aggravate it, as I 
have often had the occasion to notice. I have, there- 
fore, reached the conclusion that alcohol does not 
exert the least influence on morphine addicts. 
It is a different case with cocaine addicts. It ap- 
parently has some influence upon them. In the treat- 
ment of those patients alcohol will materially help, 
especially when the addicts suffer from a lack of sleep 
or when it is dangerous to prescribe any other rem- 
edy. I have in such cases administered strong doses 
of alcoholic drinks with good results. This does not THE IDOL 
107 
mean that the craving for the drug may be caused by 
the lack of alcohol, not by any means. 
Of course the limit of vice is hard to draw. Its 
forms are innumerable. There are some cases of 
addiction to alcohol and drugs at the same time. 
I had a patient addicted to cocaine who would put 
the powder on her tongue and take a glass of Char- 
treuse or Benedictine. She would keep the liquor in 
her mouth eight or ten minutes and then slowly swal- 
low it. Another patient who chewed opium would 
put large pills of it in his mouth and swallow them 
with strong drinks of cognac. After repeating this 
several times, he would be completely intoxicated and 
strangely enough, would present all the symptoms of 
alcohol intoxication and none of opium. But these 
individuals are not really drug addicts, they are sim- 
ply degenerates of the lowest type. Prohibition, there- 
fore, does not encourage drug addiction. 
Religion 
The profession of religious principles is undoubt- 
edly one of the strongest barriers checking the devel- 
opment of drug addiction. I have often witnessed 
cases of young men and women, well placed in society 
and intellectual, who have boasted of atheism, fatal- 
ism, modernism and cubism. These young men and 
women have spoken in favor of indulgence in the 
drug habit on the principles that the only ethical rea- 108 
THE IDOL 
son for life was to live in the senses. I once addressed 
a young lady of this type who boasted of being a mor- 
phine addict. She described the symptoms and effects 
of the drug with such detail that it was remarkable, 
almost Oriental. The whole picture was so absurd 
and fantastic that it seemed to me that she would 
probably faint at the sight of the hypodermic needle, 
not to mention the injection of it. She was a snob 
and thought it was up-to-date to pretend knowledge 
of which she knew nothing. If this charming young 
person had been brought up on sound religious prin- 
ciples and in fear of God, she would have kept aloof 
from the subject and temptation. 
Curiosity and snobbishness will often lead young 
people to try an injection or smoke opium, just to see 
what it is like. 
Moral and religious principles are the greatest 
barriers to drug addiction. 
Ignorance 
Drug addiction until recently was an unknown sub- 
ject to the majority of people. Most people consider 
it a social crime instead of a disease. This is a great 
mistake, which should be corrected by all means, as 
it would greatly help in the campaign against the 
propagation of the evil. 
Everyone knows more or less what contagious dis- 
eases are and the methods used to combat them. 
Everyone knows something about tuberculosis and THE IDOL 
109 
typhoid fever, but few know what drug addiction is, 
and this is one of the reasons for the spread of the 
drug habit. 
Morphine is often spoken of in the home as a relief 
for the slightest and most insignificant pain. If the 
danger of its use were known people would avoid 
taking it except in extreme cases. Even members of 
the medical profession are apt to be lenient and give 
in to the entreaties of patients, where a much firmer 
stand against the use of the drug would be justified. 
On the other hand, the attitude of the public 
towards the morphine addict is one of hard and cruel 
intolerance, and in great contrast to the drinker of 
alcohol, who is fondly petted and taken care of. This 
is only ignorance. The public should know that the 
morphine addict is a patient suffering the terrible and 
painful effects of a deadly poison and should be pitied 
and helped. 
The ignorance regarding the use of morphine and 
other poisonous drugs is one of the causes of drug 
addiction. If young people knew the horrors of it 
they would avoid it as they would infectious diseases. 
Young people should be taught and shown its dangers 
in the same way they are taught and shown the dan- 
gers of syphilis and tuberculosis. 
Drug addiction should be dragged out of the at- 
mosphere of mystery, and literary humbug with 
which it is surrounded and glorified. Chapter VIII 
THE DOPE VENDORS 
I*HE drug addict will always try to get the drug. 
The difficulties he will have to overcome may 
be great or small, but in the end he will obtain 
what he wants. The mind of a dope fiend works but 
in one direction-in obtaining the drug. 
All the restrictive laws, all the penalties and all the 
police forces of the world will not prevent his look- 
ing for it. He will resort to the most daring and 
ingenious means to succeed. There must be drug 
vendors in order to supply the drugs. We shall con- 
cern ourselves in this chapter with the traffic of the 
dope. 
No matter where one goes, the transaction between 
the addict and the drug merchant is always the same. 
The merchant is always prepared with the goods, 
which he never carries on his person. Those who are 
peddling the drug on the streets, with the drug hidden 
in their pockets, are the raff, the poachers, that bear 
the same relation to the seller of drugs as the street 
car pickpockets do to the bucketshop swindlers of 
great cities. They are the last link in the endless 
chain of the dope traffic. 
It is a great mistake to think the seller of drugs 
looks for the addict. It is the addict that goes after 
110 THE IDOL 
111 
him. The dealer has the poison hidden in strategic 
places where dope fiends know they will find it. The 
ease with which the addict gets the drug is the prob- 
lem which the eradicating of the evil encounters. It 
can be found almost anywhere. The dope sellers are 
everywhere, although hard to detect. 
I was walking the streets of London with a patient 
of mine. The city seemed asleep under the fog. After 
leaving the throngs of Picadilly we walked towards 
Leicester Square in the heart of the theatre district. 
From one of the silent corners of the ancient plaza 
we watched the ebb and flow of the theatre-goers, of 
cabs and taxicabs, on the busy side of the square. 
The dampness of the night made my patient tremble. 
He was sensitive to the slightest impression due to 
the process of demorphinization he was undergoing 
at the time. We decided to wait a few moments and 
then take a cab. Suddenly, my patient bolted from 
his apathetic state and became nervous and alert, in- 
tently watching a car that stopped very near to us. 
He told me to observe the interior of the car. We 
could see the silhouette of a woman inside the car 
sitting motionless in the dark enclosure. A few mo- 
ments later another car arrived and a man stepped 
out with a package in his hands. He went to the first 
car, saluted the lady, spoke a few words and went 
away. My patient then hurried to the car and bowed 
to the mysterious lady. There was a faint cry on his 
approach, then an expression of surprise and finally 112 
THE IDOL 
a friendly shaking of hands. I went over to them. 
My patient said, "Mis X, allow me to introduce you 
to my friend, Dr. Cantala." Miss X was the charm- 
ing star of the Olympic Theatre in Paris. My patient 
expressed surprise over the fact of her buying opium 
in London. Miss X knew of me quite well as a spec- 
ialist of drug addiction. On asking her the details of 
her malady, she told me that she was obliged to come 
to London for the opium because there was a short- 
age in those days in Paris due to the police activities, 
which made the big dealers and their agents very 
cautious. She was told how to get it in London, even 
to the exact hour and place for the appointment. 
Somebody would walk up to her car and pass-words 
would be exchanged. Then she would get the pack- 
age. No records of any kind would be kept. With 
a precision and punctuality which is not to be found 
in legitimate business, an invisible force from a for- 
eign country would arrange to supply the poison to 
one of its addicts. What sort of an organization is 
at the bottom of all this? Who are the wonderful 
executives at the head of it? How does it work with 
such machine-like perfection, with such clockwork 
perfection? Nobody seems to be at the head of it. 
The spirit of Idolatry sets the organization in motion. 
