Not contradictory at all. I'm not citing "massive increases in addictions" as a statistically proven fact, the way you were attempting to do with your techno gibberish from 1842. People could look around and see for themselves that a lot of people were dying from drug overdoses. It had become noticeable.
Newspaper accounts of the era were carrying stories about deaths and addictions.
This publication was put out on June 3, 1905.
The prime ingredients in these "Patent Medicines"? Opium and Cocaine.
So in the Diogonary, "massive" and "noticeable" are synonyms ... fascinating.