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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77838 ***
+
+
+
+
+                              AN ESSAY ON
+                               HASHEESH
+
+                               INCLUDING
+
+                     OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS
+
+
+                                  BY
+                            VICTOR ROBINSON
+
+           _Contributing Editor, Medical Review of Reviews_,
+            _Pharmaceutical Chemist, Columbia University_,
+              _Member of the American Chemical Society_,
+               _Author of_ “_Pathfinders in Medicine_.”
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                       MEDICAL REVIEW OF REVIEWS
+                     TWO HUNDRED AND SIX BROADWAY
+                               NEW YORK
+                                 1912
+
+
+
+
+                            COPYRIGHT, 1912
+                     BY MEDICAL REVIEW OF REVIEWS
+
+
+
+
+     “What is left for us modern men? We cannot be Greek now.
+     The cypress of knowledge springs, and withers when it comes
+     in sight of Troy; the cypress of pleasure likewise, if it
+     has not died already at the root of cankering Calvinism;
+     the cypress of religion is tottering. What is left?
+     Science, for those who are scientific. Art for artists; and
+     all literary men are artists in a way. But science falls
+     not to the lot of all. Art is hardly worth pursuing now.
+     What is left? Hasheesh, I think: Hasheesh of one form or
+     another. We can dull the pangs of the present by living the
+     past again in reveries or learned studies, by illusions
+     of the fancy and a life of self-indulgent dreaming. Take
+     down the perfumed scrolls; open, unroll, peruse, digest,
+     intoxicate your spirit with the flavor. Behold, here is
+     the Athens of Plato in your narcotic visions; Buddha
+     and his anchorites appear; the raptures of St. Francis
+     and the fire-oblations of St. Dominic; the phantasms of
+     mythologies; the birth-throes of religion, the neurotism of
+     chivalry, the passion of past poems; all pass before you
+     in your Maya world of hasheesh, which is criticism.”--JOHN
+     ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
+
+
+
+                         An Essay on Hasheesh
+
+
+                      INCLUDING OBSERVATIONS AND
+                             EXPERIMENTS.
+
+                          By VICTOR ROBINSON.
+
+     “And now, borne far thru the steaming air floats an odor,
+     balsamic, startling; the odor of those plumes and stalks
+     and blossoms from which is exuding freely the narcotic
+     resin of the great nettle. The nostril expands quickly, the
+     lungs swell out deeply to draw it in: fragrance once known
+     in childhood, ever in the memory afterward, and able to
+     bring back to the wanderer homesick thoughts of midsummer
+     days in the shadowy, many-toned woods, over into which is
+     blown the smell of the hemp-fields.”
+
+                                       ALLEN: _The Reign of Law_.
+
+
+     “At the mere vestibule of the temple I could have sat and
+     drunk in ecstasy forever, but lo! I am yet more blessed. On
+     silent hinges the doors swing open, and I pass in.”
+
+                                    LUDLOW: _The Hasheesh Eater_.
+
+
+Ailing man has ransacked the world to find balms to ease him of his
+pains. And this is only natural, for what doth it profit a man if he
+gain the whole world and lose his digestion? Let the tiniest nerve
+be but inflamed, and it will bend the proudest spirit: humble is a
+hero with a toothache! It is doubtful if Buddha himself could have
+maintained his equanimity with a bit of dust on his conjunctiva.
+Cæsar had a fever--and the eye that awed the world did lose its
+lustre, and the tongue that bade the Romans write his speeches in
+their books cried like a sick girl. Our flesh is heir to many ills,
+and alas when the heritage falls due. Even pride and prejudice are
+then forgotten, and Irishmen in need of purgatives are willing to use
+rhubarb grown on English soil, while the Foreign Colombo gathered by
+the feral natives in the untamed forests of Quilimani is consumed by
+ladies who never saw anything wilder than a Fabian Socialist.
+
+The modern descendant of Hippocrates draws his Materia Medica from
+the uttermost ends of the earth: linseed from busy Holland and
+floretted marigold from the exotic Levant; cuckoo’s cap from little
+Helvetia, and pepper-elder from ample Brazil; biting cubebs from
+spicy Borneo and fringed lichens from raw-winded Iceland; sweet flag
+from the ponds of Burmah, coto bark from the thickets of Bolivia,
+sleeping nightshade from the woods of Algeria, brownish rhatany
+from the sands of Peru, purple crocus from the pastures of Greece,
+aromatic vanilla from the groves of Mexico, golden seal from the
+retreats of Canada, knotty aleppo from the plains of Kirghiz,
+fever-tree from the hills of Tasmania, white saunders from the
+mountains of Macassar. Idols are broken boldly nowadays, but the
+daughter of Æsculapius does not fear, for Hygeia knows she will
+always have a frenzied world of worshippers to kneel at her every
+shrine in every land.
+
+All the reservoirs of nature have been tapped to yield medicines for
+man. From the mineral kingdom we take the alkali metals, the nitrogen
+group, the compounds of oxygen, the healing waters, the halogens, the
+nitrate of silver, the sulphate of copper, the carbonate of sodium,
+the chloride of mercury, the hydroxide of potassium, the acetate of
+lead, the citrate of lithium, the oxide of calcium, and the similar
+salts of half a hundred elements from Aluminium to Zincum.
+
+From the vegetable kingdom we extract the potent alkaloid; all things
+that blossom and bloom, we knead them as we list: the broad rhizome
+of iris, the wrinkled root of lappa, the inspissated juice of aloes,
+the flower-heads of anthemis, the outer rind of orange, the inner
+bark of cinnamon, the thin arillode of macis, the dense sclerotium of
+ergot, the ovoid kernel of nutmeg, the pitted seed of rapa, the pale
+spores of club-moss, the spongy pith of sassafras, the bitter wood of
+quassia, the smoothish bark of juglans, the unripe fruit of hemlock,
+the fleshy bulb of scilla, the brittle leaves of senna, the velvet
+thallus of agaric, the balsamic resin of benzoin, the scaly strobiles
+of hops, the styles and stigmas of zea.
+
+The animal kingdom has likewise been forced to bring tribute to its
+highest brother: we use in medicine the blood-sucking leech, the
+natural emulsion from the mammary glands of the cow, the internal
+fat from the abdomen of the hog, the coppery-green Spanish fly,
+the globular excrements of the leaping antelope, the fixed oil
+from the livers of the cod, the fresh bile of the stolid ox, the
+vitellus of the hen’s egg, the fatty substance from the huge head
+of the sperm-whale, the odorous secretion of the musk-deer, the
+swimming-bladder of regal fish, the inner layer of the oyster-shell,
+the branched skeleton of the red polyp, the dried follicles of the
+boring beaver, the bony horns of the crimson deer, the thyreoid
+glands of the simple sheep, the coagulated serum from the blood of
+the horse, the wax and the honey from the hive of the busy bee, and
+even the disgusting cockroaches that infest the kitchen-shelves and
+climb all over the washtubs are used as a diuretic and for dropsy.
+
+Little it matters by whom the healing agent was ushered in, for
+mankind in its frantic search for health asks not the creed or color
+of its medical savior: Pipsissewa was introduced into medicine by the
+redskins, buchu by the hottentots, quassia by a negro slave, zinc
+valerianate by a French prince, krameria by a Spanish refugee, ipecac
+by the Brazilian aborigines, guaiac by a syphilitic warrior, aspidium
+by a Swiss widow.
+
+“Medicine,” wrote the greatest of literary physicians, “appropriates
+everything from every source that can be of the slightest use to
+anybody who is ailing in any way, or like to be ailing from any
+cause. It learned from a monk how to use antimony, from a Jesuit how
+to cure agues, from a friar how to cut for stone, from a soldier
+how to treat gout, from a sailor how to keep off scurvy, from a
+postmaster how to sound the Eustachian tube, from a dairy-maid how
+to prevent small-pox, and from an old market-woman how to catch the
+itch-insect. It borrowed acupuncture and the moxa from the Japanese
+heathen, and was taught the use of lobelia by the American savage.”
+
+And all these substances are daily being powdered, sifted,
+granulated, desiccated, percolated, macerated, distilled, sublimed,
+comminuted, dissolved, precipitated, filtered, strained, expressed,
+clarified, crystallized, ignited, fused, calcined, torrified and
+deflagrated into powders, pills, wafers, capsules, ampoules,
+extracts, tinctures, infusions, decoctions, syrups, cordials,
+essences, magmas, suppositories, tablets, troches, ointments,
+plasters, abstracts, liniments, collodions, cataplasms and so on and
+so on.
+
+And all these finished preparations have a most laudable object in
+view--the eradication of disease and the alleviation of pain. Ah,
+this is indeed a quest worth the striving for! To accomplish the
+quadrature of the circle, or ferret out the secret of perpetual
+motion, may be highly interesting, tho of problematical value
+only; but when a clammy sweat bathes the brow, and the delicate
+nerves twitch till the tortured human frame shakes in anguish, how
+important is it to be able to lift the veil from a condition like
+this! He who conquers disease is greater than the builder of cities
+or the creator of empires. His value is above the poets, statesmen
+cannot be compared unto him, educators equal him not in worth. A
+careful economist like John Stuart Mill tells us it is doubtful if
+all the labor-saving machinery ever invented has lessened for a
+single day the work of a single human being,--but when a discovery
+is made in medicine it becomes a sun which sheds its beneficence
+on all who suffer. The sick pauper of to-day lying in a charity
+hospital receives better medical treatment than the sick potentate of
+yesterday lying in his costly palace.
+
+But so far medical science has only unhorsed, not overthrown, its
+ancient antagonist. In spite of all the remedies, in spite of all
+the research, mankind as yet possesses no satisfactory antidote for
+suffering; it knows no drug which can give pain its _congé_ for more
+than a transient period.
+
+But altho the time of relief be limited, the simple fact that there
+are substances which do have some power over pain is sufficient
+to make the study of narcotism highly important. And of all the
+narcotics--a narcotic being roughly defined as a substance which
+relieves pain and produces excitability followed by sleep--none is
+more alluring to the imagination than the intoxicating hemp-plant,
+scientifically known as _Cannabis sativa_ and popularly famed as
+Hasheesh--those strange flowering-tops that appeal to a pot-bellied
+bushman of Australia who smokes it in a pipe of animal tusks, and
+to so hyper-esoteric a _littérateur_ as Charles Baudelaire of the
+Celestial City of Art.
+
+The habitat of the hemp-plant is extensive: not by the hand of man
+were the seeds sown that gave it birth near the Caspian Sea, where it
+wildly flourishes on the banks of the immense Volga--that mighty mass
+of liquid ever stupendously rolling thru a limitless continent; it
+climbs the Altai range and thrives where the Himalaya rears its stony
+head ten thousand feet on high; it extends to Persia, and China knows
+it; the Congo river and the hot Zambesi bathe it in Africa, it is not
+a stranger in sunny France, and how well it thrives in Kentucky the
+numerous readers of the _Reign of Law_ will ever remember.
+
+In the seventeenth century Rumphius noticed that there were
+differences between the hemp grown in India and the hemp grown
+in Europe. In the nineteenth century Lamarck accepted these
+distinctions, and believing the Indian hemp to be a separate species,
+agreed in calling it _Cannabis indica_ as a distinction from the
+_Cannabis sativa_ of Linnæus and Willdenow. But it is now conceded
+that from a botanical standpoint the variations are by no means
+certain or important enough to warrant the maintenance of Indian hemp
+as a species distinct from common hemp. And as the greater includes
+the lesser, in botany as well as in geometry, its botanical name is
+_Cannabis sativa_, with _Cannabis indica_ as one variety, just as
+_Cannabis americana_ is another variety.
+
+The hemp grown in Russia is of a fibrous quality, and is largely used
+for the gallows--to hang the opponents of despotism. In England many
+a bold highwayman has been embraced by it the last moment of his
+roving life, and has thus philanthropically given his mother-tongue
+a chance to enrich herself. For instance, a hempie means a rascal
+for whom the hemp grows; a hempen collar means the hangman’s noose;
+a hempen widow means one whose husband has been hanged; to sow hemp
+means to live in a manner likely to lead to the gallows. Rope,
+however, is not the only use to which the fibers can be put; they
+are extensively employed in clothing, and in the manufacture of paper.
