ABSTRACT
The most ensnaring way of taking cocaine—or any narcotic—is subcutaneously, and this is the usual form of chronic using. While the ravages of cocaine along somatic lines excite surprise and alarm, one stands more appalled at its ruinous “lightning-like” effect on the higher brain-centres—ideation, intellection, and the moral. The diagnosis in well-marked cases is not difficult. In some the cause is patent; in others, especially morphia cocainists, if concealed, a consensus of peculiar psychical and physical symptoms, confirmed by a few hours’ vigil, and made complete by finding cocaine in the urine, prove the disease beyond dispute. The importance of a protracted roborant regime, varied and constant, with freedom from work and worry, obtains more largely in this and morphine cocainism, than any other drug disease. The peculiar, overmastering fascination of cocaine, its strong, almost resistless, tendency to retaking in the early weeks or months of abstinence make this essential.