While returning from the Argentine Republic to 
Europe some years ago, I was asked to attend a 
woman passenger, a cocaine addict. It appeared that 
she had lost her bag containing the poison or it had THE IDOL 
113 
been stolen from her. As we were four days from 
Rio de Janeiro, I had to give her various remedies to 
ease her condition. When we entered the beautiful 
bay of Rio de Janeiro on a fine morning, I thought 
my patient would be one of the first to leave the ship, 
but to my astonishment she stayed on board. In the 
evening the steamer weighed anchor and continued 
the journey. I found my patient in the best of spirits, 
happy and full of life. I was really perplexed. I 
found, on approaching her, traces of cocaine under 
her nose and in her eyes. How did she get it without 
going on shore? I asked her to tell me but she would 
not. Finally, she told me all about it, amid peals of 
laughter and making fun of me because of my per- 
plexity. A friend brought her the beautiful bunch 
of flowers she had on the cabin table and a doll, as 
mascot for the trip. She unscrewed the doll's head 
and it was full of cocaine. 
The trade of dope is carried on by purveyors and 
the sellers. It is the sellers who deal directly with 
the addicts, alloting small quantities of the drug to 
their different clients. These sellers are always among 
the addicts, and are familiar with their physical and 
moral traits, being able to detect them immediately 
wherever they may be. They can tell at a glance 
whether a person is a real addict or a spy posing as 
an addict. They have a thousand and one ways of 
foiling the agents of the law. They hardly ever carry 
the drug with them, thus avoiding the danger of being 114 
THE IDOL 
caught in the very act of selling. They resort to the 
most extraordinary and fantastic means of hiding the 
drug upon their person and informing the addict 
where it is. I will mention some interesting cases. 
Around the gay places of Montmartre, a disabled 
veteran of the World War would be frequently seen 
walking along, limping on his wooden leg. The "croix 
de guerre" and other war medals could be seen pinned 
upon his breast. He was a favorite in the neighbor- 
hood and everybody greeted and helped him. The 
students and the artists made it a point to honor him 
and invite him to all their parties. He would relate 
an endless story of heroic and sublime deeds with be- 
coming modesty. Verdun, the Marne, the Somme. 
He knew all these names, had been on the fields where 
his blood had flowed for his immortal France. 
His narratives were really inspiring and moved his 
listeners to tears. All the students would yell at the 
top of their voices, "Honor the hero!" They would 
then sing the latest songs of the Latin Quarter. 
But one day something unusual happened. The 
hero was arrested by the police. The police officials 
had discovered the truth. The crippled hero was not 
a hero. He was not even a soldier and had never 
been at the front. He happened to be just a criminal 
offender, a drug dealer who was found to have the 
hollow of his wooden leg filled to the brim with small 
packages of cocaine and morphine. THE IDOL 
115 
He had lost one of his legs leaping from a moving 
train after having been caught by the police officer 
picking the pocket of a sleeping passenger. 
One night in Paris, in company with a colleague 
of mine, I attended a man suffering from a bullet 
wound that had shattered his leg. The patient turned 
out to be an addict to morphine. He was a poor indi- 
vidual out of a job and without funds, who had de- 
voted himself to finding out the hiding places where 
drug dealers concealed their merchandise. He knew 
that they never carried the drug with them but placed 
it where the addict could get at it. He espied one 
of them in a water spout, which in French houses 
come all the way from the roof to the street level, 
draining the water or the snow. One of the sellers 
would keep close watch on the place, except when he 
would occasionally make a short trip to the adjoin- 
ing cabarets and cafes to meet clients who would be 
waiting for him. Our petty thief would take advan- 
tage of these short intervals and steal the treasure. 
He did this several times and was riddled with bullets 
when attempting to repeat his criminal trade. 
I am sure that not only in Paris, but in London, 
New York and other cities these dope merchants 
transact their business much in the same way. It is 
almost impossible to find them out. It would be neces- 
sary to have a body of dope fiends attached to the 
police force to find them out if it were possible to 
get dope fiends to aid. The addicts are, however, too 116 
THE IDOL 
strongly bound together to lend their help to the 
police. 
A great deal of exploitation of addicts is being done 
in this illicit and criminal commerce in drugs. The 
merchandise is adulterated and sold to the poorer 
classes at a cheap price. Cocaine is substituted by 
boric acid, morphine by milk sugar, opium by choco- 
late grease and clay, and hasheesh by plain tea col- 
ored by some process. Dope fiends who frequent 
places of amusement are often supplied with these 
worthless substitutes which are not detected at the 
moment. The psychological element has such an in- 
fluence on the ecstatic disposition of drug users that 
they are unaware of being cheated. The music, the 
noise, the excitement, all facilitate the deception prac- 
ticed upon them. Dope fiends, in such places, will 
ask for the drug. When it comes to the purchase of 
the drug, all sorts of precautions will be taken, secret 
negotiations will be made with the managers, and the 
addict will be informed that some client might be 
willing to part with his supply at a certain premium. 
The craving for the drug will become stronger as the 
addict is forced to wait and because of the influence 
of the poisoned atmosphere of the place. The mirac- 
ulous powder finally arrives. The enraptured victim 
is frenzied with joy and pays the price. He will fever- 
ishly begin to snuff it through the nose in small quan- 
tities. If these should fail to give the desired effects 
he, nevertheless, feels something. It is the cham- THE IDOL 
117 
pagne, the liquors, the dancing. He believes, how- 
ever, that it is the drug. He will get up the next 
morning with the nose irritated and inflamed, due to 
the boric acid he had been snuffing the night before 
in large quantities. 
The street sellers of dope are not an important fac- 
tor in this great question of drug addiction. They 
are only the minor agents of other distributors who 
are agents of the purveyors. The street peddler gets 
in contact with a great number of common people. 
He does not get his merchandise from the manufac- 
turer. 
Here is where the evil in the manufacture of the 
drug lies. The production of alkaloids should be 
strictly limited to the requirements of medical use 
only. The unlicensed clandestine manufacturers 
should be the objects of the strictest and most unre- 
lenting prosecution at the hands of the law. 
It would be interesting to know how the enormous 
quantity of dope is transported from one place to 
another without being detected. Thousands and 
thousands of pounds, worth millions of dollars, find 
their way into the great centers of the world secretly 
and safely. It cannot be done by smugglers or sail- 
ors. They receive too much publicity. And what are 
the few pounds they bring in, compared to the enor- 
mous quantity consumed? Who does the gigantic 
financing that is involved in this precious merchan- 
dise, more valuable than gold or precious stones? 118 
THE IDOL 
There must be some powerful capitalistic organiza- 
tion at the head of the drug market, or trade could 
hardly exist. Addicts will speak of a fabulous finan- 
cial concern devoted to the production and distribu- 
tion of dope. They do not know who they are, and 
undoubtedly their imagination is affected by the poi- 
son which makes them exaggerate their statements. 
But there must be some truth to their assertions. 
A patient once showed me a package of cocaine he 
had bought. The drug was packed in large envelopes, 
each containing a printed leaflet with all the instruc- 
tions to be followed. Immoral pictures of men and 
women were included and the pleasure of drug addic- 
tion described. 
The drug habit was represented as being harmless 
and good for the health. I have seen tubes of mor- 
phine tabloids different from those used in the medical 
profession. The dose of each tabloid is five centi- 
grammes, whereas the legitimate ones are from two 
to two and one-half centigrammes each. The pres- 
entation of these clandestine drugs was such as to 
warrant the assumption that they must have been pre- 
pared and put up in important factories devoted to 
the alleged commerce in drugs. 
All persons who study or are interested in the 
problem of drug addiction know the variety of forms 
in which drugs are being sold by the merchants and 
manufacturers of dope. 
They are often sold in delicate looking cigarettes 
that contain heroin, or in beautiful candy boxes, in THE IDOL 
119 
which are bonbons, each containing the hidden dose 
of cocaine. The drugs are also put up in tubes sim- 
ilar to those containing cream for the face. It is 
logical to infer the manufacture of those products is 
being done on an enormous scale somewhere and dis- 
tribution made to all parts of the world. Where is 
this center of production? Where is it located? How 
is the drug distributed? Nobody knows precisely, but 
certain signs and details point to Germany as the 
country where the manufacturing center is secretly 
located, and to France as the center of distribution. 
Every effort should be made to find out who are 
the propagandists of this criminal outrage of the 
world. The law should then fall mercilessly on them. 
It is not the unfortunate drug fiend who should be 
punished. 