+
+The plant is also cultivated for its seeds, which contain a large
+quantity of oil, and is therefore used in pharmacy for emulsions,
+and in the domestic arts because of its drying properties. But the
+seeds are chiefly used as a favorite food for birds. In fact, some
+birds consume them to excess, which should lead us to suspect that
+these seeds, tho they cannot intoxicate us, have a narcotic effect
+on the feathered creatures, making them dream of a happy birdland
+where there are no gilded cages, and where the men are gunless and
+the women hatless. The seeds also contain sugar and considerable
+albumin,--making them very nutritious; rabbits eat them readily. They
+are consumed also by some human beings, but are not as good as the
+sunflower seeds which Marianka ceaselessly and carelessly crunched,
+while Olenine looked upon her moving lips with a lover’s despair.
+
+The medicinal hemp--the hemp with the potent narcotic principles--is
+_Cannabis indica_. In this case we have an example of Compensation
+that would have made Emerson’s eyes glisten, for altho the fibrous
+texture of hemp disappears under a southern sun, to make up for the
+loss there is secreted a resin--_Churrus_. This resin is collected
+in a most singular manner. During the hot season, according to
+Dr. O’Shaughnessy, men clothed in leather run violently thru the
+hemp-fields and brush forcibly against the plants. The soft, sticky
+resin adheres to the garments, and is later scraped off and kneaded
+into balls. Dr. M’Kinnon informed Dr. O’Shaughnessy that in the
+province of Nipal the leather attire is dispensed with, and that the
+natives run naked thru the hemp fields, gathering the resin on their
+bare bodies.
+
+When the larger leaves turn brown and fall to the ground, it is
+an indication of the approach of maturity. The flowering tops are
+then cut off, and subjected to a process of rolling and treading by
+trained human feet. The hemp is placed on a hard floor surrounded
+by a rail; the natives take hold of a revolving post, march around
+and around, singing the while, and press the plants in a technical
+manner. Whether the perspiration which drips from their unshod
+organs of locomotion works any chemical change in the composition of
+Cannabis has not yet been determined by E. M. Holmes or E. W. Dixon.
+
+It is not surprising to learn that the dealing in Hasheesh is a
+Government monopoly, and that heavy punishment is meted out to those
+offenders who buy or sell it without permission. “The importation of
+it into Egypt is so strongly interdicted,” explains the _Dispensatory
+of the United States_, “that the mere possession of it is a penal
+offense; we found it, however, readily procurable. It is said to be
+brought into the country in pigs’ bladders, in the Indo-European
+steamers, and thrown out at night during the passage into the
+Suez canal, to be picked up by the boats of confederates.” This
+deplorable state of affairs is apt to remind us of our own temperance
+towns--where there are always some individuals who possess the
+faculty of obtaining whisky _ad libitum_.
+
+_Cannabis sativa_ is a member of the _Moraceæ_ or Mulberry Family,
+which family was formerly an order of apetalous dicotyledenous trees
+or shrubs, but is now reduced to a tribe of the _Urticaceæ_ or Nettle
+Family which embraces 110 genera and 1500 species.
+
+Cannabis is an annual herb, and thus endures but one year, because
+instead of storing away nutritious matter in underground bulbs and
+tubers like the industrious biennials or perennials, it exultingly
+expends its new-born energy in the production of beautiful blossoms
+and the maturation of fruit and seed. “This completed,” says Asa
+Gray, “the exhausted and not at all replenished individual perishes.”
+
+Sexually, hemp is diœcious, which means that its staminate and
+pistillate organs are not on the same plant. When cultivated for its
+narcotic properties, only the flowering tops of the unfertilized
+female plants are used, and the male plants are eradicated with
+great care, as it is claimed that a single one can spoil an entire
+field--something like a Boccaccion gentleman in a nunnery. The
+process of weeding out the males is performed by an expert called a
+poddar, who brings to his work a conscious technical skill, and an
+unconscious but interesting argument in illustration of what Lester
+F. Ward has described as the Androcentric World View, for the poddar
+deliberately reverses the names of the sexes, and designates the
+useful females as males, and calls the rejected males the females.
+If we had such impudent poddars in the animal world, no doubt the
+valuable Miss Jane Addams would be metamorphosed into James, while
+the unnecessary Mr. Anthony Comstock would be adorned with a feminine
+appellation.
+
+Cannabis is from 4 to 12 feet in height; its stem is angular,
+branching, and covered with matted hairs; its leaves are palmate
+and therefore roughly resemble an open hand; its leaflets are
+lance-shaped, possessing margins dentated with saw-like teeth; its
+flowers are yellow and axillary, the male cluster being a raceme and
+therefore pedicelled, and the female a spike and consequently sessile
+or stemless; the five male organs or stamens contain pendulous
+double-celled sacs or anthers; the two female organs or pistils have
+glandular stigmas, the stigma being the spot where fertilization
+occurs; the fruit is a gray nut or achene, each containing a single
+oily seed; the whole plant is covered with a scarcely visible down;
+the roughness of the leaves and stem is due to the silica, which is a
+characteristic of the plants of the _Moraceæ_.
+
+Not much need be said of the microscopical characteristics of hemp,
+for altho the powder contains several histological elements, as
+pollen grains, glands, crystals, resin, fibres, vessels, stone cells,
+epidermis, parenchyma,--indicating presence of stem, leaf, flower,
+seed,--its characteristic hairs or trichomes with their cystolith
+deposits are of sufficient diagnostic value to make it readily
+recognizable.
+
+Unfortunately, when we come to the chemical constituents of
+Cannabis, certainty is at an end. As Dorvault’s _L’Officine_ says,
+“La composition chimique du cannabis indica est mal connue.” The
+conquests of man are peculiar: he lays a cable under the roaring
+ocean, and he flashes his messages thru limitless miles of space;
+beneath the surface of the earth he rides on an iron horse, and
+bird-like he sails thru the trackless air. But put this common drug
+before him and he cannot determine its chemical composition. The
+careful experimenters and the expert assayers are balked.
+
+“I have extracted an alkaloid from hasheesh,” says Preobraschensky,
+“and it is potent.” “No, we have found the active constituent,” say
+T. and H. Smith; “it is the resin cannabin.” “No,” says Personne,
+“I have isolated the important ingredient; it is the amber-colored
+volatile oil, cannabene.” “Oh, no,” says Frankel, “I have discovered
+the active principle--it is a phenol aldehyde.” “No, indeed,” say
+Wood, Spivey and Easterfield, “it is we who have separated the only
+active ingredient--it is a red oil, cannabinol.” “Oh, not at all,”
+says Hamilton, “not one of these is the active constituent; in fact,
+the active constituent has not yet been isolated.” In such an arena,
+where the masters dispute, it behooves the amateur to speak with a
+stammering tongue.
+
+That doubt should prevail on this subject is all the more remarkable
+when we consider that hemp has been known from a time whereof the
+mind of man runneth not to the contrary--to use a phrase which seems
+to delight the lawyers. In the _Odyssey_, a thousand years before
+the advent of the Christian era, Homer sang of the assuager of
+grief or Nepenthes, which is believed to have been the hemp-plant.
+Hemp thus comes ushered into history, held in the beautiful hand
+of Helen. Hesychius narrates that the Thracian women made sheets
+of hemp. Pliny says hemp was known to the Romans, who manufactured
+cordage from it. The Father of History relates that the Scythians
+threw the seeds of hemp on red-hot stones, and bathed themselves in
+the vapor, crying with exultation. Moschion records that the ship
+_Syracusia_, built for Hiero--kinsman of Archimedes--was rigged
+with hempen ropes. In the most ancient of all Hindu medical works,
+_Susruta_, hemp is recommended for catarrh. The Pandit Moodoosudun
+Gooptu found in the _Rajniguntu_ a clear account of hemp. A Sanskrit
+work on Materia Medica, _Rajbulubha_, alludes to the use of hemp
+in gonorrhea. According to Kamalakantha Vidyalanka, hemp was early
+forbidden to pious Brahmins. The old Arabic and Persian writers
+made numerous references to cannabis, and declared its narcotic
+properties were discovered by Haider. Haider was a rigid monk who
+built a monastery on the mountains between Nishabor and Ramah. For
+ten years he never left his hermitage, never indulged in even a
+fleeting moment’s pleasure. One burning summer’s day when the fiery
+sun glared angrily upon Mother Earth as if he wished to wither up
+her breasts, Haider stepped out from his cloister and walked alone
+to the fields. All around him lay the vegetation weary and without
+life, but one plant danced in the heat with joy. Haider plucked
+it, partook of it, and returned to the convent a happier man. The
+monks who saw him immediately noticed the change in their chief. He
+encouraged conversation, and acted boisterously. He then led his
+companions to the fields, and the holy men partook of the hasheesh,
+and were transformed from austere ascetics into jolly good fellows.
+At the death of Haider, in conformity with his desire, his disciples
+planted the hemp in an arbor around his tomb.---- In that portion
+of the Chinese herbal, _Rh-ya_, which was written 500 B.C., the
+seed and flower-bearing kinds of hemp are noticed. In the first
+century, Dioscorides--the most renowned of the ancient writers on
+Materia Medica--recommended the seeds in the form of a cataplasm to
+soothe inflammation. In the second century, Galen wrote that it was
+customary to give hemp to guests at banquets to promote hilarity
+and happiness. At the beginning of the third century, the physician
+Hoa-Thoa used hemp as an anesthetic in surgical operations. In the
+thirteenth century, garments of hemp became common thruout Southern
+Europe, and it may well be that Beatrice herself wore it when Dante
+first saw the maiden in her father’s house.
+
+There is a remarkable episode in the history of Hasheesh, indicating
+how the character of a people may be affected by the surrounding
+vegetation. Mohammedanism, like all other theologies, has been rent
+by schisms, and the question as to who was the legitimate successor
+of the Prophet split this Oriental faith into two great sects--the
+Sunnis and the Shiahs. The latter were the heretics, as they
+considered Mohammed’s son-in-law the true imam. The Shiahs themselves
+were further subdivided into several parties, the Ismaelites being
+the most important. The Ismaelites were especially powerful in
+Persia, and later--thru the instrumentality of an escaped prisoner
+who seized the throne--gained a firm foothold in Egypt. A grand lodge
+was formed in the city of Cairo--on the banks of the river whose
+ancient waters heard the hammering at the quarries for the rearing
+of the Great Pyramid. Many rules were now made by the Ismaelites,
+and the petty race of perishable men was much flustered, while the
+immortal Nile flowed indifferently from its equatorial cradle,
+refreshing the crimson water-lilies, bathing the reeds that lined
+its shore, and wetting the sands where the thoughtful Sphinx opens
+not its lips.
+
+In the course of time this lodge was visited by the clever Ismaelite,
+Hassan Ben Sabbah--a boyhood friend of Omar Khayyám--who was received
+with acclamation. Hassan soon received enough honors to excite
+jealousy, and while plotting for more power was defeated and forced
+to disappear from Egypt, but, after traveling awhile, he settled near
+Kuhistan. He gathered around him a considerable number of followers,
+and by strategy, in 1090, captured the powerful Persian fortress of
+Alamut. Hassan now introduced a new feature into his society--the
+employment of secret murder against all enemies. It was the Sheikh of
+this organization who loomed large in medieval folk-lore as the Old
+Man of the Mountains. Many young men became disciples, and willingly
+performed the bloody work. These youths were known as the _Fedais_
+or Devoted Ones. When a Devoted One was selected to commit murder,
+he was first stupefied with hasheesh, and while in this state was
+brought into the magnificent gardens of the sheikh. All the sensual
+and stimulating pleasures of the erotic orient surrounded the
+excited youth, and exalted by the delicious hypnotic he had taken,
+the hot-blooded fanatic felt that the gates of heaven were already
+ajar, and heard them swing open on their golden hinges. When the
+effect of the drug disappeared and the Devoted One was reduced to his
+normal condition, he was informed that thru the generosity of his
+superior he had been permitted to foretaste the delights of Paradise.
+The Devoted One believed this readily enough--disciples are always
+credulous--and therefore was eager to die or to kill at a word from
+his master. From these hasheesh-eaters, the Arabian name of which
+is _hashshashin_, was derived the term “assassin.” It is not known
+at what date the epithet was first applied to other secret slayers.
