All about opium / edited by Hartmann Henry Sultzberger.

Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: All about opium / edited by Hartmann Henry Sultzberger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    189/230 (page 169)
    DR. MYERS, OF TAKOW, ON OPIUM SMOKING. From the “China Overland Trade Report,” October, 1881. Dr. Myers, of Takow, lias contributed to the last issue of the Customs Medical Reports an interesting account on opium smoking in China. During the last ten years he has closely investigated the subject, and lie claims to speak from a disinterested point of view. In Formosa a large proportion of the inhabitants, who were either immi- grants or the descendants of colonists from the mainland, smoked opium ; and in the south part of Chekiang the well-to-do persons who could afford it smoked opium to an extent that justified the worst that had been said of its effects, while the majority, the poorer people, only used it moderately, and many years of usefulness were thus enjoyed ere that condition was attained which called for commiseration. Idleness was a great prompter to excess in the passion, but though excessive smoking might hasten the effects of a general moral depravity, he was inclined to think that the fearful vices described as its results were not caused by the use of the drug in the majority of cases. The first moderate use of the drug did not cause the man to feel much the worse for it, and when afterwards he increased his consumption of opium, he went by degrees to that condition in which he passed from the world un- regretted. Most smokers alleged that there was a point to which a smoker might indulge with almost absolute impunity, and it was only when that was exceeded that disastrous consequences resulted, but that which the Chinese called a healthy condition it is probable we should describe differently. In the great hulk, the poorer classes, who only in- dulged to a small extent, there were but very few cases of disastrous excess to be found, and there were case after case of men who had smoked for years who had showed little or no signs of mental or physical degeneration; and the coolies alleged that they carried on their labours which were extremely heavy, with more comfort by taking an un- varying small quantity of opium every day. Of course there were some who were unable to use the drug with moderation, but he believed that the smoking of opium did not tend to so much excess as the stimu- lants used by other nations. He believed a physiologist could, perhaps, imagine a condition induced by arduous physical or mental toil where the use of opium might even be beneficial, or at least by imparting comfort, its injurious effects, if any, be neutralised, and the Chinese poorer classes were industrious and laborious to a degree. He would not go into the question whether, in view of the immensely prepon- derating amount of opium cultivated in China, there was reason for the sensitiveness of the national conscience with regard to the Indian drug as some thought proper. In his opinion, the opium sot had a decided advantage over the drunkard, not being noisy, quarrelsome, and often dangerous, as the latter was. The effect of opium “ eating ” was vastly more injurious that of “smoking” it. He feared that the greatest bar to putting down the use of opium in China was the despotism of fashion, and though medical treatment might cure a man, the temptation caused by others round him smoking and inviting him to smoke, would probably draw him back to the habit.