asional use of the drug to insatiable craving is the
rational course of the cocaine fiend. From thence to the insane
asylum and the grave is a swift and easy descent.

"In his fall from health to physical and mental disintegration,
the cocaine fiend undergoes a terrible experience. When not in
the temporary heaven that the drug provides, the victim is in
the lowest depths of an _inferno_. He suffers from insomnia,
anorexia, and gastralgic pains, dyspepsia, chronic palpitations,
and will-paresis. He is a terror both to himself and others. The
life of the man is a living death. He knows it, and with this
knowledge staring him in the face, he rushes for the drug, and
is happy for a brief period under its influence.

"It is time something was done to keep from this high-strung
nation a drug so deadly. Clear-minded medical men have
recommended its exclusion from the country, believing that its
use medicinally should be foregone rather than that such a
cursed temptation should be placed in the way of weak humanity.

"What the real action of the drug is, and how to counteract its
influence, are at present puzzling questions to the medical
fraternity. A leading member of the profession to whom these
questions were put replied after careful consideration as
follows: 'Its physiological action is practically unknown. As an
analgesic, it is uniform in its action, and this is due to the
suspension of the physiological functions of the sensory cells
which it comes in contact with. Beyond this, it is an excitant
of the cerebro-spinal axis, later it has a peculiar action on
the encephalon, manifest in a wide range of psychical phenomena.
Beyond this a great variety of widely variable symptoms appear.
In some cases all the intellectual faculties are excited to the
highest degree. In others a profound lowering of the senses and
functional activities occur. Morphine-takers can use large
quantities of cocaine without any bad symptoms. Alcoholics are
also able to bear large doses. Not unfrequently the excitement
caused by cocaine goes on to convulsions, and death. Sometimes
its action is localized to one part of the cerebro-spinal axis,
and then to another. In some cases well-marked cerebral anaemia
appears, and for a time is alarming, but soon passes away.

"Small doses frequently given are