ABSTRACT
The children disordered were taken to unlicensed practitioners, who prescribed opiates as a general remedy, and their mothers mistook the soothing effects produced by narcotics for proofs of improvement, and themselves continued the practice. They discovered that the administration of narcotic drugs prevented restlessness in the child, enabling them to pursue their ordinary avocations. A practice, often originating in disease, has become habitual, even in cases where disease did not exist. Nothing is more uncertain than the effects of opium upon young subjects; and it ought never to be employed, even by medical men, except with the greatest caution, as it sometimes acts with much violence, and has proved deleterious even in very small doses. There is no difference of opinion among the witnesses as to the extent of the evil, which is felt not only in the loss by death, but in the deterioration and destruction of the mental and physical powers of those who survive the treatment.
