Selected Papers of William L. White
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Selected Papers of William L. White www.williamwhitepapers.com Collected papers, interviews, video presentations, photos, and archival documents on the history of addiction treatment and recovery in America. Citation: White, W. (2014). The early use of chloral hydrate, paraldehyde, chloroform, nitrous oxide and ether for intoxication. Posted at www.williamwhitepapers.com The Use of Chloral Hydrate, Paraldehyde, Chloroform, Nitrous Oxide and Ether for Intoxication William L. White Emeritus Senior Research Consultant Chestnut Health Systems [email protected] NOTE: The original 1,000+ page manuscript for Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America had to be cut by more than half before its first publication in 1998. This is an edited excerpt that was deleted from the original manuscript. Chloral hydrate was first produced by categories of people who were particularly Justus von Liebig in 1832, although its vulnerable to chloralism: people who took hypnotic and sedative qualities were the drug to relieve chronic pain, alcoholics unknown at that time. These properties who used the drug to help them overcome were discovered by Oscar Liebreich, who sleep problems, and people who were by introduced the drug into medicine in 1869. nature nervous and excitable (Kane, 1881; An ancestor of the modern barbiturates and Abuse of Chloral Hydrate, 1880). eventually replaced by those drugs, chloral Although chloral hydrate was best was known as an excellent soporific (sleep- known to the general public as the "Mickey inducing drug), and at smaller dosages, as a Finn" or the "knock-out drops" of detective Anervous sedative.@ In his 1872 lecture on stories, its primary consumers and abusers chloral hydrate at Rush Medical College, Dr. were middle-class women. Doctors wrote J.H. Etheridge noted that superintendents of that the misuse of chloral was common insane asylums gave chloral high praise for among the most affluent people and its ability to reduce symptoms of insanity observed that "highly organized and (Etheridge, 1872). Many of the 19th-century sensitive people" seemed vulnerable to its secret remedies for nerve troubles gave the influence. Chloral addiction in women unknowing consumer liberal doses of chloral appeared as a theme in early 20th-century (Crothers, 1902). literature, as in Edith Warton’s The House of Reports of chloral hydrate abuse Mirth. It is likely that a wide variety of began to surface in the late 19th and early physical and emotional problems were self- 20th centuries. Its addictive potential was medicated with chloral hydrate during this first reported by Dr. B.W. Richardson of era. An interesting historical footnote about London in 1871. H.H. Kane noted three this drug: Cannabis (marijuana) was williamwhitepapers.com 1 sometimes used during this period to treat intoxication as an element in religious chloral hydrate withdrawal. experience. Paraldehyde, a non-barbiturate liquid Chloroform and ether were also used sedative with a strong odor and bitter taste, as intoxicants in the 1800s. Chloroform was was discovered in 1829 and introduced into developed in 1831 by two men at the same medicine in 1881. It was commonly used in time: Samule Guthrie in America and Justus the treatment of alcoholic withdrawal until it von Liebig in Germany (Grun, 1979). was replaced by barbiturates, and then by Inhaling chloroform as an intoxicant became benzodiazepines. As a withdrawal agent, a fad in the 1850s. Confessional accounts paraldehyde was used to produce sleep and of its use as an intoxicant appeared in to prevent convulsions. Although a few medical journals of the 1880s. These reports of paraldehyde use for intoxication accounts, describing early chloroform did surface over the years--particularly intoxication as “love at first site” and a reports of its misuse by alcoholics, its “heaven of chaste pleasures,” ended with unpleasant smell and taste made it one of tales of the user’s self-deception and the least attractive intoxicants. gradual slide into “chloroformomania” (The Nitrous oxide, popularly known as Chloroform Habit, 1884, p. 251-254). Dr. "laughing gas," was discovered in 1772 by T.D. Crothers noted that women were more the English minister Joseph Priestley, the vulnerable to chloroform addiction than men. same man who invented soda-water. Crothers also noted that most chloroform Nitrous oxide's potential as an anesthetic addicts were former users of alcohol and was first noted in 1799 by Sir Humphry Davy. opium who began to seek relief from delirium Davy was the Superintendent of and insomnia by taking chloroform. He Experiments at the Pneumatic Institution in believed that the power of chloroform Bristol, England, and it was here that we find addiction was every bit as strong as that the first reports of the use of nitrous oxide for associated with other drugs, and that the pleasure. "memory of chloroform narcotism" was Nitrous oxide was introduced into never forgotten by the user (Crothers, 1902, dentistry and surgery by Dr. Horace Wells in p. 287, 296). 