R LII.

AN OPIUM EATER.

Almost at the next door from me was an opium eater. He, like the female
whose case was described in the preceding chapter, was not far from
three score and ten, and was of industrious and, in many respects,
temperate habits. And yet he was one of the most inveterate and
abandoned voluntary slaves to the drug opium I have ever seen. He had
used it largely thirty years.

His case is the more singular from the fact that he became enslaved to
it so very early. To use opium or laudanum at the present day, I grant
is no uncommon occurrence. We may often find six, eight, or ten opium
takers in a single township, if not a single village, or even a single
neighborhood; and the number is rapidly increasing. Opium has not that
offensive appearance to many that tobacco has, and a much larger amount
of stimulus may be kept in a very small space, perhaps in the very
corner of the smallest pocket.

Another circumstance which rendered the case of my opium-taking neighbor
somewhat striking, was his usual good health. I say, here, _usual_, for
there were exceptions which will appear presently. Yet though he was
nearly threescore and ten, this man had, while under the influence of
his accustomed stimulus, as much elasticity and nearly as much strength
as most men of thirty.

How could this happen, you will naturally ask, if opium is such a deadly
narcotic as some medical men proclaim it to be? How can a person, male
or female, begin its use at forty and continue it to seventy years of
age, and yet be, for the most part, strong and healthy?

In the first place, we must remember the force of habit. We have seen
how it is with alcoholic drinks and tobacco. I might tell you how it is
with arsenic, which is beginning to be taken, it is said, by men and
horses, both in the old world and the new. I might even give you the
story of Mithridates, king of Pontus, who is said to have so accustomed
himself to hemlock,--the most deadly poison of his time,--that in any
ordinary dose, it would not affect him injuriously, or, at least, would
not do so immediately.

We must remember, in the second place, the active, industrious habits of
this patient--of which, however, I have already spoken. He who is always
or almost always in the open air, is less likely to suffer from the use
of extra stimulants, and the penalty when it _does_ fall on his head, is
much more likely to be deferred, than in the case of the sedentary and