Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia/Series 1/Volume 3/Opium Smoking
OPIUM SMOKING.
To-day a Coroner's Jury of Chinese having brought in a verdict on the body of a poor Chinaman to this effect: "That the deceased "Tan-ah-Sah" died by the visitation of God through age, and sickness, brought on in a great measure by the use of tye tinco" (or the refuse of opium)—reminds me that 18 months ago, through your Journal, I published a short article "on the habitual use of opium in Singapore." During the time that has elapsed since its publication, I have had many opportunities of verifying the conclusions and statements therein advanced "of the great evils resulting from the use of opium," and during my official experience as Coroner, I find that to all the evils resulting from its use, there is one more to be added of no small importance, viz, suicide. A Chinese artizan in health may be said to be in comparatively affluent circumstances—for by ordinary, usually very light, labour he can earn from 5 to 10 dollars a month, and can, according to his economy, save from 1 to 7 dollars a month—but let him take to opium, he at first spends but little, not more than a dollar a month; and small the sum appears for moments of great gratification, when the mind seems to have left the vile body of the work-man, and revels in imaginative transmigrations into great and rich men, in a paradise of feasting and sumptuous living; and this gratification is not confined to the imagination, but extends to the body, throughout the whole frame a thrill of pleasure seems to run, the blood feels as if it galloped through its vessels, the strength of a giant is added to muscles that were puny before, the eye that was dull now sparkles, laziness is followed by activity, inertia by restlessness, and intense desire takes the place of former apathy. This excitement repeated day after day soon diminishes in intensity unless the supply is increased—so that the smoker of 2 years duration requires 2 to 3 dollars a month to procure what one did in his first year's probation, until at last from a fractional part of his wages, say a 6th or an 8th, dedicated to the demoralizing vice to of them are now the sacrifice. To the sacrifice of income, is added that of health—the muscles have lost their tone, the mind its force; lassitude, languor, and debility have now succeeded to that sprightliness, and consciousness of corporeal strength, the strong man's delight, sickness quickly follows with its train of diverse maladies, until exhausted in vital and deranged in physical powers, with an enfeebled mind, the poor wretch lifts his hand against himself and perpetrates by an act of suicide the most horrible of all murders. On the 9th February 1849, an inquest was held on the body of "Oh Chin Sing" a Chinese at Tanjong Pagar. "The body was that of a male Chinese about 25 years of age, yellow, emaciated, and diseased looking, with a wound on the head as by a bruise, and a deep penetrating incision in the upper part of the abdomen, cutting into that cavity, as well as into the chest; with 3 superficial wounds near as if inflicted by a knife" According to the evidence of his friends and those he lived with, the deceased had been sick for 24 days of a pain and craving at his stomach; he had been an opium smoker to a great extent, but being at that time poor he could not obtain his usual supply; mad with a craving he could not satisfy, and a pain he could not allay, he often expressed a wish to die. In the morning he attempted to kill himself by striking his head with an iron pot, which broke and bruised his head, and in the afternoon being surrounded by his friends, and only separated from them by a mat, be laid his abdomen and chest open with a razor, to such an extent that bis bowels protruded on the bed he lay on, yet a slight moan only revealed his agony, and not till his friends saw the blood trickling from his couch, did they suspect what he had done; and done so effectually, that in half an hour after he died, with the razor firmly grasped in his hand. On the 17th of June 1819, an inquest was held on one "Cho-ah-Keow" who was admitted into the Pauper Hospital the day before, with his throat cut by an instrument used as a chopping knife (similar to the large knife used by cooks in England for mincing) and who died some hours after. On the evidence of Lim-ah-Chew "the deceased was a palanquin maker, had been sick with diarrhoea for 20 days, he could not bear the pain and so cut his throat." "The deceased was an opium smoker, and the witness is one when he has money." The deceased frequently mentioned his intention of dying as he "could not bear the pain and had no opium." When he was admitted into the hospital, he had slight or no symptoms of diarrhoea upon him, and as that complaint is known to all not to be attended with much pain, no doubt was left in the Coroner and Jury's mind that the deceased had committed suicide while labouring under the agony induced by the want of the drag. Many cases have lately presented themselves to me, where no other cause could be assigned for death than the want of opium, and the diseases which the former abuse of it created. I understand that new legislative measures are about to be framed in Bengal regarding the revenue from the sale of opium. If the local authorities in Singapore would only lay before the Legislative council a plain statement of the evils resulting from its use, I feel sure that for the sake of $7,500 a month (the revenue obtained from the sale of the opium farm last year) they would not by its encouragement, physically deteriorate and demoralize so many thousands of the inhabitants of this island. To finish this epistle, I will give the remarks on the trading in opium by a partner in one of the most extensive mercantile houses in China, and which has dealt more than any others in the drug.