1844. The potential for widespread use of Ether was first synthesized by this drug as a surgical anesthetic was set Valerius Cordus of Prussia in 1541 (Nuland, back after Wells made a mistake in 1988), but it wasn't brought to popular calculating the needed dosage. His patient attention until it was rediscovered by the woke up screaming in the middle of a German physician Friedrich Hoffman in surgical demonstration at the 1730. Hoffman christened his liquid form of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. ether "anodyne" and recommended it for It is worth noting that Wells became addicted pain. Ether was both drunk and inhaled to chloroform and committed suicide in 1849, enthusiastically in group sprees called "ether after an episode of intoxication in which he frolics." was arrested for running into the street and The use of ether as an intoxicant throwing acid on prostitutes (Nagle, 1968). became particularly popular in Ireland in the Occasional reports of nitrous oxide use for 1840s. Many of the Irish men and women intoxication have popped up from the time who took the alcohol abstinence pledge as the drug was introduced to the present. At part of Father Mathew’s temperance the end of the 19th century, popular campaign were ripe for an intoxicant to newspaper accounts told sensational stories replace the alcohol. Norman Kerr marks the of rich women treating their party guests with local doctor who began prescribing ether in samples of nitrous oxide. (Kandall, 1996, p. water as the beginning of the Irish ether 37) There are also periodic stories of epidemic. Ether’s popularity grew even famous supporters of the drug, like the stronger when the tax on cheap whiskey Harvard psychologist William James, who increased. wrote about the benefits of nitrous oxide williamwhitepapers.com 2 This period in Irish history illustrates when she is deprived of them she two enduring themes in the history of experiences all the cravings that afflict the addiction. The first is that one drug tends to person who dearly loves alcohol and finds be effective as a substitute for another. The himself deprived of it (Greer, Albright & second theme is the likelihood that efforts to Smith, 1915, p. 76). suppress one drug will be followed by increased use of other intoxicants. For The Arsenic Eaters some time, ether competed directly with alcohol for the affections of the Irish. Some Perhaps one of the strangest patterns even preferred ether because of its short- of drug use in the late 19th and early 20th acting effects. If they were arrested for centuries was that of arsenic eating. It public drunkenness, they could be quite seems strange that people could become sober by the time they arrived at the police addicted to eating what is today known as a station proclaiming their innocence (Kerr, poison. But arsenic was used in medicine, 1891). both as a tonic and as a remedy for certain The first popular account of ether disorders (psoriasis, for example). It seems addiction is an 1802 report of Londoner that people began taking arsenic in ever- James Graham. The first medical report on increasing quantities to gain everything from ether addiction was an 1847 Lancet article improved appearance and increased about a gentlemen whose use progressed strength to sexual excitability. Problems so far beyond his control that he needed arose when their tolerance reached toxic "permanent restraint." Later medical reports levels, or when they suddenly stopped using note that the most common forms of damage and went into life-threatening withdrawal. from ether intoxication included gastritis, Lewin's 1931 account of habitual arsenic burns from smoking while using, and death users noted that this pattern was common in from overdose (Nagle, 1968, p. 29). the Southern United States where arsenic Ether and chloroform were also used eaters were called "Dippers" (Lewin, 1931, in surgery and dentistry. Ether was first p. 322). introduced for surgical anesthesia in 1846 by William Morton, who demonstrated its References success at the same hospital that had witnessed Horace Wells’ failure a year Abuse of chloral hydrate (1880). Quarterly earlier. Morton made his discovery based on Journal of Inebriety, 4, 53-54. observations of medical students participating in "ether frolics" (Mikuriya, Crothers, T.D. (1902). The drug habits and 1969, p. 907). Occasional reports of their treatment. Chicago: G.P. Englehard & chloroform and ether fads continued well into Company. the 20th century, their users ranging from young students to high-society matrons in Etheridge, J. (1872). Lectures on chloral search of a novel high. There were also brief hydrate. Chicago Medical Journal, 29, 521- periods of more pervasive use, such as the 527. popular use of cheap sulphuric ether in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania at the turn of Greer, J., Albright, I., and Smith, D.