Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/418

412 the consciousness. Often this is a form of alcohol. A friend will advise a glass of whiskey at bedtime, may be two or more; beer is popular for this purpose; some special form of wine is often recommended, and (deplorable as it may seem) too often by the physician.

The entering wedge is so easy, and in the main agreeable in its primary effects, that the habit of tippling is thus readily established. Or again the chemists' shops are filled with 'simple harmless remedies for insomnia.' The sign boards in all public places glisten with advice. Every acquaintance is ready with counsel, especially those numerous well intentioned women with little else to do but to prattle of their shallow convictions on matters coming within the narrow range of their experience, medical, spiritual or social. It is never safe to play with drugs; to trifle with agencies often hurtful to a profound degree in their ultimate effects. Idiosyncracies exist, too, whereby what may harm one not at all produces in another far-reaching derangements of vital organs. One of the most dangerous lunatics I ever saw was a man possessed by sudden homicidal tendencies. He would have remained so had not it been discovered, by providential accident, that he was accustomed to use habitually moderately large doses of some bromide. The obsession promptly and permanently disappeared by total withdrawal and the use of an antidote. We physicians, especially those who see many instances of nervous derangements, are constantly coming in contact with the deplorable derangements caused by hypnotic drugs, many of which are ordinarily classed as innocent. The action of narcotics presents none of the characteristics of normal sleep except the temporary arrest of consciousness; hence narcosis is not true sleep. It does not refresh and regenerate vigor as does normal sleep. To be sure, drug unconsciousness may and often does pass into sleep. Again there are those who have become so accustomed to narcotics that, when deprived of them, they can not sleep. This would seem to prove a sort of antagonism between the drug effect and natural sleep. In brief, whatever agents inhibit cerebral activity, inducing local anemia, hence permitting sleep or narcosis, are harmless provided they do not derange nutrition or cause other ill effects. All narcotic drugs invite these evil effects in varying degrees and hence are to be avoided, and only used in extreme cases and under guidance of a competent physician.

The other peril lies in the fact that derangements of sleep often foreshadow serious structural damage of the heart, arteries or other organs or tissues. Hence unless the phenomena be estimated intelligently, in the light of other than obvious data only to be secured through careful medical examination, a deadly disease process may escape detection until too late to accomplish full repair.

To secure regular consecutive sleep it is best to assume that