He is only a patient and invalid, who should be 
treated and cured and dealt with kindness and sym- 
pathy. But the merchants of dope have no excuse 
except commercial lust and the greed for money. The 
evil and the harm they are doing in the world is be- 
yond imagination. They are destroying humanity in 
a manner worse than war and all the infectious dis- 
eases put together. 
No punishment is too harsh for them. Chapter IX 
SOME MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
1WILL attempt in this chapter to outline some 
personal views with regard to the rational treat- 
ment of morphiomania. I will confine myself 
as much as possible to a simple exposition of the sub- 
ject in non-technical language and endeavor to place 
my conclusions within the reach of my readers. 
The treatment of morphiomania is the important 
theme, the medical and the social riddle of the present 
moment in practically every country in the world. It 
is the general belief with many addicts and the public 
that morphiomania is incurable. In fact, this is not 
the case. I assert that it is curable. I assert that there 
is a cure for it providing that science and the patient 
work together to give battle to the enemy. 
We must banish the idea at the outset that a mor- 
phine addict is a degenerate and an outcast. This is 
the foundation of my treatment, and if not accepted 
as such, then failure is almost certain, even before 
the treatment of the patient has begun. Once our 
minds are settled upon this essential point, let us 
proceed. 
The first thing for the doctor to do is to win the 
entire confidence of the patient and encourage the 
latter to rely on him as a friend, full of human sym- 
120 THE IDOL 
121 
pathy for his suffering and affliction. The patient 
must be convinced of the necessity of telling the truth 
and trusting his doctor without reserve. It must be 
borne in mind that the patient is not to blame for with- 
holding the real facts. Some of the methods of treat- 
ment in use involve such hardships and suffering on 
the patient's part, that he is terrified beyond words. 
To shut a patient in a room or deprive him forcibly 
and suddenly of the drug is as cruel and painful as 
to perform a surgical operation on him without chloro- 
form. This method makes a patient reluctant to sub- 
mit to such a treatment as can be readily understood. 
This treatment has not only failed to cure an addict, 
but has produced numberless incurables because the 
patient who has once gone through it will never again, 
during his life time, approach the doctor. He will 
avoid by every means any such treatment. 
These errors have made morphiomaniacs sceptical 
and pessimistic, depriving them of any power that 
still remains to them. 
This is a fact to be regretted, as the drug addict is 
an optimist at heart, who never loses the hope of get- 
ting cured, a circumstance which should be made the 
most of. Psychology and suggestion should go hand 
in hand to obtain the exact knowledge of the character 
of the patient and to gently and firmly induce him 
to confide in the doctor to the utmost. Success, in 
other words, can only be had by the patient and the 
doctor arriving at a friendly understanding. 122 
THE IDOL 
A patient who has been in a sanatorium three or 
four months, deprived of the drug, cannot be said to 
have been cured. It is only an intermission in his 
plight, an obstacle in his general run of life, which 
he will soon brush aside. To be cured he must feel 
as he did before acquiring the habit. To eliminate 
every vestige of the poison from the system and from 
the mind. 
I have seen many patients who have received as 
many as seven treatments at different periods, and 
who are still addicts. In different hospitals and sanita- 
riums I have seen patients appear every year for treat- 
ment, for a cure, driven to do so by their families. 
They would commence the treatment without the 
slightest faith, resigning themselves to two months 
of torture, probably to please their relatives, and at 
the end fall back to the drug. This universal expe- 
rience is what has caused the popular belief that 
addicts are incurable and has made addicts despair 
of the possibility of getting rid of the habit. 
What is the reason for their failure? There are 
several of them. The principal one is perhaps the 
lack of a psychological knowledge of the patient and 
the application of a treatment which though medi- 
cally appropriate is antagonistic to the moral state 
of the patient. The brain is the organ most seriously 
affected in morphiomania. A weak heart, degeneracy 
of the liver or inflammation of the kidneys, are easy 
to cure, but a brain affected by poison is a problem THE IDOL 
123 
that will make any treatment fail if not handled as it 
should be. 
The treatment of morphiomania includes the treat- 
ment of heroin and opium addicts. Cocaine addic- 
tion, as already stated, is in a class by itself and offers 
no difficulties to speak of. It is with morphiomania, 
therefore, that we are concerned. It is the giant 
Goliath of drug addiction that the world is challenged 
to combat. 
Starting with the fact that a morphiomaniac is an 
invalid, we shall therefore arrive at the following con- 
clusion: that a morphiomaniac can not be considered 
as cured, until he recovers his normal state and gets 
to hate morphine. 
Before analyzing the treatment of morphiomania, 
we will consider first the disturbances that a patient 
is subject to when the drug is withheld. They differ 
from the intoxication symptoms, and may be de- 
scribed as the "disintoxication symptoms," or "ab- 
stinence symptoms." They appear the very moment 
that the vital dose of poison is decreased and continue 
to develop gradually, in proportion to the curtailment 
of the drug. 
The first sign is that of a general lassitude, ac- 
companied with yawning and sneezing, especially if 
the patient is exposed to the sun. There is an irri- 
tation and itching of the eyes with abundant lacri- 
mation and secretions of the nasal organs. Coughing 
is frequent and the voice hoarse and uneven. The 
pupils are dilated, the pulse weak and irregular with 124 
THE IDOL 
chills and perspirations along the spinal column. The 
legs and arms are cold, the knees and thighs pain, 
an oppression in the kidneys and a painful sensation 
predominates the body. The patient is restless and 
a distinctive feature is a peculiar contraction of the 
legs. 
Another curious symptom is a nervous blinking of 
the eyes. Added to these are numerous disorders of 
the digestive organs, namely, colic, neuralgia of the 
liver, pain in the stomach and on the right side of the 
abdomen similar to that experienced in appendicitis 
and nausea. The patient experiences great weakness 
while walking and moving about. He can onlv go 
short distances and is frequently obliged to rest. The 
condition may be described as a '"morphine ataxia." 
In serious cases paralysis of the heart sets in and 
often produces death, especially in those cases where 
the drug is suddenly suppressed. 
The mental symptoms, besides restlessness, include 
an inordinate desire for the drug, which reaches a 
stage of veritable delirium. He raves for it, implor- 
ingly, convulsively, and rolls on his bed shouting: 
"Morphine! Morphine!" Women are subject to at- 
tacks of hysteria similar to epilepsy and hallucinations 
that last from fifteen to thirty days. The patient in 
this acute stage is in danger of collapse, and is often 
subject to suicidal impulses. 
What are the real causes of these symptoms? Un- 
fortunately we do not know exactly as yet the true 
action of morphine accumulated in the system and THE IDOL 
125 
the changes the poison undergoes before being elim- 
inated. Science has not yet revealed these facts 
clearly and probably because they have not received 
the attention they deserve. I will attempt, from my 
own experience, to draw my own conclusions. 
As morphine is a powerful stimulant it must, logi- 
cally, react on the system on being suppressed. Upon 
entering the system the drug is partly absorbed like 
any food or medicine, and partly eliminated through 
the digestive organs, the kidneys and the saliva. The 
residue accumulates gradually and constantly in the 
body in the way that "fat" does in people who eat 
to excess. In some patients this accumulated poison 
remains in the system as morphine. In others, it 
transforms into "morphine oxide" due to chemical 
action similar to that of hemoglobine in the blood 
which must be transformed into oxyhemoglobine be- 
fore being absorbed. Thus the substance enters and 
pervades the whole system from the most complicated 
tissue to the most rudimentary cell in the same way 
that iron or albumen does. The disturbances which 
follow the process of disintoxication must undoubt- 
edly be produced by the action of "morphine oxide" 
on all the cells of the system. The antidote of this 
substance must be morphine itself. In other words, 
as there is morphine in the system, in certain quan- 
tities, oxiganation cannot start its effects, and the 
sufferings of the patient on being deprived of the drug 
are due to the accumulation of the drug in the sys- 126 
THE IDOL 
tem that acts upon all the organs as morphine and 
as morphinoxide. 
To the suffering caused to the patient by the sup- 
pression of the drug must be added the reappearance 
of pain such as neuralgia, that the patient may have 
had before taking morphine, as is often the case. 