+The Assassins soon became a terrible scourge, and the very sands of
+the desert almost learnt to tremble before them. Many an unprepared
+breast felt their daggers, and many a surprised stomach tried in
+vain to vomit up their poisons. Prince and calif they struck down,
+and more than one haughty chief paid tribute to the Old Man of the
+Mountains. During the invasion of Palestine by the Crusaders, the
+Syrian branch of the Assassins reached its bloody zenith, and who
+shall say how many high-born damsels wept for knightly shields that
+lay low in the dust of Lebanon? The power of the Assassins was
+destroyed in Persia about the middle of the thirteenth century, and
+some years later the Mameluke sultan of Egypt exterminated them in
+Syria. But just as there are still some Innsbruck Jesuits who pray
+for the revival of the Spanish Inquisition, so some remnants of
+the Assassins yet linger between the Tigris river and the mount of
+Taurus--but what of that? The Old Man of the Mountains now sleeps in
+Death’s Valley, and not all the hasheesh from Bengal could exalt him.
+
+Towards the end of the eighteenth century, when Napoleon invaded
+Egypt--and grew philosophic as he met the gaze of the prehistoric
+pyramids--hasheesh was brought prominently to the notice of
+Europeans by the accounts of DeSacy and Rouger. By this time its
+narcotic properties must have been known to the Occidentals, for as
+far back as 1690 Berlu in his _Treasury of Drugs_ described it as
+“of an infatuating quality and pernicious use.” Nevertheless, its
+introduction into the Pharmacopeias of Europe and the United States
+is due mainly to the elaborate experimentation carried on during
+1839 and several succeeding years by the talented Dr. William B.
+O’Shaughnessy, Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of
+Calcutta.
+
+This brings us to the physiological action of Cannabis. It primarily
+stimulates the brain, has a mydriatic effect upon the pupil, slightly
+accelerates the pulse, sometimes quickens and sometimes retards
+breathing, produces a ravenous appetite, increases the amount of
+urine, and augments the contractions of the uterus. In other words,
+it has an effect on the nervous, respiratory, circulatory, digestive,
+excretory and genito-urinary systems.
+
+As a therapeutic agent hasheesh has its eulogizers, tho like many
+other drugs it has been replaced by later remedies in various
+disorders for which it was formerly used. Old drugs, like old folks,
+must give way to the new, and even the therapeutic master-builders
+must beware when the young generation of healing-agents knocks on the
+door of health.
+
+In medicinal doses Cannabis is used as an aphrodisiac, for neuralgia,
+to quiet maniacs, for the cure of chronic alcoholism and morphine and
+chloral habits, for mental depression, hysteria, softening of the
+brain, nervous vomiting, for distressing cough, for St. Vitus’ dance,
+and for the falling sickness so successfully simulated by Kipling’s
+Sleary--epileptic fits of a most appalling kind. It is used in spasm
+of the bladder, in migraine, and when the dreaded _Bacillus tetanus_
+makes the muscles rigid. It is a uterine tonic, and a remedy in the
+headaches and hemorrhages occurring at the final cessation of the
+menses. It has been pressed into the service of the diseases that
+mankind has named in honor of Venus. According to Osler, cannabis
+is sometimes useful in locomotor ataxia. Christison reports a case
+in which Cannabis entirely cured the intense itching of eczema,
+while the patient was enjoying the delightful slumber which the
+hemp induced. It is much employed as an hypnotic in those cases
+where opium because of long-continued use has lost its efficiency.
+As a specific in hydrophobia it is sometimes marvelous, for Dr. J.
+W. Palmer writes that he himself has seen a sepoy, an hour before
+furiously hydrophobic, under the influence of cannabis drinking water
+freely and pleasantly washing his face and hands! Its function in
+this unspeakable affliction should be investigated carefully, for it
+will be a gala day for mankind when it can cease to fear Montaigne’s
+terrible line: “The saliva of a wretched dog touching the hand of
+Socrates, might disturb and destroy his intellect.”
+
+The official definition of _Cannabis indica_ as given by the Eighth
+Decennial Revision of our _Pharmacopeia_ is as follows: “The dried
+flowering tops of the pistillate plants of _Cannabis sativa_ Linné
+(Fam. _Moraceæ_), grown in the East Indies and gathered while the
+fruits are yet undeveloped, and carrying the whole of their natural
+resin.” Three preparations of the drug are official: an Extract, a
+Fluid-extract, and a Tincture.
+
+In the last (third) edition of the _National Formulary_, hemp enters
+into four galenicals: in chloral and bromine compound which is used
+as a sedative and hypnotic, in chloroform Anodyne which is used in
+diarrhoea and cholera, in Brown Sequard’s anti-neuralgic pills, and
+in corn collodion. Hemp is a constituent in the majority of corn
+remedies. Not many drugs are used for both the brain and the feet,
+but with cannabis we have this anomaly: a man may see visions by
+swallowing his corn-cure.
+
+Out of the enormous number of prescriptions in which hasheesh
+enters as an ingredient, only half a dozen can be here represented.
+In Hager’s _Pharmaceutische Praxis_ occurs this prescription for
+gonorrhea:
+
+  =℞=
+  Kali nitrici
+  Natri nitrici ana 5,0
+  Extracti Hyoscyami 0,5
+  Aquæ Amygdalarum amararum 10,0
+  Emulsionis Cannabis fructus 200,0
+
+For dysmenorrhea the _Journal de Médecine de Paris_ recommends the
+following suppositories, with the directions that one be introduced
+every evening, commencing with the fifth day before the menses:
+
+  =℞=
+  Ex. cannab. indicæ      gr. ¼
+  Ex. belladonnæ          gr. ¼
+  Ol. theobrom.           q. s.--M.
+
+For phthisis, when accompanied by insomnia and nervous dyspepsia, Dr.
+S. G. Bonney prescribes:
+
+  =℞=
+  Strychnin, sulph.             gr. ⅔
+  Extracti opii                 gr. j
+  Extracti cannabis indicæ      gr. j ss
+  Salolis                       gr. c.
+  Aloini                        gr. ss.--M.
+  Pone in capsulas No. xx
+
+Dr. Rankin fights dyspepsia with the following formula, one capsule
+being given after meals:
+
+  =℞=
+  Zinci valeratis              ʒj
+  Acidi carbolici              gr. xl
+  Acidi arsenosi               gr. ss
+  Extracti cannabis indicæ.    gr. v.--M.
+  Pone in capsulas No. xx.
+
+When a patient of Van Harlingen is attacked with _ichthyosis
+hystrix_, the disagreeable skin-disease finds itself daily painted
+with this preparation:
+
+  =℞=
+  Acid. salicylici     ʒss
+  Ex. cannabis ind     gr. x
+  Collodii             f℥j--M.
+
+Dr. Da Costa endeavors to relieve impotence by giving his patients,
+morning and evening, this pill:
+
+  =℞=
+  Ex. cannabis indicæ
+  Ex. nucis vomicæ     aa gr. xv
+  Ex. ergotae aquosi      ʒj.--M.
+  Et. ft. pil. No. xxx
+
+The results of the prolonged use of large doses of Cannabis are thus
+epitomized by Alfred Stillé: “The habitual use of this drug entails
+consequences no less mischievous than are produced by alcohol
+and opium; the face becomes bloated, the eyes injected, the limbs
+weak and tremulous, the mind sinks into a state of imbecility, and
+death by marasmus is the ultimate penalty paid for the overstrained
+pleasure it imparts.”
+
+Poisoning by hasheesh is treated by the administration of emetics
+(what poison isn’t), lemon-juice, tannin, coffee, ammonia,
+strychnine, atropine, spirit of nitrous ether. Electricity and
+artificial respiration are often useful.
+
+A strange thing about hasheesh is that an overdose has never produced
+death in man or the lower animals. Not one authentic case is on
+record in which Cannabis or any of its preparations destroyed life.
+We thus have a poison which lacks a maximum and a fatal dose. Indeed,
+if we desire to be finical, we can claim that according to what
+is now considered the best definition of a poison, Cannabis is no
+poison at all, for the aforesaid best definition defines a poison
+as “any substance which is capable of causing death, otherwise than
+mechanically, when introduced into the body or applied to it”--and
+Cannabis does not seem capable of causing death by chemical or
+physiological action.
+
+“Hemp,” says Professor Horatio C. Wood, “is not a dangerous drug;
+even the largest doses of its active preparations, altho causing most
+alarming symptoms, do not compromise life.”
+
+“We have never been able,” testify Drs. Houghton and Hamilton, “to
+give an animal a sufficient quantity of the drug to produce death.
+When study of the drug was first commenced, careful search on the
+literature of the subject was made to determine its toxicity. Not a
+single case of fatal poisoning have we been able to find reported,
+altho often alarming symptoms may occur. A dog weighing about 25
+pounds received an injection of 2 ounces of the U. S. P. fluidextract
+in the jugular vein, with the expectation that it would certainly
+be sufficient to kill the animal. To our surprise the animal after
+being unconscious for about a day and a half, recovered completely.
+Another dog received about 7 grams of the solid extract with the
+same result.”
+
+That herbivorous animals are even less affected by it I know from
+my own simple experiments. I gave a rabbit a drachm and a half of
+the fluidextract of cannabis. No sooner did I release the animal
+than it began to nibble a commonplace vegetable, indifferent to
+the circumstance that it had been baptised with the most precious
+opiate of the orient. For four hours I watched this member of the
+genus _Lepus_, but no physical effects could be observed, while the
+mild expression of its gentle eyes induced me to conclude that all
+mental manifestations were lacking to such a degree that the bunny
+still worshiped the rather material trinity of crackers, carrots and
+cabbages. This rabbit was sold to an experienced dealer, and sometime
+later while passing the store, I learnt it had become the sire of a
+goodly progeny, but what I really would like to learn is this: will
+those little innocent rabbits--with their asinine ears and angelic
+eyes--ever know of their father’s enforced hasheesh debauch?
+
+Few creatures have so slight a hold on life as the pretty
+guinea-pig--which does not come from Guinea and is not a pig. A
+blow of the hand, a bit of moisture, a breath of cold, and their
+squealing is done. But they do not mind cannabis. I chose a fine
+fellow, anesthetized his glossy back with ethyl chloride, and then
+by means of a hypodermic syringe injected 100 minims of the powerful
+fluidextract into his circulation. There were no results. After the
+elapse of some hours the generous cavy so far forgot the incident as
+to pull some sweet-pea pods from my hand.
+
+Dr. O’Shaughnessy says that all his experiments “tended to
+demonstrate that, while carnivorous animals and fish, dogs, cats,
+swine, vultures, crows, and adjutants invariably and speedily
+exhibited the intoxicating influence of the drug, the graminivorous,
+such as the horse, deer, monkey, goat, sheep, and cow, experienced
+but trivial effects from any dose we administered.” Lieutaud and
+Mabillat say the same.
+
+Up to this period we have considered hasheesh from the historic,
+botanic, microscopic, chemic, physiologic, therapeutic and
+pharmacologic viewpoints: what then remains? Why, friends, the best
+is yet to be, the last for which the first was made--as Browning
+would say.
+
+Why has everyone heard of opium? Because of its somnifacient and
+myotic properties? No, but because sixty million pounds are consumed
+by people for the purpose of pleasure. It is the same with hasheesh.
+All heathens use it to increase their joys: Moors, Mohammedans,
+Malays, Burmese, Siamese, Hindoos, Hottentots, Australian Bushmen
+and Brazilian Indians--three hundred millions of them. The grateful
+Orientals have endowed their hasheesh with such epithets as exciter
+of desire, increaser of pleasure, cementer of friendship, leaf of
+delusion, the laughter-mover, causer of the reeling gait. “It is real
+happiness,” says Monsieur Moreau, and Herbert Spencer quotes the
+sentence in his _Principles of Psychology_,--“It is real happiness
+which hasheesh causes.”
+
+It is unreasonable to suppose that a powerful narcotic like cannabis
+will produce uniform results in all instances, when it is notorious
+that even coffee affects different people in different ways; one
+lady drinks tea to keep her awake at night, and her neighbor
+drinks it to put her asleep; an Havana cigar irritates Brown and
+tranquillizes Jones; a glass of grog causes one man to beat his
+children, and induces another to give away his coat to strangers.
+The constitutional peculiarity of the subject must always be taken
+into consideration: some folks are so absurd as to become afflicted
+with nettle-rash after partaking of delicious strawberries; others
+are poisoned by an egg; some become ill in the presence of the
+violet, and others faint when they smell the lily; Tissot mentions a
+person who vomited if he took a grain of sugar; Louis XIV had grand
+manners, but he preferred the odor of cat’s urine to that of the red
+rose. “Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean.”
+Idiosyncrasy may not be the star performer, but it certainly plays an
+important rôle in the therapeutic drama.
