Pick Your Poison

Letheomania: the result of the hypodermic injection of morphia

Gibbons discusses opiate addiction resulting from the medical injection of morphine. He describes his own account of a patient developing a dependence on the drug after he had treated him. By the mid-18th century, opiate use had been endorsed by the medical community, but physicians and the general public were increasingly mindful of the drawbacks of its use. Gibbons’ work talks about the dangers of the medical use of opiates, in the context of addiction.