Habits that Handicap: The Menace of Opium, Alcohol, and Tobacco, and the Remedy

HABITS THAT HANDICAP The Menace of Opium, Alcohol, and Tobacco, and the Remedy
BY CHARLES B. TOWNS
NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1916
Copyright, 1915, by The Century Co. Published, August, 1915

It is interesting to note that a year or more ago a few deaths from bichlorid of mercury poisoning caused within a period of six months a general movement toward protective legislation. This movement was successful, and after the lapse of only a short time the public was thoroughly protected against this dangerous poison. It will be observed that the financial returns from the total sale of bichlorid of mercury tablets could be but small. Had the financial interests involved been of a magnitude comparable with those interested in the manufacture and promotion of habit-forming drugs, I have often wondered if the result would not have been less effective and as prompt. Bichlorid of mercury never threatened any large proportion of the public, and those falling victims to it merely die. Opium and its derivatives threaten the entire public, especially those who are sick and in pain, and with a fate far more terrible than death—a thraldom of misery, inefficiency, and disgrace.
Lest somewhere there be found within the pages of this book remarks that may lead the reader to suppose that I unduly criticize the doctor, and therefore that I am the doctor’s enemy, I feel that it behooves me to add that in the whole community he has not one admirer more whole-souled.

Some years ago, Mr. Charles B. Towns came to me with a letter from Dr. Alexander Lambert and claimed that he had a way of stopping the morphia habit. The claim seemed to me an entirely impossible statement, and I told Mr. Towns so; but at Dr. Lambert’s suggestion, I promised to look into the matter. Accordingly, I visited Mr. Towns’s hospital, and watched the course of treatment there at different times in the day and night. I became convinced that the withdrawal of morphine was accomplished under this treatment with vastly less suffering than that entailed by any other treatment or method I had ever seen. Subsequently, I sent Mr. Towns several patients, who easily and quickly were rid of their morphia addiction, and have now remained well for a number of years.