+
+No drug in the entire Materia Medica is capable of producing
+such a diversity of effects as cannabis indica. “Of the action of
+hasheesh,” writes Professor Stillé, “many and various descriptions
+have been given which differ so widely among themselves that they
+would scarcely be supposed to apply to the same agent, had we not
+every day a no less remarkable instance of the same kind before us
+in the case of alcohol. As the latter enlivens or saddens, excites
+or depresses, fills with tenderness, or urges to brutality, imparts
+vigor and activity, or nauseates and weakens, so does the former give
+rise to even a still greater variety of phenomena, according to the
+natural disposition of the person, and his existing state of mind,
+the quantity of the drug, and the combinations in which it is taken.”
+
+And not only is there a contrariety and dissimilarity of action,
+but sometimes there is no action at all. Cannabis is certainly
+the coquette of drugdom. Take agaric, and it will stop your
+perspiration--take jaborandi, and it will sweat you half to death;
+take creosote, and it will prevent emesis--take ipecac, and it
+will vomit you till your very guts cry out for mercy; take eserine,
+and your pupils will contract--take atropine, and they will dilate;
+veratrine will make you sneeze, the dust of sanguinaria will give you
+a bloody nose, aloes will act on your lower bowel, podophyllum will
+work on the upper, squill will make you pass water by the quart, an
+injection of strychnine will stimulate you, a dose of morphine will
+put you in the arms of Morpheus,--but take cannabis, and who can
+predict the result? It may do wondrous things to you, and it may let
+you strictly alone.
+
+To a worker on the Associated Press named I. M. Norr, I gave 30
+minims of the fluidextract. There were no results. To a law student
+named Aaron Wolman, I gave 40 minims. There was no more effect than
+if he had taken 40 drops of water. It must be added, however, that
+these experimenters, instead of putting themselves in a receptive
+state, had determined beforehand to fight the influence of the drug.
+On the evening of May 18th, 1910, I gave 25 minims to Dr. Anna
+Mercy, and altho she threw herself at the shrine of science in a way
+that must have astonished the sober old altar of experiment, there
+were no results worth mentioning, except that while in the evening
+she looked respectable, in the morning she looked disreputable.
+
+Had all my experiments turned out thus, this essay would never have
+been written. But I have had results fully as interesting as those
+achieved by O’Shaughnessy, Moreau, Mabillat, Reidel, Schroff, Wood,
+Bell, Christison, Aubert, and many others, including our gifted
+traveler-poet Bayard Taylor.
+
+My brother Frederic Robinson took 25 minims in the presence of
+some ladies whom he had invited to witness the fun. An hour passed
+without results. A second hour followed, but--to use the slang of
+the street--there was nothing doing. The third hour promised to
+be equally fruitless, and as it was already late in the evening,
+the ladies said good-by. No sooner did they leave the room, than I
+heard the hasheesh-laugh. The hemp was doing its work. In a shrill
+voice my brother was exclaiming, “What foo-oolish people, what
+foo-oo-ool-ish people to leave just when the show is beginning.”
+The ladies came back. And it was a show. Frederic made Socialistic
+speeches, and argued warmly for the cause of Woman Suffrage. He grew
+most affectionate and insisted on holding a lady’s hand. His face was
+flushed, his eyes were half closed, his abdomen seemed uneasy, but
+his spirit was happy. He sang, he rhymed, he declaimed, he whistled,
+he mimicked, he acted. He pleaded so passionately for the rights of
+Humanity that it seemed he was using up the resources of his system.
+But he was tireless. With both hands he gesticulated, and would brook
+no interruption.
+
+Peculiar ideas suggested themselves. For instance, he said something
+was “sheer nonsense,” and then reasoned as follows: “Since shears are
+the same as scissors, instead of sheer nonsense I can say scissors
+nonsense.” He also said, “I will give you a kick in the tickle”--and
+was much amused by the expression.
+
+At all times he recognized those about him, and remained conscious
+of his surroundings. When the approach of dawn forced the ladies
+to depart, Frederic made a somewhat unsavory joke, and immediately
+exclaimed triumphantly, “I wouldn’t have said that if the ladies
+were here for a million dollars.” Someone yawned deeply, and being
+displeased by the unexpected appearance of a gaping orifice, Frederic
+melodramatically gave utterance to this Gorky-like phrase: “From
+the depths of dirtiness and despair there rose a sickly odorous
+yawn”--and instantly he remarked that the first portion of this
+sentence was alliterative! Is it not strange that such consciousness
+and such intoxication can exist in the same brain simultaneously?
+
+The next day he remembered all that occurred, was in excellent
+spirits, laughed much and easily, and felt himself above the petty
+things of this world.
+
+On May 19th, 1910, this world was excited over the visit of Halley’s
+comet. It is pleasant to remember that the celestial guest attracted
+as much attention as a political campaign or a game of baseball.
+On the evening of this day, at 10 o’clock, I gave 45 minims to a
+court stenographer named Henry D. Demuth. At 11.30 the effects of
+the drug became apparent, and Mr. Demuth lost consciousness of his
+surroundings to such an extent that he imagined himself an inhabitant
+of Sir Edmund Halley’s nebulous planet. He despised the earth and
+the dwellers thereon; he called it a miserable little flea-bite,
+and claimed its place in the cosmos was no more important than a
+flea-jump. With a scornful finger he pointed below, and said in a
+voice of contempt, “That little joke down there, called the earth.”
+
+“Victor,” he said, “you’re a fine fellow, you’re the smartest man in
+Harlem, you’ve got the god in you, but the best thoughts you write
+are low compared to the things we think up here.” A little later he
+condescended to take me up with him, and said, “Victor, we’re up in
+the realm now, and we’ll make money when we get down on that damned
+measly earth again; they respect Demuth on earth.”
+
+He imitated how Magistrate Butts calls a prisoner to
+the bar. “Butts,” he explained, “is the best of them.
+Butts--Buts--cigarette-butts.” If this irrelevant line should ever
+fall beneath the dignified eyes of His Honor, instead of fining
+his devoted stenographer for contempt of court, may he bear in his
+learned mind the fact that under the influence of narcotics men are
+mentally irresponsible.
+
+By this time Mr. Demuth’s vanity was enormous. “God, Mark Twain and I
+are chums,” he remarked casually. “God is wise, and I am wise. And to
+think that people _dictate_ to me!”
+
+He imagined he had material for a great book. “I’m giving you the
+thoughts; slap them down, we’ll make a fortune and go whacks.
+We’ll make a million. I’ll get half and Vic will get half. With
+half a million we’ll take it easy for a while on this damned
+measly earth. We’ll live till a hundred and two, and then we’ll
+skedaddle didoo. At one hundred and two it will be said of Henry
+Disque Demuth that he shuffled off this mortal coil. We’ll skip
+into the great idea--hooray! hooray! Take down everything that is
+signifi_cant_--with an accent on the _cant_--Immanuel Kant was a wise
+man, and I’m a wise man; I am wise, because I’m wise.”
+
+It is to be regretted that in spite of all the gabble concerning
+the volume that was to make both of us rich, not even one line was
+dictated by the inspired author. In fact he got no further than the
+title, and it must be admitted that of all titles in the world, this
+is the least catchy. It is as follows: “Wise is God; God is Wise.”
+
+Later came a variation in the form of a hissing sound which was
+meant to be an imitation of the whizzing of Halley’s comet; there
+was a wild swinging of the sheets as a welcome to the President;
+a definition of religion as the greatest joke ever perpetrated;
+some hasheesh-laughter; and the utterance of this original epigram:
+Shakespeare, seltzer-beer, be cheerful.
+
+A little later all variations ceased, for the subject became a
+monomaniac, or at any rate, a fanatic. He became thoroly imbued with
+the great idea that the right attitude to preserve towards life is
+to take all things on earth as a joke. Hundreds and hundreds and
+hundreds of times he repeated: “The idea of the great idea, the idea
+of the great idea, the idea of the great idea.” No question could
+steer him out of this track. “Who’s up on the comet? Any pretty girls
+there?” asked Frederic. “The great idea is up there,” was the answer.
+
+“Where would you fall if you fell off the comet?”
+
+“I’d fall into the great idea.”
+
+“What do you do when you want to eat and have no money?”
+
+“You have to get the idea.”
+
+“When will you get married?”
+
+“When I get the idea.”
+
+Midnight came, and he was still talking about his great idea. At one
+o’clock I felt bored. “If you don’t talk about anything else except
+the idea, we’ll have to quit,” I said.
+
+“Yes,” he replied, “we’ll all quit, we’ll all be wrapped up in
+the great idea.” He took out his handkerchief to blow his nose,
+remarking, “The idea of my nose.” I approached him. “Don’t
+interfere,” he cried, “I’m off with the great idea.”
+
+I began to descend the stairs. When half way down I stopped to
+listen. He was still a monomaniac. Had he substituted the word
+thought or theory or conception or notion or belief or opinion or
+supposition or hypothesis or syllogism or tentative conjecture, I
+would have returned. But as I still heard only the idea of the great
+idea, I went to bed.
+
+In the morning his countenance was ashen, which formed a marked
+contrast to its extreme redness the evening before. He should have
+slept longer, but I thought of the duties to be performed for Judge
+Butts, and determined to arouse him, altho I knew my touch would
+cast him down from the glorious Halley’s comet to the measly little
+flea-bite of an earth, besides jarring the idea of the great idea.
+
+So I shook him, but instead of manifesting anger, he smiled and
+extended his hand cordially, as if he had not seen me for a long
+time. The effects of the drug had not entirely disappeared, and his
+friends at work thought him drunk, and asked with whom he had been
+out all night. Mr. Demuth was in first-class spirits, he bubbled over
+with idealism, and felt a contempt for all commercial transactions.
+He was the American Bernard Shaw, and looked upon the universe
+as a joke of the gods. While adding some figures of considerable
+importance--as salaries depended upon the results--a superintendent
+passed. Mr. Demuth pointed to the column that needed balancing, and
+asked, “This is all a joke, isn’t it?” Not appreciating the etiology
+of the query, the superintendent nodded and passed on.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One midnight, while preparing to retire, it occurred to Courtenay
+Lemon that this was a good time for him to try hasheesh. As I did
+not discourage him in the slightest degree, 30 minims were forthwith
+swallowed, with the result that the Socialist dramatic critic spent
+an unusual night. It must be remarked that over the bed on which
+he lay hangs a portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson. For an hour and a
+quarter we discussed various topics of mutual interest, such as
+decadent poetry, and Marx’s influence on the revolutionary youth of
+Russia. The conversation was cut short by the hasheesh-laugh.
+
+It had begun: the flood of laughter was loose, the deluge of mirth
+poured forth, the cascade of cachinnation rushed on till it swelled
+into a torrent of humor while the waves of snickering and tittering
+mingled with the freshets of hilarity and jollity till the whole
+flowed into a marvelous Niagara of merriment. What a pity the
+audience was so small! What a shame the old humorists could not be
+present! How the belly of Aristophanes would have thundered a loud
+_papapappax_, how Scarron would have grinned, how Sydney Smith would
+have enjoyed it, how Tom Moore would have held his aching sides,
+how Rabelais would have raised the rafters with his loud ho-ho-hos!
+But as these gentlemen were unavoidably detained elsewhere, I must
+testify that it was the funniest show on earth,--so here’s to you,
+Courtenay Lemon, you Leyden jar of laughter, charged to the limit.
+
+Never having been a disciple of good old Isaac Pitman, I could
+not record all that was said, but here are my notes: “I feel
+a satisfaction,” he says, “in seeing Emerson’s picture, as I
+always felt like laughing at him.” Rolls on the bed and laughs
+uncontrollably. “It makes my face tired,” he explains. In reply to
+my question, he answers that he enjoys laughing. Begins to expound
+something, but is stopped by a laughing fit. Says he would like to
+have his photo taken now, and then laughs immoderately. Says it
+doesn’t seem so much like laughing as like letting wind out of a
+bag. Says it is worth while staying up to see such a show. Giggles
+terrifically. Says “Open the window, as I am using up all the air.”
+Laughs loud and long. Strangely enough his laughter begins to sound
+exactly like a negro’s, as represented on the stage. He recognizes
+this and says “I’se laughin’ now jes’ like a niggah.” He is
+extraordinarily comical. From top to bottom his body is shaking with
+laughter. He twirls his arms, kicks his feet, and for the first time
+I understand what Milton meant when he wrote “the light fantastic
+toe.”
