At first sight, the terminology clustered around the words "alcohol" and alcoholism--with parallel terms "morphine" and
morphinism. At second sight, the local terminology--the German dialect used in Austria--proved to be of comparable importance: It clustered around traditional Gennan expressions about the intake of intoxicating substances--trinken (drink)--and of its main effects--being trunken (drunken).
The details of Geza Csath's
morphinism are well known (Szajbely, 1989).
(31) In the late 1870s and early 1880s doctors began to promote it as a cure for opium addiction and pharmaceutical companies began to advertise it as a cure for both
morphinism and alcoholism.
Crothers,
Morphinism and Narcomanias from Other Drugs: Their Etiology, Treatment, and Medicolgeal Relations (Philadelphia, 1902; reprint, New York, 1981), 104; and F.
It, being a depressant, was used as a sleeping aid; also for coughs, asthma, and was even proposed as a treatment for
morphinism. However, heroin has since been revealed as the most addictive of drugs, causing the dependency more quickly.
Morphinism Among Physicians, Medical Record, 55:784-786.