rk with exposure. _Morphine_, a white
powder, is a very condensed form of opiate; _laudanum_, an alcoholic
solution of marked strength; and _paregoric_, a diluted and flavored form
of alcoholic tincture.

300. Poisonous Effects of Opium. Some persons are drawn into the use
of opium, solely for its narcotic and intoxicating influence.
Every early consent to its use involves a lurking pledge to repeat the
poison, till soon strong cords of the intoxicant appetite bind the now
yielding victim.

Opium thus used lays its benumbing hand upon the brain, the mind is
befogged, thought and reasoning are impossible. The secretions of the
stomach are suspended, digestion is notably impaired, and the gastric
nerves are so deadened that the body is rendered unconscious of its needs.

The moral sense is extinguished, persons once honest resort to fraud and
theft, if need be, to obtain the drug, till at last health, character, and
life itself all become a pitiful wreck.

301. The Use of Opium in Patent Medicines. Some forms of this drug
are found in nearly all the various patent medicines so freely sold as a
cure-all for every mortal disease. Opiates are an ingredient in different
forms and proportions in almost all the soothing-syrups, cough medicines,
cholera mixtures, pain cures, and consumption remedies, so widely and
unwisely used. Many deaths occur from the use of these opiates, which at
first seem indeed to bring relief, but really only smother the prominent
symptoms, while the disease goes on unchecked, and at last proves fatal.

These patent medicines may appear to help one person and be fraught with
danger to the next, so widely different are the effects of opiates upon
different ages and temperaments. But it is upon children that these fatal
results oftenest fall. Beyond doubt, thousands of children have been
soothed and soothed out of existence.[43]

302. The Victim of the Opium Habit. Occasionally persons convalescing
from serious sickness where anodynes were taken, unwisely cling to them
long after recovery. Other persons, jaded with business or with worry, and
unable to sleep, unwisely resort to some narcotic mixture to procure rest.
In these and other similar cases, the use of opiates is always most
pernicious. The amount must be steadily increased to obtain the elusive
repose, and at best the phantom too often escapes.

Even if the desired sleep is procured, it is hardly the coveted rest, but
a troubled and dream