The duration of this distressing period of disintox- 
ication has no limit. Sometimes for months the pa- 
tient will continue to complain and groan as at the 
start and I have witnessed cases of collapse to reap- 
pear suddenly two months after the treatment. 
To sum up, I may say that though the difficulties 
of treatment are really great, and in spite of the many 
discouraging failures that have led many to consider 
morphiomania incurable, I venture to assert that it 
is curable, provided the patient is not made to suffer 
by the treatment. Chapter X 
TREATMENT* 
Methods of Cure 
I SHALL refer to some of the methods heretofore 
followed for the cure of morphiomania. I shall 
not describe them all as they are too numerous 
and do not differ much from each other. The prin- 
ciple in all of them is the same and I shall therefore 
describe only those which constitute distinct types or 
schools in this branch of medicine. The following 
are the principal methods: 
"Sudden Suppression" Method - The treatment 
consists in depriving the patient suddenly of the drug 
without substituting for it any other medicament. The 
patient, accustomed to his usual dose (whether this 
be large or small), is completely deprived of the drug 
without any previous preparation, and wholly re- 
moved from the environment of morphine, needles 
and syringes. The method can be applied only in 
sanatoriums where the patient may be constanly 
*In accordance with the purpose I have had in mind in writing 
this book and in keeping within its general scope, I have precisely 
avoided such technical details as would fall within the domain 
of the medical student. My object has been to treat the problem 
of drug addiction in general and practical terms, within easy 
understanding of the general public, though in such a way that 
the student will find in it much matter for thought and observa- 
tion. As will be observed, I have omitted particulars about 
doses and other indications which can be considered as dangerous 
information to drug addicts and patients. 
127 128 
THE IDOL 
watched or in wealthy families able to afford nurses 
or other caretakers to keep a constant vigil. 
The cruelty of this method may be appreciated 
when it is stated that any patient who has ever under- 
gone such treatment is a bitter enemy of all physi- 
cians, hospitals and sanatoriums, and would rather 
die than ever submit again to any cure. His enmity 
is easy to comprehend. The patient is suddenly drawn 
out of the intoxication to which he has become accus- 
tomed and is thrust into an abstention that is to him 
a veritable hell, from which he cannot escape until 
he finds the drug again. 
The principle underlying this method consists in 
brusquely cutting off the drug and simultaneously 
seeking to establish a rapid or active depuration or 
"disintoxication" through the medium of the intes- 
tines, kidneys or stomach. From the very first day 
that the patient finds himself under this regime he 
begins to suffer tortures and undergoes serious dis- 
turbances. The organism begins to manifest a series 
of complication^ of most distressful character. The 
patient, kept in confinement and under constant vigi- 
lance, becomes like a caged beast tormented by fire. 
The first effects experienced by the patient being 
subjected to such treatment are a general perspiration 
and pains in the legs and bones. The patient also 
immediately experiences an increasing irritability and 
unrest. From the very first days the patient suffers 
keenly, but the suffering reaches its acutest stage 
when the purgatives are administered. He then THE IDOL 
129 
either gets into a state of delirium, pacing desperately 
to and fro, weeping and often attacking, or else be- 
comes like a poor helpless animal, twisting and turn- 
ing in convulsions and pain. He may remain in this 
state for days and even months without showing the 
slightest sign of forgetting morphine. The adminis- 
tration of purgatives simply aggravates this terrible 
situation, which though accelerating the elimination 
of the drug, frequently causes complications such as 
paralysis or collapse of the heart manifested by a 
lowering of the pulse and a general breaking down, 
even to the point of unconsciousness. This compli- 
cation is very frequent and places in jeopardy the 
very life of the patient, necessitating an immediate 
dose of morphine. Other symptoms are neuralgia of 
the stomach and liver, with pains that reach the 
abdomen and thorax. Vomiting also occurs, with 
copious hemorrhages and serious disturbance of the 
digestive organs due to the action of morphine on 
the pneumogastric nerve. Enteritis occurs through- 
out with cramps, usually on the right side of the ab- 
domen, often leading the physician to suspect appen- 
dicitis. One can very well imagine what the general 
aspect of such a patient is. The poison, it is true, is 
quickly and entirely driven from the system, but 
morally the patient is a wreck. Morphine is always 
present in his thoughts. What wouldn't he give for 
an injection! 
This treatment may be called an antitoxic treat- 
ment that eliminates the poison from the body but 130 
THE IDOL 
not from the mind, where the patient continues to be 
a morphine addict without morphine because it is not 
within his reach. The recovery is rapid, the appetite 
returns, and the only uncomfortable trace left is a 
hyperchloridia or acidity of the stomach due to the 
secretion of the gastric glands, which were kept dor- 
mant by the morphine's effect of restricting the flow 
of hyperchlorid acid. 
Sleep is a very important problem with addicts and 
difficult to induce even after treatment, when drugs 
are often again resorted to. In this treatment the 
condition of the patient is aggravated owing to the 
profound moral stress to which it subjects the patient. 
After two or three months, the patient seems to 
be getting on well. During the day his mind is oc- 
cupied with different things, talking to friends and 
others. The minute the patient is alone, however, he 
becomes depressed, mournful and melancholy, especi- 
ally so at night. He is still a morphiomaniac morally. 
"Gradual Suppression" Method-As the name im- 
plies, this treatment consists of the gradual diminu- 
tion of the dose, until its complete suppression is 
attained. This would appear to be the rational 
method of treatment if drug addiction were only a 
habit. But this is more than a habit, it is a mass of 
complications, of disturbances, organic and moral, 
that defy the logic of this treatment. 
The dose is gradually diminished from two to five 
centigrammes or even more, per day. The patient, 
during the first days, experiences no unusual symp- THE IDOL 
131 
toms, except that he resents the reduction in the dose 
and distrusts the authenticity of the drug. He is 
given the same number of injections to which he is 
accustomed, gradually reduced in quantity, except at 
night, when they are of full strength in order to in- 
sure sleep. 
As stated, so long as the drug is within the "de 
luxe" or luxury dose, there is no disturbance, but as 
soon as the "vital" dose is diminished, complications 
begin. The first symptom is the characteristic moral 
depression and the impatience with which the patient 
awaits the next injection, after which he reacts and 
rests. Some specialists, at this stage, hasten the sup- 
pression of the drug, substituting for one of the drug 
injections with an injection of water or any other 
innocuous substance. I may say, however, that I 
have never seen any good results come from this pro- 
cedure. Trouble begins with reduction of the dose. 
The patient suffers from sleeplessness, nervousness 
and pain in spite of veronal and bromides given in 
strong doses. These symptoms become acute when 
the dose has been reduced one-fourth and are similar 
to those that appear in the first method of treatment 
above described. Collapse and paralysis of the heart 
are not so frequent, though I have noted them when 
one-fourth of the total dose had been suppressed. 
The general symptoms, though identical from now 
on to those of the other treatment, are not pronounced, 
especially the patient's debility. The recovery is slow, 
and generally takes two months before it is complete, 132 
THE IDOL 
physically. Morally, however, the patient is in the 
same state, as under the first method of treatment. 
I personally prefer this latter form of treatment. 
Accidents are less frequent and the moral condition 
of the patient is more favorable. But on the other 
hand, the patient is not cured by it. His organism is 
rid of the poison, but mentally he is yet under the 
influence of morphine. As soon as he is again free, 
he goes back to it. 
"Mixed Methods" - There are several of them. 
They consist principally in substituting for the mor- 
phine injections its administration by mouth. These 
methods are deceptive to the patient and the doctor 
alike, because both are drawn into the vicious circle 
of intoxicating and disintoxicating the patient at the 
same time. 
The first man who studied drug addiction was Dr. 
Friedler, of Dresden, in 1874. He originated this 
mixed treatment, replacing morphine. A wave of 
morphiomania swept France in 1870-1874 and the 
Friedler treatment of administration of opium by 
mouth became popular. 