+
+“I feel as if any way I put my leg I have to keep it. If I stuck it
+in the air and kept it there--wouldn’t that be funny?” Loud laughing.
+Imitates the music of a military band. His eyes glisten with
+pleasure, his whole countenance is beaming, and he seems infinitely
+delighted with himself. “Forward march!” he exclaims. He plays a fife
+and beats a drum: Boom! Boom! Boom! Says sternly, “I don’t want this
+band to play any patriotic air, not even in my sleep.”
+
+“Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you a story. You think I’m a damn fool,
+don’t you?” Laughter. “This reminds me of a story.” Laughter. “O
+what a damn fool am I!” Laughter. “I’m going to tell that story,”
+he says determinedly. Makes several attempts, but it is a difficult
+feat, on account of the frequent outbursts of laughter, and because
+it is next to impossible for him to concentrate his thoughts. At last
+he gets this out: “A man said he hadn’t laughed so much since his
+mother-in-law died. Oh, how funny!”
+
+“Mr. Courtenay Lemon: Imitation of laughter. Pretty good, eh?” Makes
+a speech, imitates the gestures, and bows as politely as it is
+possible for one who is stretched out in bed.
+
+“This would be a good dope to try on a fellow who is accused of
+having no sense of humor. Oh, I’m getting funnier every minute.”
+
+“Emerson, O you, you were a kid once too, weren’t you? I don’t
+believe you ever were. If I had a rotten egg I’d throw it at you.”
+
+“There’s a blue phosphorescent light in your face,--.”
+
+“I’d rather laugh than vomit any day.” Strikes the bowl which was
+placed near him in case the cannabis produced emesis. “But I’m not a
+dog and I’ll not return to my vomit. That dog was a damn fool. There
+are a lot of things in the Bible that are damn fool things.”
+
+“I’ve been doing all sorts of laughter. Couldn’t you have a system of
+prosody, and divide it off into feet like poetry, and have a Laughing
+Poet whose contributions would be accepted by the comic papers?”
+Whistles and sings and drums rhythmically with his finger-tips on the
+bowl.
+
+When I confirm a statement of his by answering “Yes,” he says, “Don’t
+be butting in, Victor, this is my show.” Points his finger at me and
+laughs. Sensations must be very acute, for while clearing my throat
+to say something, but before uttering anything, he hears me and
+exclaims. “There you go, butting in again. But don’t be afraid, I’m
+not getting pugnacious; it all ends in laughter.” But for a moment
+does become quarrelsome.
+
+“I had a good thought, but I don’t know what’s best: to stick to the
+thought or stick to the laughter?”
+
+“If Chauncey Depew should be wrecked in the New York Central,
+wouldn’t that be funny? Would it be poetic justice? No, it would be
+the justice of laughter. Oh, it would be the laughter of the gods!”
+He raises himself and swings his arm dramatically. Laughter leaps
+from his insides as if it were a geyser spouting up, and rushes from
+his lips as if it were a cataract bounding down a boulder.
+
+He theorizes about egoism and Max Stirner, but I can not jot down the
+reflection in its entirety.
+
+He says I have no sense of humor to sit there taking notes, instead
+of joining him in laughing.
+
+“Of course you understand why I am laughing. But your old cook--if
+she hears me, she’ll send for the police.”
+
+“It’s too bad that when I’m having such a good time, I should be
+troubled by a dry taste in the mouth. It’s another evidence that the
+world was created by a damn fool or a lunatic. There is always some
+little thing that interferes.”
+
+Talks sensibly awhile, and then says impatiently: “I want to stop all
+this talking, and get to laughing again. I’m not complaining about
+the effects from hasheesh, because I consider it worth everything.”
+
+“Oh, tell me, pretty maiden, why can’t a little canary bird whistle
+a symphony, for instance, Tchaykovsky’s _Le Pathetique_?” Whistles,
+waves his hand fantastically. “As damn little as I know about music,
+not having been gifted by nature in that direction”--twists his arms
+in a grotesque manner--“I’m able to get a bunch out of Tchaykovsky. I
+don’t mean Comrade Tchaykovsky, the revolutionist in Russia, I mean
+Peter Ilitch Tchaykovsky. The itch of that Ilitch--it seems like a
+personal ailment, it sounds insulting.”
+
+Throws a piece of paper at me, but says, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll break
+no bones.”
+
+I ask him to tell the time. He gazes intently at the clock, and says,
+“I want to get it exactly on the fraction of a second. But it changes
+so quickly, I can’t.” Gives it up in disgust.
+
+Claims a heavy feeling is creeping over him, and wonders if it is due
+to increased blood-pressure. “But what am I beginning to talk serious
+for? I could keep on laughing for a couple of weeks, except that I
+don’t want to keep you up.”
+
+“If Spencer had been more of a sport and had taken some of this
+stuff, he would have had material for his essay, _The Physiology
+of Laughter_.” To see a man drugged with hasheesh quoting the
+profoundest of synthetic philosophers is too much for my gravity, and
+for a moment my scream of laughter eclipses even his.
+
+“Ah, I’m beginning to get light again. It’s much nicer to be light
+and delicate. To be a filmy butterfly, and float in fancy,”--his face
+assumes an expression of poetic beauty, and he speculates whether man
+should live a life of beauty or of duty.
+
+“Oh, I’m willing to laugh....” Throws off the blankets and cries,
+“Throw off the bonds of all existence!”
+
+I ask him what day it is. “I hope,” says he, with a melodramatic wave
+of the hand, “I will express the modest hope, that in accordance
+to my wishes, and in conformity to my desires, it is Sunday night!
+Sunday night! Sunday night!”
+
+Sits up, looks at me roughishly and laughs.
+
+“I feel a metalliferous touch within me.” “I’d rather have a cramp in
+my leg than in my brain. Some people would call this a brain-cramp,
+wouldn’t they?” Laughs, kicks up his legs.
+
+“If you got erotic while laughing, wouldn’t it be blasphemy? Worse
+than laughing in church.”
+
+“Have no illusions of death yet. I am still in a position to laugh
+death in the face, to laugh death in the face, to laugh ...”--and he
+proves it. He claps his hands together merrily.
+
+Has a lucid moment, looks at the clock, and says simply and
+correctly, “10 to 3.”
+
+Imitates a Frenchman most admirably, accent, gestures, etc.
+
+The door opens, and my father--who has found it impossible to sleep
+with a roaring volcano in the house--enters. I ask Mr. Lemon to tell
+my father about Chauncey Depew and the Grand Central. Mr. Lemon is
+highly pleased, and repeats the story with intense zest. He enlarges
+it, and claims Depew has got Elbert Hubbard beat as a hypocrite. He
+says all who believe Depew deserves to be killed should signify it
+by saying Aye, and then he himself, as if he were a whole assembly,
+shouts out, Aye! Aye! Aye! “The Ayes have it,” he announces with the
+air of a man who has just won an important victory. My father and I
+laugh heartily. There is no limit to Mr. Lemon’s happiness. “That’s
+right,” he says, “it’s good, take it down, old man.”
+
+He cannot bear a moment’s abstinence from laughter. “Cast aside
+all irrelevant hypotheses, and get to the laughing. I proclaim the
+supremacy of the laugh, laughter inextinguishable, laughter eternal,
+the divine laughter of the gods.”
+
+My father leaves the room. “Everything has a comic element if you
+look at it right. It seemed to me that your father went down into the
+cellar because he couldn’t sleep on account of my damn foolishness.”
+He wallows in amusement, but at the same time expresses sincere
+regret that he is preventing my father and me from sleeping, and says
+next time he will take hasheesh in the daytime.
+
+My father re-enters, and desires to feel his pulse. At first Mr.
+Lemon objects vehemently to being touched, but then smiles the
+sweetest of smiles, and with the demeanor of a martyred Bruno
+marching to the stake, stretches forth his hand, saying, “In the
+interests of science I am willing.” But after a few seconds Mr. Lemon
+pulls his hand impatiently away, and exclaims angrily, “You’ve been
+holding it half an hour.” His pulse is about 100.
+
+“Come on in, the hasheesh is fine! You laugh and laugh and laugh and
+laugh like an imbecile. Who can laugh in more ways than me? Not any
+fellow that I can see.”
+
+Begins to philosophize about savages, but loses the thread of his
+thoughts. I remind him what he was talking about; he thinks a moment,
+taps his forehead significantly, and says, “There was a laugh there
+before, and now I’ve lost it.”
+
+“Every tick of the clock is another instant that you’re wasting time
+over this damn foolishness.”
+
+“Laughter is indisputable and for its own sake. I proclaim the laugh
+for the laugh’s sake.” The English tongue is insufficient for him; he
+coins words of his own: “Laughfinity!” he shouts. “Laughinosity!” he
+screams. “The whole world is a blooming joke.”
+
+“Which is best,” he asks innocently, “the Laughing Goddess, or the
+Goddess of Laughter?” “The Laughing Goddess,” answers my father.
+Exultation shines thru the dilated pupils of the questioner, as he
+responds, “I knew I would catch you. The Laughing Goddess reminds you
+by the association of ideas of the laughing hyena, and then instead
+of being the goddess presiding over the divine function of laughter,
+she becomes a laughing stock.”
+
+I ask him something about figures. “Figures,” he answers, “are
+intellectually beneath me. In short, I would never be a great
+mathematician. Yet I appreciate the metaphysics of mathematics. I
+adore, I prostrate myself before mathematics as long as there are no
+figures in it.” Hearing our laughter, he explains, “Yet this isn’t so
+foolish as it seems. Up to a certain point in geometry there are no
+figures.”
+
+“I would have talked more sensibly if Emerson had not been there.”
+Bangs his legs against the edge of the bed; my father asks him if he
+hurt himself. “Not on a material plane; it was a psychic jar of which
+you cannot conceive.”
+
+Speaks in a declamatory tone: “I am all the time on the borderline
+between Science and Folly. Which god shall ye follow, young man?”
+
+My father tells him he can stop laughing if he wishes. “No, sir,”
+comes the emphatic response, “not if you lived in my world. It is a
+categorical imperative in the world of hasheesh: Thou shalt laugh.”
+
+It is already four o’clock in the morning. I am loath to leave this
+frolicsome dynamo of blithesomeness, this continuous current of
+good-cheer, this generator of joyousness, but there is a hard day’s
+work before me and I need a little sleep, so with a last look at his
+Mirthful Majesty, I leave him alone in his glory and his giggles.
+
+Four hours later I peep in. The intellectual merry-andrew who
+criticizes the Concord Transcendentalist and juggles philosophic
+conceptions even under the effects of dope, is motionless. Lassitude
+has usurped the throne of laughter.
+
+I cannot tell what effect the reading of this case will produce on
+others, but in me it awakens such risibility that I hope never to
+think of it on an occasion when silence or solemnity is enjoined;
+for if I do, there is danger of my being ejected as unceremoniously
+as was Washington Irving on the day he laughed at _The Art of Book
+Making_, in the grave sanctuary of the British Museum.
+
+There yet remains my own case. On March 4th, 1910, I came home,
+feeling very tired. I found that some cannabis indica which I had
+expected had arrived. After supper, while finishing up an article, I
+began to debate with myself whether I should join the hasheesh-eaters
+that night. The argument ended in my taking 20 minims at 9 o’clock.
+I was alone in the room, and no one was aware that I had yielded to
+temptation. An hour later I wrote in my memoranda book: Absolutely
+no effect. At 10.30, I completed my article, and entered this note:
+No effect at all from the hemp. By this time I was exhausted, and
+being convinced that the hasheesh would not act, I went to bed in
+disappointment. I fell asleep immediately.
+
+I hear music. There is something strange about this music. I have
+not heard such music before. The anthem is far away, but in its very
+faintness there is a lure. In the soft surge and swell of the minor
+notes there breathes a harmony that ravishes the sense of sound.
+A resonant organ, with a stop of sapphire and a diapason of opal,
+diffuses endless octaves from star to star. All the moon-beams form
+strings to vibrate the perfect pitch, and this entrancing unison is
+poured into my enchanted ears. Under such a spell, who can remain in
+a bed? The magic of that melody bewitches my soul. I begin to rise
+horizontally from my couch. No walls impede my progress, and I float
+into the outside air. Sweeter and sweeter grows the music, it bears
+me higher and higher, and I float in tune with the infinite--under
+the turquoise heavens where globules of mercury are glittering.
