The Morphine Abyss
A woman shares her harrowing descent into morphine addiction and her recovery at the Keeley Institute, offering a rare, personal testimony of 19th-century narcotic dependence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
While at the Keeley Institute, we were introduced to a lady of some forty years. She appeared to be of a quiet and reserved demeanor, introduced as Mrs. Bump, the wife of Dr. J.C. Bump. When asked about her deliverance, she said, 'My Heavenly Father knows I ought to be [thankful]. I only wish the whole world might know from what I have escaped. In October 1882, I was seized with a nervous prostration, confining me to my bed for nearly one year, during which time morphia was administered in minute doses. It was like a fabled charm, but only for a time. Thus I became a confirmed slave for eight weary years. The little syringe and a bottle of morphia were procured. I had entered the regions of horror, step by step, down a sickening path whose daylight is despair and whose hope is death. Many, many times have I made up my mind that ere the setting of another sun or the dawning of another day I would end my sufferings by self-destruction. On July 10, 1890, I began treatment with the Double Chloride of Gold. On August 30, 1890, the last dose of the drug was given me. From that day till this, I have never had any desire for morphia in any of its forms.'
“I had entered the regions of horror, step by step, down a sickening path whose daylight is despair and whose hope is death.”
This account provides a rare, vivid window into the widespread opioid crisis of the 1890s, where morphine was frequently prescribed for 'nervous prostration'—often a gendered medical diagnosis. The 'Double Chloride of Gold' was a notorious patent medicine 'cure' of the era, highlighting the desperate search for relief in an age before modern addiction science.
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