This method has the advantage of not provoking 
psychological disturbances and not affecting the gen- 
eral condition of the patient. The intoxication is 
maintained, though in another form, by swallowing 
the drug instead of injecting it. There comes a time 
when the injections are totally omitted, but on the 
other hand the system is intoxicated with opium. In 
other words, the morphiomaniac has been converted THE IDOL 
133 
into an opium addict. It might be argued that the 
cure of opium addiction is easier than that of mor- 
phine. The result, however, is far from being satis- 
factory. 
The details of the treatment vary. As a rule the 
morphine injections are substituted by an equal num- 
ber of doses of opium extract, administered by the 
mouth, which doses are gradually increased as the 
injections of morphine are suppressed. The patient 
under this treatment is subject, at this stage, to ner- 
vous disorders from the absence of injections, and 
to paralysis of the digestive organs from the direct 
action of opium on these organs. Pains and disturb- 
ances begin immediately when the opium dose has 
decreased. 
After two weeks, at the utmost, when the relapsing 
opium is totally suppressed, the patient is treated 
symptomatically with strong doses of bromide com- 
pounded with veronal, sulfonal and cannabis indian, 
to which is often added antipirine. These drugs seem 
to alleviate somewhat the general restlessness, but 
their effects, as a whole, are not satisfactory, apart 
from the objectionable fact that they are also habit- 
forming drugs. All patients in this period of absti- 
nence from morphine are apt to acquire secondary 
habits with other drugs. I have seen them become 
addicts of salicilate and bicarbonate of soda, and they 
take naturally to the derivatives of opium. The sub- 
stitution of codeine for morphine in this treatment is 
of small value, in my opinion. I have employed it in 134 
THE IDOL 
very high doses and it has answered very poorly. Its 
effects were disappointing and did not compare with 
veronal. 
The "Suggestion" Method-This treatment was in 
use some years ago, but has now been abandoned. 
It consists of hypnotizing the addict to eliminate the 
habit under the hypnotism. I have seen this treat- 
ment applied a great number of times, but never with 
success. It may perhaps be of some use in isolated 
cases, when the hypnotizer can live with the patient 
and have him constantly under his mental influence 
and control. Not improbably, some good can be ac- 
complished in this way, but complete cure is out of 
the question; and this notwithstanding that a mor- 
phiomaniac is in every sense the most docile and sus- 
ceptible of patients to mental suggestions. He is not 
so, however, when it comes to dropping the use of 
drugs. 
The patient is asked to stop the use of the drug 
for two or three days in order that the mental power 
may act on his brain, free from morphine. It is an 
impossibility for an addict to abstain from the drug 
that long of his own free will. It has often been tried 
with alcohol and tobacco fiends, but without result. 
Considering these failures, it is no wonder that hyp- 
notism has been given up as futile in dealing with 
the tremendous grip of morphine. 
Other Methods-At the present time science is 
making the most strenuous efforts to arrive at an THE IDOL 
135 
efficient treatment of morphiomania. Experiments 
are being conducted on different principles. And any 
progress made is being added to what already has 
proven valuable. 
I may mention, the treatment is based on the use 
of hyosciamine or scopolamine in injections. This 
drug has many advocates at present. Personally I 
am bound to confess that the results obtained with it 
in my practice have not been very gratifying. 
In the first place, the need of administering it hypo- 
dermically constitutes a great disadvantage, as it 
helps to maintain the needlemania of the patient. On 
the other hand, it produces great nervous disturbances 
in the form of hallucinations and delirium. In cases 
where the drug is well tolerated by the patient it must 
be applied in small doses every three or four hours. 
During the active treatment the patient is subject to 
a relative want or need of drugs, but when its use is 
discontinued, the pains of demorphinization return, 
undoing whatever good had been at first accom- 
plished. Of all the treatments described, however, 
this is, relatively speaking, the best, because it is the 
one that causes less suffering to the patient. 
Tranfusion of the blood has also been tried, and 
though not a treatment in itself, it helps in some cases. 
Electricity and radium are now being tried, but ex- 
periments with these are still in their initial stage. 136 
THE IDOL 
My Treatment 
Before beginning the description of my own method 
of treatment, I shall first set down the fundamental 
principles on which it is based. 
The morphine addict lives in a world different 
from that of other men, and it is impossible to forc- 
ibly take him out of it. Medical treatment should 
not aim at removing the patient from the environ- 
ment of intoxication until the patient leaves it of his 
own accord. . ( 
Experience has shown that it is impracticable to 
separate an addict from his drug. It is therefore 
necessary to make him gradually forget the drug. 
Clinically, this apparently cannot be done, but if it be 
considered that the failure of every attempt to de- 
morphinize an addict is due to the physical pain im- 
posed on him by suppression of the drug, it stands to 
reason that it is this physical pain that must be com- 
batted principally. 
In other words, if we can eliminate morphine from 
the system without pain to the addict, then it may 
be easy enough to cure him. 
To make this possible, I prescribe the use of cer- 
tain drugs in certain methods, which I shall presently 
describe and by which the patient gradually throws 
off the poison without pain, rendering his seclusion in 
a hospital practically unnecessary. In saying that the 
addict will refrain from morphine without pain, I 
mean that there will be the absence of physical dis- THE IDOL 
137 
turbances. The mental ecstacies and artificial energy 
to which the addict has become accustomed and which 
morphine produces will, of course, disappear. 
There are some preliminary points which should 
be explained before discussing my treatment. 
Season for the Cure-I prefer to begin treatment 
in the Spring or Summer, because of the patient's 
sensitiveness to cold during the first three weeks after 
he discontinues the use of morphine. Moreover, the 
patient during his recovery is like a new born child, 
extremely susceptible to certain illnesses such as pneu- 
monia and enteritis; and the improvement in health 
is so rapid, once morphine is eliminated, that good 
weather should be taken advantage of. 
Place of Cure-I do not consider it indispensable 
to place the morphine addict in a sanatorium or hos- 
pital. (Isolation has its drawbacks as well as its 
advantages. Of course, it is very desirable to have 
direct control of the patient, but, on the other hand, 
the moral effect on the patient of seeing himself com- 
mitted to a sanatorium or hospital is not good.) 
Patients-There are two classes of addicts, namely, 
those who want to get cured, and those who prefer 
to continue in their addiction and must be subjected 
to treatment against their will. The majority belong 
to the first class and addicts of the other class are 
very rare. 
Most morphine addicts, during the first two or 
three years of their vice, treat the matter of getting 
cured as something they can and will attend to later 138 
THE IDOL 
on. In the meantime, they honestly try to decrease 
or suppress the drug through their own efforts. Find- 
ing it impossible they begin to consider treatment. 
In the fourth year, sensing ruin and disaster, they 
consult a doctor. This is the favorable moment for 
his cure. All the circumstances are going to help and 
the patient, anxious to get cured, will co-operate with 
all energy at his command, provided the treatment 
does not subject him to physical torture. 
There are patients who deserve and should receive 
every mark of sympathy. The other type, the recal- 
citrants, are not only morphine addicts but also degen- 
erates or otherwise mentally deranged. 
There are cases where treatment can not be applied 
and the patient must be left to his addiction. This is 
so in various chronic diseases, especially in far ad- 
vanced cases of tuberculosis or cancer, where the sup- 
pression of morphine is torture to those addicts. We 
shall, therefore, as a subject for treatment, consider 
only the morphine addict who is free from any com- 
plication of bodily or mental disease. 
Sex - My personal view is that the difficulty of 
treatment varies according to sex, and that it is easier 
to cure women than men. Women, during all phases 
of addiction, show greater stamina and courage than 
men and take the treatment with greater faith and 
optimism. Men require stronger doses of the drug, 
not because their constitution is stronger, but because 
they are morally more impaired than their fair co- THE IDOL 
139 
sufferers and need, therefore, a higher co-efficient of 
intoxication. 
At the beginning of treatment, I always visit 
women patients once a day, and later on, when the 
morphine injections are stopped, twice a day. Men 
have to be visited at least twice a day at the beginning 
and require moral aid, particularly at night. 