+
+I become an unhindered wanderer thru unending space. No air-ship
+can go here, I say. I am astonished at the vastness of infinity. I
+always knew it was large, I argue, but I never dreamt it was as huge
+as this. I desire to know how fast I am floating thru the air, and I
+calculate that it must be about a billion miles a second.
+
+I am transported to wonderland. I walk in streets where gold is dirt,
+and I have no desire to gather it. I wonder whether it is worth while
+to explore the canals of Mars, or rock myself on the rings of Saturn,
+but before I can decide, a thousand other fancies enter my excited
+brain.
+
+I wish to see if I can concentrate my mind sufficiently to recite
+something, and I succeed in correctly quoting this stanza from a
+favorite poem which I am perpetually re-reading:
+
+   “Come into the garden, Maud,
+      For the black bat, night, has flown,
+    Come into the garden, Maud,
+      I am here at the gate alone;
+    And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
+      And the musk of the rose is blown.”
+
+It occurs to me that it is high honor for Tennyson to have his poetry
+quoted in heaven.
+
+I turn, I twist, I twirl. I melt, I fade, I dissolve. No diaphanous
+cloud is so light and airy as I. I admire the ease with which I
+float. My gracefulness fills me with delight. My body is not subject
+to the law of gravitation. I sail dreamily along, lost in exquisite
+intoxication.
+
+New scenes of wonder continually unravel themselves before my
+astonished eyes. I say to myself that if I could only record one
+one-thousandth of the ideas which come to me every second, I would be
+considered a greater poet than Milton.
+
+I am on the top of a high mountain-peak. I am alone--only the
+romantic night envelops me. From a distant valley I hear the gentle
+tinkling of cow-bells. I float downwards, and find immense fields
+in which peacock’s tails are growing. They wave slowly, to better
+exhibit their dazzling ocelli, and I revel in the gorgeous colors. I
+pass over mountains and I sail over seas. I am the monarch of the air.
+
+I hear the songs of women. Thousands of maidens pass near me, they
+bend their bodies in the most charming curves, and scatter beautiful
+flowers in my fragrant path. Some faces are strange, some I knew on
+earth, but all are lovely. They smile, and sing and dance. Their bare
+feet glorify the firmament. It is more than flesh can stand. I grow
+sensual unto satyriasis. The aphrodisiac effect is astonishing in its
+intensity. I enjoy all the women of the world. I pursue countless
+maidens thru the confines of heaven. A delicious warmth suffuses my
+whole body. Hot and blissful I float thru the universe, consumed
+with a resistless passion. And in the midst of this unexampled and
+unexpected orgy, I think of the case reported by the German Dr.
+Reidel, about a drug-clerk who took a huge dose of hasheesh to enjoy
+voluptuous visions, but who heard not even the rustle of Aphrodite’s
+garment, and I laugh at him in scorn and derision.
+
+I sigh deeply, open my eyes, and find myself sitting with one foot
+in bed, and the other on my desk. I am bathed in warm sweat which is
+pleasant. But my head aches, and there is a feeling in my stomach
+which I recognize and detest. It is nausea. I pull the basket near
+me, and await the inevitable result. At the same time I feel like
+begging for mercy, for I have traveled so far and so long, and I am
+tired beyond limit, and I need a rest. The fatal moment approaches,
+and I lower my head for the easier deposition of the rising burden.
+And my head seems monstrously huge, and weighted with lead. At last
+the deed is done, and I lean back on the pillow.
+
+I hear my sister come home from the opera. I wish to call her. My
+sister’s name is Ellen. I try to say it, but I cannot. The effort
+is too much. I sigh in despair. It occurs to me that I may achieve
+better results if I compromise on Nell, as this contains one syllable
+instead of two. Again I am defeated. I am too weary to exert myself
+to any extent, but I am determined. I make up my mind to collect all
+my strength, and call out: Nell. The result is a fizzle. No sound
+issues from my lips. My lips do not move. I give it up. My head falls
+on my breast, utterly exhausted and devoid of all energy.
+
+Again my brain teems. Again I hear that high and heavenly harmony,
+again I float to the outposts of the universe and beyond, again I see
+the dancing maidens with their soft yielding bodies, white and warm.
+I am excited unto ecstasy. I feel myself a brother to the Oriental,
+for the same drug which gives him joy is now acting on me. I am
+conscious all the time, and I say to myself in a knowing way with
+a suspicion of a smile: All these visions because of 20 minims of
+cannabis indica. My only regret is that the trances are ceaseless. I
+wish respite, but for answer I find myself floating over an immense
+ocean. Then the vision grows so wondrous, that body and soul I give
+myself up to it, and I taste the fabled joys of paradise. Ah, what
+this night is worth!
+
+The music fades, the beauteous girls are gone, and I float no more.
+But the black rubber covering of my typewriter glows like a chunk
+of yellow phosphorus. By one door stands a skeleton with a luminous
+abdomen and brandishes a wooden sword. By the other door a little
+red devil keeps guard. I open my eyes wide, I close them tight, but
+these spectres will not vanish. I know they are not real, I know I
+see them because I took hasheesh, but they annoy me nevertheless. I
+become uncomfortable, even frightened. I make a superhuman effort,
+and succeed in getting up and lighting the gas. It is two o’clock.
+Everything is the way it should be, except that in the basket I
+notice the remains of an orange--somewhat the worse for wear.
+
+I feel relieved, and fall asleep. Something is handling me, and I
+start in fright. I open my eyes and see my father. He has returned
+from a meeting at the Academy of Medicine, and surprised at seeing
+a light in my room at such a time, has entered. He surmises what
+I have done, and is anxious to know what quantity I have taken. I
+should have answered, with a wink, _quantum sufficit_, but I have no
+inclination for conversation; on hearing the question repeated, I
+answer, “Twenty minims.” He tells me I look as pale as a ghost, and
+brings me a glass of water. I drink it, become quite normal, and
+thus ends the most wonderful night of my existence.
+
+In the morning my capacity for happiness is considerably increased. I
+have an excellent appetite, the coffee I sip is nectar, and the white
+bread ambrosia. I take my camera, and walk to Central Park. It is a
+glorious day. Everyone I meet is idealized. The lake never looked so
+placid before. I enter the hot-houses, and a gaudy-colored insect
+buzzing among the lovely flowers fills me with joy. I am too languid
+to take any pictures; to set the focus, to use the proper stop, to
+locate the image, to press the bulb--all these seem herculean feats
+which I dare not even attempt. But I walk and walk, without apparent
+effort, and my mind eagerly dwells on the brilliant pageantry of the
+night before. I do not wish to forget my frenzied nocturnal revelry
+upon the vast dome of the broad blue heavens. I wish to remember
+forever, the floating, the mercury-globules, the peacock-feathers,
+the colors, the music, the women. In memory I enjoy the carnival all
+over again.
+
+“For the brave Meiamoun,” writes Theophile Gautier, “Cleopatra
+danced; she was apparelled in a robe of green, open at either
+side; castanets were attached to her alabaster hands.... Poised on
+the pink tips of her little feet, she approached swiftly to graze
+his forehead with a kiss; then she recommenced her wondrous art,
+and flitted around him, now backward-leaning, with head reversed,
+eyes half-closed, arms lifelessly relaxed, locks uncurled and
+loose-hanging like a bacchante of Mount Maenalus; now again active,
+animated, laughing, fluttering, more tireless and capricious in her
+movements than the pilfering bee. Heart-consuming love, sensual
+pleasure, burning passion, youth inexhaustible and ever-fresh, the
+promise of bliss to come--she expressed all.... The modest stars had
+ceased to contemplate the scene; their golden eyes could not endure
+such a spectacle; the heaven itself was blotted out, and a dome of
+flaming vapor covered the hall.”
+
+But for me a thousand Cleopatras caroused--and did not present
+me a vase of poison to drain at a draught. Again I repeated to
+myself: “And all these charming miracles because of 20 minims of
+_Fluidextractum Cannabis Indicæ_, U. S. P.”
+
+By the afternoon I had so far recovered as to be able to concentrate
+my mind on technical studies. I will not attempt to interpret my
+visions psychologically, but I wish to refer to one aspect. Spencer,
+in _Principles of Psychology_, mentions hasheesh as possessing the
+power of reviving ideas. I found this to be the case. I spoke about
+air-ships because there had been a discussion about them at supper;
+I quoted from Tennyson’s _Maud_ because I had been re-reading it;
+I saw mercury-globules in the heavens because that same day I had
+worked with mercury in preparing mercurial plaster; and I saw the
+peacock-tails because a couple of days previous I had been at the
+Museum of Natural History and had closely observed a magnificent
+specimen. I cannot account for the women.
+
+All poets--with the possible exception of Margaret Sangster--have
+celebrated Alcohol, while Rudyard Kipling has gone so far as to
+solemnize delirium tremens; B. V. has glorified Nicotine; DeQuincy
+has immortalized Opium; Murger is full of praise for Caffeine; Dumas
+in _Monte Cristo_ has apotheosized Hasheesh, Gautier has vivified
+it in _Club des Hachichins_, Baudelaire has panegyrized it in
+_Artificial Paradises_, but as few American pens have done so, I have
+taken it upon myself to write a sonnet to the most interesting plant
+that blooms:
+
+    Near Punjab and Pab, in Sutlej and Sind,
+    Where the cobras-di-capello abound,
+    Where the poppy, palm and the tamarind,
+    With cummin and ginger festoon the ground--
+    And the capsicum fields are all abloom,
+    From the hills above to the vales below,
+    Entrancing the air with a rich perfume,
+    There too does the greenish Cannabis grow:
+    Inflaming the blood with the living fire,
+    Till the burning joys like the eagles rise,
+    And the pulses throb with a strange desire,
+    While passion awakes with a wild surprise:--
+    O to eat that drug, and to dream all day,
+    Of the maids that live by the Bengal Bay!
+
+
+
+
+                               APPENDIX
+
+
+Mr. Courtenay Lemon has written the following memorandum of the
+subjective features of his experience:
+
+The first symptom which told me that the drug was beginning to
+take effect was a feeling of extreme lightness. I seemed to be
+hollowing out inside, in some magical manner, until I became a mere
+shell, ready to float away into space. This was soon succeeded,
+in one of the breathless intervals of my prodigious laughter, by
+a diametrically opposite sensation of extreme solidity and leaden
+weight. It seemed to me that I had changed into metal of some sort.
+There was a metallic taste in my mouth; in some inexplicable way
+the surfaces of my body seemed to communicate to my consciousness a
+metalliferous feeling; and I imagined that if struck I would give
+forth a metallic ring. This heavy and metallic feeling travelled
+rapidly upwards from the feet to the chest, where it stopped, leaving
+my head free for the issuance of the storms of laughter. Most of
+the time my arms and legs seemed to be so leaden that it required
+Herculean effort to move them, but under any special stimulus, such
+as the entrance of a third person, the vagrant conception of a
+new idea, or an unusually hearty fit of laughing, this feeling of
+unliftable heaviness in the limbs and torso would be forgotten and I
+would move freely, waving my arms with great vigor and enthusiasm.
+
+Thruout the experiment I experienced a peculiar double consciousness.
+I was perfectly aware that my laughter, etc., was the result of
+having taken the drug, yet I was powerless to stop it, nor did I
+care to do so, for I enjoyed it as thoroly as if it had arisen from
+natural causes. In the same way the extension of the sense of time
+induced by the drug was in itself indubitable and as cogent as any
+normal evidence of the senses, yet I remained able to convince myself
+at any moment by reflection that my sense of time was fallacious.
+I divided these impressions into hasheesh-time and real time. But
+in their alternations, so rapid as to seem simultaneous, both these
+standards of time seemed equally valid. For instance, once or twice
+when my friend spoke of something I had said a second before, I was
+impatient and replied: “What do you want to go back to that for? That
+was a long time ago. What’s the use of going back into the past?”
+At the next moment, however, I would recognize, purely as a matter
+of logic, that he was replying to the sentence before the last that
+I had uttered, and would thus realize that the remark to which he
+referred was separated from the present only by a moment’s interval.
+I did not, however, at any time on this occasion, attain the state
+sometimes reached in the second stage of hasheesh intoxication in
+which mere time disappears in an eternity wherein ages rush by like
+ephemera; nor did I experience any magnification of the sense of
+space, my experiences in regard to such extensions being confined to
+an intermittent multiplication of the sense of time.