Causes of Intoxication-The first thing to do, at 
the beginning of the treatment, is to inquire into the 
cause that drove the patient to drug addiction. If it 
was because of illness, it is easier to cure than if he 
took to the habit because of grief or affliction. I also 
attach a great importance to the environment in which 
the patient lives. It is very difficult to cure two mor- 
phine addicts living together. A constant watch must 
be kept over them unless they are subject to hospital 
rules. If the same patients are separated, it is not 
necessary to watch or restrain them in the treatment. 
Previous Treatments-Previous treatments are a 
great asset. I have always found it easier to cure 
those who have already been treated. They know the 
difficulties that must be overcome, and when they 
realize that no suffering is entailed, they do their best 
and co-operate enthusiastically in the task. 
Degree of Intoxication - The difficulties of the 
treatment are, of course, in proportion to the extent 
of the intoxication. An addict in the first or second 
period has greater chances of recovery than one al- 
ready in the third period, or period of destruction, 
when the treatment is hardly productive of practical 140 
THE IDOL 
results. In this pitiful third period the patient, when 
deprived of morphine, lapses into such a state that 
it is almost charitable to let him continue with the 
drug. Fortunately addicts in this incurable stage are 
very few. 
The First Step in the Treatment-One of the first 
things to do before commencing treatment is to study 
the moral condition of the patient and satisfy your- 
self as to whether he has a sincere desire to get cured. 
This is very important, because many addicts go to a 
doctor intending to deceive him, and with the sole 
purpose of getting a supply of the drug, as they some- 
times encounter great difficulties in procuring it. Once 
I am convinced of the patient's earnestness, I submit 
him to a "will test," to which end I ask him to make 
the following sacrifice: 
He is to decrease of his own accord the morphine 
dose at every injection during five or six days, with- 
out, however, going under the limit of the de luxe or 
luxury dose. This apparently small effort is never- 
theless a gigantic achievement for the addict. If he 
is successful, I then measure the patient's will accord- 
ing to the quantity of morphine he has diminished 
during the test. I then divide the "de luxe" or luxury 
dose in equal parts. If the total dose, for example, 
is sixty centigrammes a day, I divide twenty centi- 
grammes (de luxe dose) into ten parts so as to gauge 
exactly what his voluntary effort has been. If the 
test has been of five days' duration and in that time 
the patient has diminished his dose by six centi- THE IDOL 
141 
grammes then his will power is equivalent to "three." 
We then have the necessary means of determining 
the precise moral state of the patient with this scale 
and measure. 
I then make the patient acquainted with this fact, 
showing him the importance of truthfulness in all our 
dealings, pointing out how any false statement will 
hamper any treatment based on such statement and 
how failure may result. 
The Treatment - The patient has almost reached 
the "Vital" dose period after the test. This reduction 
has served the purpose of measuring his will power 
and of impressing upon him the importance of con- 
tinuing the reduction of the dose. I endeavor to per- 
suade him that it is a painless treatment, and then 
proceed to prescribe the other drugs to avoid and 
prevent any physical suffering. This is the crucial 
point, and the few drugs I shall describe briefly are 
the factors which decide the battle with morphine in 
our favor. 
I use three drugs together, with which to combat 
the distressing pains of demorphinization, namely: 
valerianate of ammonia, curare, strophantin or spar- 
tein. The first anti-spasmodic and sedative, acting 
on the central and periferic nervous system. Its 
powerful action has proved successful in the treat- 
ment of delirium tremens, chorea and tetanus. Its 
use in disintoxications of all sorts is easy to explain 
when we consider its great sedative action. The mo- 
ment morphine is suppressed, we lift a heavy slab 142 
THE IDOL 
that has been weighing on the nervous system, set- 
ting up a violent reaction that produces the profound 
disturbances already described. It is necessary, there- 
fore, to substitute for that weight another to regulate 
this reaction and permit a gradual lifting of the pres- 
sure of the morphine, to which the system has been 
accustomed, by the administration of another drug 
similar in action but not in effect. This is exclusively 
accomplished by the valerianate of ammonia. 
The other remedy, "Curare," is used to combat the 
muscular symptoms, especially those in the arms and 
legs, the spasmodic contraction, pains, etc., that 
show the havoc played by the drug on the muscular 
and nervous system. "Curare," however, is a danger- 
ous drug and its application should be under great 
care. It is the juice of the plant known as "stryenos", 
used by the Indians of South America to poison their 
arrows in time of war. It grows principally in 
the basin of the great Amazon River. It is 
a very active poison and a small wound from an arrow 
poisoned by it will kill a man or animal within four 
or five hours. It has not been heretofore employed 
medically and is used principally in laboratories as 
a testing substance to produce artificial paralysis in 
animals. It has been used in tetanus and hydrophobia 
with some success. 
Curare has a specific action on the motor nerves 
of the muscles. Large doses will produce death 
through paralysis of the respiratory muscles and 
through the excess of carbonic acid in the blood THE IDOL 
143 
caused by diminished breathing. This special action 
on the motor system makes it useful in the process 
of demorphinization. It can be taken by mouth, but 
is dangerous in hypodermic injections, and can be 
administered without danger as it is rapidly elim- 
inated. 
Caution is necessary in its use, as it is not manu- 
factured of standard strength and varies according 
to the manufacturer's method of production. It is 
advisable, therefore, to test its strength on dogs or 
rabbits before giving it to the patients. The drug, 
though dangerous, has no serious consequences if used 
with this precaution. 
The other two remedies, strophantin and sparteine, 
are used as aids in the treatment of morphine addic- 
tion, to tonify the heart when endangered by discon- 
tinuance of morphine. They really should be classified 
as supplementary remedies to administer for cardia- 
cal symptoms that may manifest themselves. I gen- 
erally prefer strophantin to sparteine, because of its 
action on the tissues of the heart and its diuretic prop- 
erties. In these conveniently prepared remedies we 
have the means of combating pain in the demorphini- 
zation of patients. The treatment commences as 
follows: 
Let us assume that the patient has been taking four 
injections of morphine a day, one at ten in the morn- 
ing, another at two p. m., the third at six p. m. and 
the fourth at eleven p. m. 144 
THE IDOL 
I substitute for the morning injection of morphine 
a strong dose of the potion and delay giving it as 
much as possible, say one or two hours, until the 
patient begins to feel the craving for morphine. Im- 
mediately after taking the potion, the patient feels a 
sensation similar to that produced by the injection of 
morphine. 
The nervousness disappears and a general lassitude 
follows as with morphine. The first psychological 
symptom appears at the same time, in the form of 
that optimism and faith that the patient manifests 
during the treatment. After five or six days of this 
method I suppress the second injection of the drug, 
substituting for it a corresponding dose of the potion. 
After three or four days more I endeavor to entirely 
suppress the two injections, so that by the tenth day 
of treatment, the patient should have only two in- 
jections, one at six in the afternoon and another at 
eleven o'clock at night. 
The patient is now being injected with morphine 
in doses far below the "vital dose," and the first symp- 
toms of demorphinization appear. These symptoms 
are a profuse perspiration and frequent diarrhea, 
produced by the nervous shock to elimination of mor- 
phine from the system. I try to allay these symptoms 
if they are too pronounced. I prefer, however, to let 
the organism do its work, in spite of the patient's dis- 
comfort, if the symptoms are not too severe. 
By this time I am giving the patient two morphine 
injections and as many doses of the potion as the THE IDOL 
145 
number of injections suppressed. The strength of 
the patient must be watched constantly, and on no 
account must he be allowed to experience depression 
nor lose any of the courage and faith with which he 
began the treatment. He will surely miss the morn- 
ing injection of morphine at this stage, not so much 
on account of the action of the drug, but as a psy- 
chological phenomenon due to the injection mania. 
Perspiration and elimination will distress him and his 
morale should be kept up with constant encourage- 
ment. He should be made to realize that he is suf- 
fering no physical pain and that the slight disturb- 
ances he feels should be willingly tolerated by him, as 
his very life is at stake, and that a small effort of the 
will is all that is necessary on his part to win. 
The appetite of the patient is often very good in 
the morning, and he is encouraged to eat heartily at 
breakfast and to indulge in a glass of Port or Malaga 
wine. He is made to rise early and walk in the open 
as much as he can. He is admonished not to go 
near the places where he was in the habit of pro- 
curing the drug. If his appetite is not good at this 
stage of the treatment it is a bad sign. It is because 
the elimination of the morphine was not properly 
started. This stage of the treatment can be justly 
described as that of the equilibrium of disintoxica- 
tion. On the one hand pain is allayed by means of 
the potion, a relative quantity of morphine acting on 
the system, while on the other hand the elimination 
of the poison through perspiration and the intestines 146 
THE IDOL 
sets in. The problem consists in the maintaining of 
this equilibrium that is to one the keeping down of 
the craving for the drug, the continued decrease in 
the morphine dose and regulation of the intestinal dis- 
turbances. To do this the dose of the injection at 
six o'clock in the afternoon is decreased and a small 
dose of the potion is given by mouth at the same hour. 
Both of the injections are omitted after the fourth 
day. The patient by now is only getting one injection 
of morphine and three doses of the potion every 
twenty-four hours. I take the three doses of the 
potion at this stage and divide them into equal parts, 
so as to give the patient a dose every hour, from 
the hour of rising in the morning until his retiring 
at night. 
Only during the first two days is there any hard- 
ship at this time. On the third day the patient feels 
he is getting better. He still has the "needlemania," 
or craving for the injections, as is evidenced by his 
intense pleasure in the only morphine injection he 
now gets, the one at night time. 
This mania persists notwithstanding the patient 
may have passed the day without pain, with only 
slight fatigue and with but slight intestinal trouble. 
The appetite continues to improve, though not as 
greatly as it will improve later on. 
The Crucial Period of the Treatment-By this time 
the critical phase of the treatment is reacted on, the 
proper handling of which ultimate success depends. 
The patient is getting only one morphine injection at THE IDOL 
147 
night, and a potion every one or two hours. The in- 
testinal disorders are becoming aggravated and will 
require treatment so as to obviate their depressing- 
effect on the patient. Bismuth may be resorted to, 
but in no case opiates as a patient is in a most favor- 
able condition to the contracting of a new drug habit. 
The patient should avoid all mental or moral stresses 
until his cure is complete, since they tend to undo 
what has been accomplished up to now. 
At this stage of the treatment I adopt one or the 
other of the two following courses: If there be any 
weakness in the patient's morale, I gradually sup- 
press the one remaining dose of morphine, diminish- 
ing it by two centigrammes a day. If the patient is 
cheerful and happy, I suppress it entirely after the 
second day, encouraging him with the assurance that 
his self-denial in abstaining from the last dose will 
be repaid by his absolute cure. 
Most patients accede readily to this final appeal 
and are anxious to bid their last farewell to the 
poison. 
The patient, from now, must not be left alone. He 
needs the doctor's moral support, and the potion must 
be continued, as a guarantee against any suffering. 
The first three nights the doctor must sleep in the 
same room with the patient and show him that he 
has the hypodermic syringe and the morphine ready 
to be administered if the symptoms should warrant it. 
The greatest obstacle now is sleeplessness. In the 
first days of his regained normal life, the patient will 148 
THE IDOL 
sleep only two or three hours. He will lie awake, 
quiet, musing on his past life of drug addiction. All 
through the day and night, hourly, the potion must 
be administered. The symptom which will princi- 
pally indicate if the treatment has been entirely suc- 
cessful is increased appetite, which becomes ravenous. 
The patient is hungry continuously, and wants to eat 
frequently. I am in favor of letting him gratify his 
appetite and of giving him all he wants to eat as 
often as he demands it. There is no danger in this. 
The ability to fall asleep will come suddenly. The 
patient will all at once sleep for seven or eight hours, 
having slept only two or three hours during the pre- 
vious night. This is the last physical and moral im- 
petus the ex-addict receives towards his complete 
cure. If at the end of the four days following com- 
plete suppression of morphine the patient sleeps, there 
is assurance that the patient is definitely saved. 
The potion may now be withheld without difficulty, 
as the patient will stop it gradually of his own ac- 
cord, without difficulty, and sometimes forgets all 
about it. He is now a normal person again. The 
change in his spirit or state of mind is so marked, 
that he can be easily persuaded to discontinue the 
potion as unnecessary to his comfort. 
The intoxication of morphine is interesting only 
from the experimental point of view. Clinically it offers 
no interesting medical symptoms. In morphine addicts, THE IDOL 
149 
free from other complications, the kidneys and intes- 
tines function perfectly, once the poison has been elim- 
inated, and fifteen days after the last injection the 
system is free from any traces of the drug, capable 
of producing signs of intoxication. The elimination 
is, however, not complete, until about a month after 
the last injection. Usually, not until then can the 
patient's condition be considered "negative". 
Recovery-After no other illness can it be as truly 
said of a patient that he has been "born anew," as 
after recovery accompanied by such a degree of joy. 
The first week after the poison has left the system, 
the buoyancy and optimism of the subject are really 
remarkable. Improvement takes place daily. The 
eyes acquire new brilliancy and life. Weight increases 
so rapidly that I have often seen gains of from ten 
to twelve pounds per week. The whole system gives 
evidence of vital exuberance, following the functional 
regeneration of all the organs. Notwithstand- 
ing this general improvement in health, the patient 
remains in a dangerous condition of susceptibility to 
other diseases, particularly of the lungs, and must 
be carefully guarded. 
The moral recovery is always slow in spite of the 
cheerfulness of the patient. Traces and signs of the 
deadly poison still are apt to reappear, and at least 
two or three months are required before the com- 
plete cure is effected. The patient should be kept 150 
THE IDOL 
away, during that time, from his former haunts and 
even the clothes he wore during his addiction should 
be destroyed, for the most insignificant detail may 
bring back memories that will incite his old habit. 
During the recovery of patients I have often adopted 
the measure of bringing them in the presence of ad- 
dicts in advanced stages of intoxication, so as to 
impress the patients with the terrifying effects of the 
poison. They recede from the scene in horror and 
in hatred of the drug. 
It is also wise to encourage the patient to keep him- 
self amused and to do some bodily work. I do not 
recommend outdoor life in the country, because the 
opportunities to be alone are there so numerous, and 
the patient, when alone, is prone to dwell upon his 
habit. Gymnastic exercise can hardly be recom- 
mended, as it is likely to be overdone, and in any 
case must be taken with great moderation. 
Difficulties Encountered-In some cases the will 
power of patients is at such low ebb, that it is essen- 
tial to watch them very closely from the very start. 
They must be treated in the same way as the recalcit- 
rant and obstinate patients, and should be dealt with 
gently, but firmly, exhorting them to observe the rules 
of the treatment. 
In some patients' disorders symptoms occur which 
may obstruct the course of the treatment, such as 
disturbances of the digestive organs with accompany- 
ing loss of appetite, malnutrition and slow building THE IDOL 
151 
up. This is one of the most important concerns of 
the practitioner. Hyperchloridia and enteritis are 
very frequent and should be treated, suspending the 
treatment for morphine addiction in the meanwhile. 
Proper nutrition is necessary for successful treat- 
ment of the drug habit and, moreover, strengthens the 
morale of the patient. 
Lack of sleep is another difficulty, one that serious- 
ly threatens the ultimate success of the treatment. 
Sometimes, after suppression of the last injection of 
morphine, in spite of the satisfactory condition of the 
patient, he will find it difficult to sleep. I have seen 
patients that could sleep no more than two hours daily 
after three weeks' treatment. 
Every effort should, however, be made not to give 
hypnotic drugs to the patient. He should never be 
left alone. He should be talked to and cheered, and 
only in extreme cases should any sleep producing 
drugs be resorted to. 