+
+When my laughter began it seemed for an instant to be mechanical, as
+if produced by some external power which forced air in and out of
+my lungs; it seemed for an instant to proceed from the body rather
+than from the mind; to be, in its inception, merely physical laughter
+without a corresponding psychic state of amusement. But this was only
+momentary. After the first few moments I enjoyed laughing immensely.
+I felt an inclination to joke as well as to laugh, and I remember
+saying: “I am going to have some reason for this laughing, so I will
+tell a story; if I have to laugh anyway, I’m going to supply good
+reasons for doing so, as it would be idiotic to laugh about nothing.”
+I thereupon proceeded to relate an anecdote. Altho I knew that my
+condition was the result of the drug, I was nevertheless filled with
+a genuine sense of profound hilarity, an eager desire to impart
+similar merriment to others, and a feeling of immense geniality and
+mirth, accompanied by sentiments of the most expansive good-will.
+
+Against the effects of the drug, much as I enjoyed and yielded to
+it, there was opposed a preconceived intention. I had determined
+to tell my friend Victor Robinson, who was taking notes of my
+condition, just how I felt; had determined to supply as much data
+as possible in regard to my sensations. The result was that I
+repeatedly summoned all the rational energy that remained to me, and
+fought desperately to express the thoughts that came to me, whether
+ridiculous or analytical. Sometimes when I felt myself slipping
+away again into laughter or dreaminess I summoned all my strength
+to say what I had in mind, and would lose the thread of my thought
+and could not remember what I wanted to say, but would return to it
+again and again with the utmost determination and tenacity until I
+succeeded in saying what I wished to--sometimes an observation about
+my sensations, often only a jest about my condition. I believe that
+this acted as a great resistant to the effect of the drug. The energy
+of the drug was dissipated, I think, in overcoming my will to observe
+and analyze my sensations, and it was probably for this reason that
+I did not pass very far on this occasion into the second stage
+in which laughter gives place to grandiose visions and charming
+hallucinations.
+
+After my friend Victor and his father turned out the light and left
+the room, my laughter gradually subsided into a few final gurgles of
+ineffable mirth and benevolence, and after a period of the amorous
+visions sometimes induced by this philtre from the land of harems,
+I fell into a sound sleep after my three hours of continuous and
+exhausting laughter.
+
+I awoke next morning after seven hours sleep, with a ravenous
+appetite, which I think was probably as much due to the great
+expenditure of energy in laughing as to any direct effect of the drug
+itself. I was also very thirsty and my skin was parched and burning.
+Altho I immediately dressed and went down to breakfast, I felt very
+drowsy and disinclined to physical exertion or mental concentration.
+And while no longer given to causeless laughter, I felt a lingering
+merriment and was easily moved to chuckling. I slept several hours in
+the afternoon and after dinner I slept all evening, awaking at 11
+P. M., when I arose feeling very much refreshed and entirely normal,
+and went out to get another meal, being still hungry. I should say
+that the immediate after-effect, the reaction from the stimulation
+of hasheesh, is not much greater, except for the drowsiness, than
+that following the common or beer garden variety of intoxication. My
+memory of what I said and did while under the hasheesh was complete
+and accurate.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note:
+
+Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
+this_. Those in bold are surrounded by equal signs, =like this=.
+Obsolete and alternative spellings were retained. Nine misspelled
+words were corrected; a missing accent was added to “Médecine;” one
+instance of “DeMuth” was changed to Demuth.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77838 ***
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+      An essay on hasheesh | Project Gutenberg
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77838 ***</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+<h1>
+AN ESSAY ON
+HASHEESH
+</h1>
+
+<p class="center allsmcap">INCLUDING</p>
+
+<p class="center">OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS</p>
+
+<p class="p2 center">BY<br>
+<span class="larger">VICTOR ROBINSON</span></p>
+
+<p class="center tall"><i>Contributing Editor, Medical Review of Reviews</i>,<br>
+<i>Pharmaceutical Chemist, Columbia University</i>,<br>
+<i>Member of the American Chemical Society</i>,<br>
+<i>Author of</i> “<i>Pathfinders in Medicine</i>.”</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp10" id="colophon" style="max-width: 5.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/colophon.jpg" alt="Colophon">
+</figure>
+
+<p class="p4 center">MEDICAL REVIEW OF REVIEWS<br>
+<span class="allsmcap">TWO HUNDRED AND SIX BROADWAY<br>
+NEW YORK</span><br>
+1912</p>
+</div><!--end title page-->
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center tall">
+<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1912</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">By</span> MEDICAL REVIEW OF REVIEWS
+</p>
+</div><!--end copyright-->
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="tall">“What is left for us modern men? We cannot
+be Greek now. The cypress of knowledge
+springs, and withers when it comes in sight of
+Troy; the cypress of pleasure likewise, if it has
+not died already at the root of cankering Calvinism;
+the cypress of religion is tottering.
+What is left? Science, for those who are scientific.
+Art for artists; and all literary men are
+artists in a way. But science falls not to the
+lot of all. Art is hardly worth pursuing now.
+What is left? Hasheesh, I think: Hasheesh of
+one form or another. We can dull the pangs
+of the present by living the past again in reveries
+or learned studies, by illusions of the fancy
+and a life of self-indulgent dreaming. Take
+down the perfumed scrolls; open, unroll, peruse,
+digest, intoxicate your spirit with the flavor.
+Behold, here is the Athens of Plato in your
+narcotic visions; Buddha and his anchorites appear;
+the raptures of St. Francis and the fire-oblations
+of St. Dominic; the phantasms of mythologies;
+the birth-throes of religion, the neurotism
+of chivalry, the passion of past poems; all pass
+before you in your Maya world of hasheesh,
+which is criticism.”—<span class="smcap">John Addington Symonds.</span></p>
+</blockquote>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a><a id="Page_5"></a>[Pg 5]</span></p>
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="An_Essay_on_Hasheesh">
+    An Essay on Hasheesh
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">
+INCLUDING OBSERVATIONS AND
+EXPERIMENTS.<br>
+<br>
+By <span class="smcap">Victor Robinson</span>.
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>“And now, borne far thru the steaming air
+floats an odor, balsamic, startling; the odor
+of those plumes and stalks and blossoms from
+which is exuding freely the narcotic resin of
+the great nettle. The nostril expands quickly,
+the lungs swell out deeply to draw it in:
+fragrance once known in childhood, ever in
+the memory afterward, and able to bring back
+to the wanderer homesick thoughts of midsummer
+days in the shadowy, many-toned
+woods, over into which is blown the smell of
+the hemp-fields.”</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+  <span class="smcap">Allen</span>: <cite>The Reign of Law</cite>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">“At the mere vestibule of the temple I could
+have sat and drunk in ecstasy forever, but
+lo! I am yet more blessed. On silent hinges
+the doors swing open, and I pass in.”</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+  <span class="smcap">Ludlow</span>: <cite>The Hasheesh Eater</cite>.
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Ailing man has ransacked the world
+to find balms to ease him of his pains.
+And this is only natural, for what
+doth it profit a man if he gain the
+whole world and lose his digestion?
+Let the tiniest nerve be but inflamed,
+and it will bend the proudest spirit:
+humble is a hero with a toothache! It
+is doubtful if Buddha himself could
+have maintained his equanimity with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>a bit of dust on his conjunctiva. Cæsar
+had a fever—and the eye that
+awed the world did lose its lustre, and
+the tongue that bade the Romans
+write his speeches in their books cried
+like a sick girl. Our flesh is heir to
+many ills, and alas when the heritage
+falls due. Even pride and prejudice
+are then forgotten, and Irishmen in
+need of purgatives are willing to use
+rhubarb grown on English soil, while
+the Foreign Colombo gathered by the
+feral natives in the untamed forests of
+Quilimani is consumed by ladies who
+never saw anything wilder than a Fabian
+Socialist.</p>
+
+<p>The modern descendant of Hippocrates
+draws his Materia Medica
+from the uttermost ends of the earth:
+linseed from busy Holland and floretted
+marigold from the exotic Levant;
+cuckoo’s cap from little Helvetia, and
+pepper-elder from ample Brazil; biting
+cubebs from spicy Borneo and
+fringed lichens from raw-winded Iceland;
+sweet flag from the ponds of
+Burmah, coto bark from the thickets
+of Bolivia, sleeping nightshade from
+the woods of Algeria, brownish rhatany
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>from the sands of Peru, purple
+crocus from the pastures of Greece,
+aromatic vanilla from the groves of
+Mexico, golden seal from the retreats
+of Canada, knotty aleppo from the
+plains of Kirghiz, fever-tree from the
+hills of Tasmania, white saunders
+from the mountains of Macassar.
+Idols are broken boldly nowadays, but
+the daughter of Æsculapius does not
+fear, for Hygeia knows she will always
+have a frenzied world of worshippers
+to kneel at her every shrine in
+every land.</p>
+
+<p>All the reservoirs of nature have
+been tapped to yield medicines for
+man. From the mineral kingdom we
+take the alkali metals, the nitrogen
+group, the compounds of oxygen, the
+healing waters, the halogens, the nitrate
+of silver, the sulphate of copper,
+the carbonate of sodium, the chloride
+of mercury, the hydroxide of potassium,
+the acetate of lead, the citrate
+of lithium, the oxide of calcium, and
+the similar salts of half a hundred elements
+from Aluminium to Zincum.</p>
+
+<p>From the vegetable kingdom we extract
+the potent alkaloid; all things
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>that blossom and bloom, we knead
+them as we list: the broad rhizome of
+iris, the wrinkled root of lappa, the
+inspissated juice of aloes, the flower-heads
+of anthemis, the outer rind of
+orange, the inner bark of cinnamon,
+the thin arillode of macis, the dense
+sclerotium of ergot, the ovoid kernel
+of nutmeg, the pitted seed of rapa,
+the pale spores of club-moss, the
+spongy pith of sassafras, the bitter
+wood of quassia, the smoothish bark
+of juglans, the unripe fruit of hemlock,
+the fleshy bulb of scilla, the brittle
+leaves of senna, the velvet thallus
+of agaric, the balsamic resin of benzoin,
+the scaly strobiles of hops, the
+styles and stigmas of zea.</p>
+
+<p>The animal kingdom has likewise
+been forced to bring tribute to its highest
+brother: we use in medicine the
+blood-sucking leech, the natural emulsion
+from the mammary glands of the
+cow, the internal fat from the abdomen
+of the hog, the coppery-green
+Spanish fly, the globular excrements
+of the leaping antelope, the fixed oil
+from the livers of the cod, the fresh
+bile of the stolid ox, the vitellus of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>hen’s egg, the fatty substance from the
+huge head of the sperm-whale, the
+odorous secretion of the musk-deer,
+the swimming-bladder of regal fish,
+the inner layer of the oyster-shell, the
+branched skeleton of the red polyp,
+the dried follicles of the boring
+beaver, the bony horns of the crimson
+deer, the thyreoid glands of the simple
+sheep, the coagulated serum from the
+blood of the horse, the wax and the
+honey from the hive of the busy bee,
+and even the disgusting cockroaches
+that infest the kitchen-shelves and
+climb all over the washtubs are used
+as a diuretic and for dropsy.</p>
+
+<p>Little it matters by whom the healing
+agent was ushered in, for mankind
+in its frantic search for health asks not
+the creed or color of its medical savior:
+Pipsissewa was introduced into
+medicine by the redskins, buchu by
+the hottentots, quassia by a negro
+slave, zinc valerianate by a French
+prince, krameria by a Spanish refugee,
+ipecac by the Brazilian aborigines,
+guaiac by a syphilitic warrior, aspidium
+by a Swiss widow.</p>
+
+<p>“Medicine,” wrote the greatest of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>literary physicians, “appropriates
+everything from every source that can
+be of the slightest use to anybody who
+is ailing in any way, or like to be ailing
+from any cause. It learned from
+a monk how to use antimony, from a
+Jesuit how to cure agues, from a friar
+how to cut for stone, from a soldier
+how to treat gout, from a sailor how
+to keep off scurvy, from a postmaster
+how to sound the Eustachian tube,
+from a dairy-maid how to prevent
+small-pox, and from an old market-woman
+how to catch the itch-insect.