Conclusions-How does a patient feel after having 
been cured of morphine addiction? It would be per- 
haps an exaggeration to say that he is the same as 
he was before his addiction to the drug. It is, never- 
theless, remarkable how nearly normal he finds him- 
self again, even after a long period of an intoxication, 
so deadly and destructive. All the functions get back 
to their normal state and only in some organs, especi- 
ally in the lungs and kidneys, are there any traces of 
deterioration or debility. The patient should not lead 152 
THE IDOL 
a strenuous life for some time. It is a strange fact 
that symptoms of nephritis are likely to appear a year 
or two after the patient has been cured of the drug 
habit. But in general the patient can be said to find 
himself again in sound health after the treatment. Chapter XI 
THE MYSTERIES OF THE DRUG EVIL 
OT^HE drug evil is fraught with mystery. In the 
1 clinic, science finds itself before a problem full 
of puzzling and obscure angles, impossible to 
explain. Socially, addicts may be considered as exotic 
monsters governed, to all appearances, by a different 
brain to that of normal beings. 
The psychology of the addict offers an immense 
field of study, full of undiscovered secrets. To the 
philosophical practitioner the study of these mysteries 
is a source of constant surprise, and the psychic and 
organic phenomena that are observed will determine 
the scientific principle that will put the addict in his 
proper place, within the domain of Pathology. 
Drugs in themselves have only been experimented 
with as curative agents, not as the cause of one of 
the greatest evils of humanity. Of what does the 
hidden power of morphine and opium consist, thus 
to imprison the world, destroying thousands of human 
beings? The medical student, the philosopher and 
the sociologist must answer the question when the 
ravages of the drug addiction shall have spurred suf- 
fering humanity to the scientific research of the evil. 
153 154 
THE IDOL 
The Immunes 
As diseases develop more favorably in some indi- 
viduals than in others, so it is with drugs. Some 
people are absolutely immune to the poison danger 
as a profound hate and repulsion to any intoxicating 
drug. In hospitals such cases are often met with. 
Some patients, after having been two or three days 
under the action of drugs, will show a marked incli- 
nation and propensity for them. Others, even under 
acute pain will reject with repulsion the employment 
of poisonous drugs. It often happens that a small 
dose of morphine, given to a patient the day after a 
surgical operation has been performed on him, will so 
upset him, that the drug instead of calming will add 
to the patient's discomfort. I have observed such 
doses, especially in women undergoing abdominal 
operations, upon whom morphia would have such a 
depressing moral effect that it was necessary to sup- 
press the drug and let them suffer. On the other 
hand, patients who during two or three days took 
only a few opium pills were so susceptible to the drug 
that a small dose was enough to make addicts of them 
in time. What is the cause that regulates this predis- 
position and immunity? Nothing positive is known 
about this. It has been said that individuals with 
strong muscular development are immune to drug 
addiction, but my own observation will not warrant 
this assertion. 
A physical culture teacher, who had been a profes- 
sional boxer, had to have two teeth extracted because THE IDOL 
155 
of maxiliar inflammation. To allay the pain he was 
given two centigrammes of morphine a day, for a 
couple of days. This proved sufficient. He started 
by taking an injection every day and before two weeks 
had elapsed, he had become a veritable addict. This 
patient who, when I met him, was already in the third 
period of intoxication had been an athlete of great 
muscular development and was mentally fit. Still he 
easily fell a prey to morphiomania and it proved a 
very hard case to get rid of the drug habit. 
Another case is that of a circus performer, who 
fractured his leg during the acrobatic movement. 
D'uring his stay in the hospital he was given four 
injections of morphia and during the rest of the 
treatment no drug was given. After two months, 
coincident with the end of his cure, he took violently 
to the drug addiction. 
Against these two perfect types of muscular indi- 
viduals, I can quote cases of immunity among the 
weakly constructed. 
In the home of a morphiomaniac lived her maid, 
a young girl, delicate looking, who suffered from 
anaemia, due to malaria. Encouraged and induced 
by her mistress, she took several injections of mor- 
phine, thus perilously courting the danger of becom- 
ing an addict. But she would say that the drug used 
to cause her such an extraordinary malaise that she 
simply hated the sight of it and could not understand 
how other people become addicts. 156 
THE IDOL 
I believe these cases suffice to show that muscular 
development of the body has nothing to do with im- 
munity to drugs. I rather believe in a "physical im- 
munity," the outcome of a special constitution of 
brain that will not accept any poisons in the system. 
Neither do I think that the "will" has any influence 
on this immunity, as those who are immune need not 
exercise their will in the least, to free themselves from 
the clutches of the Idol. It is a natural and instinc- 
tive phenomenon, as with animals that run away from 
tobacco smoke. 
Love Among the Addicts 
Between people suffering from the same disease, 
there exists an affinity and sympathy that makes them 
understand one another better than do normal people. 
Among those afflicted with tuberculosis this is especi- 
ally true. It is the misfortune that unites them. Love 
exists also among incurables, and does not exclude 
even lepers. The diseased live, as it were, in a world 
of their own, incomprehensible to us, such as the 
world in which the blind live, with psychological laws 
that we who are blessed with the sense of sight cannot 
understand. 
Something similar takes place among drug addicts. 
Their passions, mercilessly persecuted by society, take 
refuge in their souls, in the souls of their fellow suf- 
ferers. A lady of high social standing addicted to 
morphine, will be insensible to the attention of men in THE IDOL 
157 
general, but will readily join her life to a mate in 
drug addiction. 
As regards the effects of these drugs on the sexual 
instincts, it must be said that while morphia has a 
paralyzing action, cocaine on the contrary is a power- 
ful agent, an incitement to lust and abnormal patho- 
logical conditions. Chapter XII 
SOCIAL REMEDIES 
THE prevalence of drug addiction presents a 
fearful problem for the human race. Should 
the evil continue to increase at the present rate, 
there is reason to believe, that the number of drug 
addicts in the United States will reach millions. It is 
therefore imperative that energetic measures be taken 
against such a menace - measures similar to the 
splendid fight being used against tuberculosis. For 
the United States the problem is graver than for the 
other countries by reason of its geographical position. 
From the East it receives the influence of the vice 
as it exists in old Europe, especially in Paris, the 
largest dope center in the world. To the west is 
China and the other Oriental countries, where the use 
of drugs is traditional. On the south there is to be 
feared Mexico, where the use of hasheesh is so com- 
mon. In this situation especially efficient measures 
should be taken by the United States against the drug 
evil, not only along medical, but also along social lines. 
Any organized attempt at combating and eradicat- 
ing the evil must necessarily be pursued against the 
drug addict, and against drug addiction in general. 
The drug addict presents the problem solely within 
the province of medical science. This phase of the 
158 THE IDOL 
159 
problem could be met like that of tuberculosis, and 
would primarily involve the following measures: 
1. The establishment in each State of a hospital or 
sanatorium exclusively for the drug addicts. 
2. The collaboration of a group of medical experts. 
3. The treatment of the patient in a humane man- 
ner, and solely by scientific medical methods. 
4. The complete isolation of the patients, so as to 
forestall their disposition to propagate the vice. 
5. The establishment of special sanatorium where 
convalescents could be kept for at least three months; 
and 
6. The enactment of a special law requiring a con- 
fidential record to be kept of every patient who will 
be obliged to undergo a medical examination every 
*hree months for a period of two years after his cure. 
Drug addiction as a social evil should be attacked 
by the following means: 
1. Associations for the prevention of the drug vice, 
whose activities should consist of: 
(a) Educational campaigns in the schools. 
(b) Propaganda through the press, moving pic- 
tures, etc. 
(c) Moral suasion on drug addicts with a view 
to inducing them to submit to proper 
treatment. 
2. International agreements regulating the manu- 
facture and sale of alkaloids. 160 
THE IDOL 
3. Laws requiring every drug addict to register 
officially, and according him the period of one year 
after such registration to effect his own cure. 
4. A special police corps properly instructed in the 
matter of coping with drug addiction. 
5. A minimum penal servitude of fifteen years for 
the illicit sale or possession of drugs. 
6. International police co-operation. 
These measures properly carried out, may in great 
measure counteract the dreadful influence of the Idol. 
I do not contend that the evil could be entirely wiped 
out. But that fully 60 per cent of those who would 
normally be lured by the Idol could be saved.