+It borrowed acupuncture and the
+moxa from the Japanese heathen, and
+was taught the use of lobelia by the
+American savage.”</p>
+
+<p>And all these substances are daily
+being powdered, sifted, granulated,
+desiccated, percolated, macerated, distilled,
+sublimed, comminuted, dissolved,
+precipitated, filtered, strained,
+expressed, clarified, crystallized, ignited,
+fused, calcined, torrified and
+deflagrated into powders, pills, wafers,
+capsules, ampoules, extracts, tinctures,
+infusions, decoctions, syrups, cordials,
+essences, magmas, suppositories, tablets,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>troches, ointments, plasters, abstracts,
+liniments, collodions, cataplasms
+and so on and so on.</p>
+
+<p>And all these finished preparations
+have a most laudable object in view—the
+eradication of disease and the alleviation
+of pain. Ah, this is indeed a
+quest worth the striving for! To accomplish
+the quadrature of the circle,
+or ferret out the secret of perpetual
+motion, may be highly interesting, tho
+of problematical value only; but when
+a clammy sweat bathes the brow, and
+the delicate nerves twitch till the tortured
+human frame shakes in anguish,
+how important is it to be able to lift
+the veil from a condition like this!
+He who conquers disease is greater
+than the builder of cities or the
+creator of empires. His value is
+above the poets, statesmen cannot be
+compared unto him, educators equal
+him not in worth. A careful economist
+like John Stuart Mill tells us it is
+doubtful if all the labor-saving machinery
+ever invented has lessened for
+a single day the work of a single human
+being,—but when a discovery is
+made in medicine it becomes a sun
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>which sheds its beneficence on all who
+suffer. The sick pauper of to-day lying
+in a charity hospital receives better
+medical treatment than the sick potentate
+of yesterday lying in his costly
+palace.</p>
+
+<p>But so far medical science has only
+unhorsed, not overthrown, its ancient
+antagonist. In spite of all the remedies,
+in spite of all the research, mankind
+as yet possesses no satisfactory
+antidote for suffering; it knows no
+drug which can give pain its <i lang="fr">congé</i> for
+more than a transient period.</p>
+
+<p>But altho the time of relief be limited,
+the simple fact that there are substances
+which do have some power
+over pain is sufficient to make the
+study of narcotism highly important.
+And of all the narcotics—a narcotic
+being roughly defined as a substance
+which relieves pain and produces excitability
+followed by sleep—none is
+more alluring to the imagination than
+the intoxicating hemp-plant, scientifically
+known as <i>Cannabis sativa</i> and
+popularly famed as Hasheesh—those
+strange flowering-tops that appeal to a
+pot-bellied bushman of Australia who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>smokes it in a pipe of animal tusks,
+and to so hyper-esoteric a <i lang="fr">littérateur</i>
+as Charles Baudelaire of the Celestial
+City of Art.</p>
+
+<p>The habitat of the hemp-plant is extensive:
+not by the hand of man were
+the seeds sown that gave it birth near
+the Caspian Sea, where it wildly flourishes
+on the banks of the immense
+Volga—that mighty mass of liquid
+ever stupendously rolling thru a limitless
+continent; it climbs the Altai range
+and thrives where the Himalaya rears
+its stony head ten thousand feet on
+high; it extends to Persia, and China
+knows it; the Congo river and the hot
+Zambesi bathe it in Africa, it is not a
+stranger in sunny France, and how
+well it thrives in Kentucky the numerous
+readers of the <i>Reign of Law</i> will
+ever remember.</p>
+
+<p>In the seventeenth century Rumphius
+noticed that there were differences
+between the hemp grown in India
+and the hemp grown in Europe.
+In the nineteenth century Lamarck accepted
+these distinctions, and believing
+the Indian hemp to be a separate species,
+agreed in calling it <i lang="la">Cannabis indica</i>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>as a distinction from the <i lang="la">Cannabis
+sativa</i> of Linnæus and Willdenow.
+But it is now conceded that from a botanical
+standpoint the variations are
+by no means certain or important
+enough to warrant the maintenance of
+Indian hemp as a species distinct from
+common hemp. And as the greater
+includes the lesser, in botany as well
+as in geometry, its botanical name is
+<i lang="la">Cannabis sativa</i>, with <i lang="la">Cannabis indica</i>
+as one variety, just as <i lang="la">Cannabis americana</i>
+is another variety.</p>
+
+<p>The hemp grown in Russia is of a
+fibrous quality, and is largely used for
+the gallows—to hang the opponents of
+despotism. In England many a bold
+highwayman has been embraced by it
+the last moment of his roving life, and
+has thus philanthropically given his
+mother-tongue a chance to enrich herself.
+For instance, a hempie means a
+rascal for whom the hemp grows; a
+hempen collar means the hangman’s
+noose; a hempen widow means one
+whose husband has been hanged; to
+sow hemp means to live in a manner
+likely to lead to the gallows. Rope,
+however, is not the only use to which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>the fibers can be put; they are extensively
+employed in clothing, and in the
+manufacture of paper.</p>
+
+<p>The plant is also cultivated for its
+seeds, which contain a large quantity
+of oil, and is therefore used in pharmacy
+for emulsions, and in the domestic
+arts because of its drying properties.
+But the seeds are chiefly used as
+a favorite food for birds. In fact,
+some birds consume them to excess,
+which should lead us to suspect that
+these seeds, tho they cannot intoxicate
+us, have a narcotic effect on the feathered
+creatures, making them dream of
+a happy birdland where there are no
+gilded cages, and where the men are
+gunless and the women hatless. The
+seeds also contain sugar and considerable
+albumin,—making them very
+nutritious; rabbits eat them readily.
+They are consumed also by
+some human beings, but are not as
+good as the sunflower seeds which
+Marianka ceaselessly and carelessly
+crunched, while Olenine looked upon
+her moving lips with a lover’s despair.</p>
+
+<p>The medicinal hemp—the hemp with
+the potent narcotic principles—is <i lang="la">Cannabis indica</i>.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>In this case we have an
+example of Compensation that would
+have made Emerson’s eyes glisten, for
+altho the fibrous texture of hemp disappears
+under a southern sun, to make
+up for the loss there is secreted a resin—<i>Churrus</i>.
+This resin is collected in
+a most singular manner. During the
+hot season, according to Dr. O’Shaughnessy,
+men clothed in leather run violently
+thru the hemp-fields and brush
+forcibly against the plants. The soft,
+sticky resin adheres to the garments,
+and is later scraped off and kneaded
+into balls. Dr. M’Kinnon informed
+Dr. O’Shaughnessy that in the province
+of Nipal the leather attire is dispensed
+with, and that the natives run
+naked thru the hemp fields, gathering
+the resin on their bare bodies.</p>
+
+<p>When the larger leaves turn brown
+and fall to the ground, it is an indication
+of the approach of maturity.
+The flowering tops are then cut off,
+and subjected to a process of rolling
+and treading by trained human feet.
+The hemp is placed on a hard floor
+surrounded by a rail; the natives take
+hold of a revolving post, march around
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>and around, singing the while, and
+press the plants in a technical manner.
+Whether the perspiration which drips
+from their unshod organs of locomotion
+works any chemical change in the
+composition of Cannabis has not yet
+been determined by E. M. Holmes or
+E. W. Dixon.</p>
+
+<p>It is not surprising to learn that the
+dealing in Hasheesh is a Government
+monopoly, and that heavy punishment
+is meted out to those offenders who
+buy or sell it without permission.
+“The importation of it into Egypt is so
+strongly interdicted,” explains the <cite>Dispensatory
+of the United States</cite>, “that
+the mere possession of it is a penal offense;
+we found it, however, readily
+procurable. It is said to be brought
+into the country in pigs’ bladders, in
+the Indo-European steamers, and
+thrown out at night during the passage
+into the Suez canal, to be picked up by
+the boats of confederates.” This deplorable
+state of affairs is apt to remind
+us of our own temperance towns—where
+there are always some individuals
+who possess the faculty of obtaining
+whisky <i lang="la">ad libitum</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p>
+
+<p><i lang="la">Cannabis sativa</i> is a member of the
+<i lang="la">Moraceæ</i> or Mulberry Family, which
+family was formerly an order of apetalous
+dicotyledenous trees or shrubs,
+but is now reduced to a tribe of the
+<i lang="la">Urticaceæ</i> or Nettle Family which embraces
+110 genera and 1500 species.</p>
+
+<p>Cannabis is an annual herb, and thus
+endures but one year, because instead
+of storing away nutritious matter in
+underground bulbs and tubers like the
+industrious biennials or perennials, it
+exultingly expends its new-born energy
+in the production of beautiful
+blossoms and the maturation of fruit
+and seed. “This completed,” says Asa
+Gray, “the exhausted and not at all replenished
+individual perishes.”</p>
+
+<p>Sexually, hemp is diœcious, which
+means that its staminate and pistillate
+organs are not on the same plant.
+When cultivated for its narcotic properties,
+only the flowering tops of the
+unfertilized female plants are used, and
+the male plants are eradicated with
+great care, as it is claimed that a single
+one can spoil an entire field—something
+like a Boccaccion gentleman in a
+nunnery. The process of weeding out
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>the males is performed by an expert
+called a poddar, who brings to his work
+a conscious technical skill, and an unconscious
+but interesting argument in
+illustration of what Lester F. Ward
+has described as the Androcentric
+World View, for the poddar deliberately
+reverses the names of the sexes,
+and designates the useful females as
+males, and calls the rejected males the
+females. If we had such impudent
+poddars in the animal world, no doubt
+the valuable Miss Jane Addams would
+be metamorphosed into James, while
+the unnecessary Mr. Anthony Comstock
+would be adorned with a feminine
+appellation.</p>
+
+<p>Cannabis is from 4 to 12 feet in
+height; its stem is angular, branching,
+and covered with matted hairs; its
+leaves are palmate and therefore
+roughly resemble an open hand; its
+leaflets are lance-shaped, possessing
+margins dentated with saw-like teeth;
+its flowers are yellow and axillary, the
+male cluster being a raceme and therefore
+pedicelled, and the female a spike
+and consequently sessile or stemless;
+the five male organs or stamens contain
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>pendulous double-celled sacs or
+anthers; the two female organs or pistils
+have glandular stigmas, the stigma
+being the spot where fertilization occurs;
+the fruit is a gray nut or achene,
+each containing a single oily seed; the
+whole plant is covered with a scarcely
+visible down; the roughness of the
+leaves and stem is due to the silica,
+which is a characteristic of the plants
+of the <i lang="la">Moraceæ</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Not much need be said of the microscopical
+characteristics of hemp, for
+altho the powder contains several histological
+elements, as pollen grains,
+glands, crystals, resin, fibres, vessels,
+stone cells, epidermis, parenchyma,—indicating
+presence of stem, leaf,
+flower, seed,—its characteristic hairs
+or trichomes with their cystolith deposits
+are of sufficient diagnostic value
+to make it readily recognizable.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, when we come to the
+chemical constituents of Cannabis, certainty
+is at an end. As Dorvault’s
+<cite>L’Officine</cite> says, <span lang="fr">“La composition chimique
+du cannabis indica est mal connue.”</span>
+The conquests of man are peculiar:
+he lays a cable under the roaring
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>ocean, and he flashes his messages thru
+limitless miles of space; beneath the
+surface of the earth he rides on an iron
+horse, and bird-like he sails thru the
+trackless air. But put this common
+drug before him and he cannot determine
+its chemical composition. The
+careful experimenters and the expert
+assayers are balked.</p>
+
+<p>“I have extracted an alkaloid from
+hasheesh,” says Preobraschensky, “and
+it is potent.” “No, we have found the
+active constituent,” say T. and H.
+Smith; “it is the resin cannabin.”
+“No,” says Personne, “I have isolated
+the important ingredient; it is the
+amber-colored volatile oil, cannabene.”
+“Oh, no,” says Frankel, “I have discovered
+the active principle—it is a
+phenol aldehyde.” “No, indeed,” say
+Wood, Spivey and Easterfield, “it is
+we who have separated the only active
+ingredient—it is a red oil, cannabinol.”
+“Oh, not at all,” says Hamilton, “not
+one of these is the active constituent;
+in fact, the active constituent has not
+yet been isolated.” In such an arena,
+where the masters dispute, it behooves
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>the amateur to speak with a stammering
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>That doubt should prevail on this
+subject is all the more remarkable
+when we consider that hemp has been
+known from a time whereof the mind
+of man runneth not to the contrary—to
+use a phrase which seems to delight
+the lawyers. In the <cite>Odyssey</cite>, a thousand
+years before the advent of the
+Christian era, Homer sang of the assuager
+of grief or Nepenthes, which is
+believed to have been the hemp-plant.
+Hemp thus comes ushered into history,
+held in the beautiful hand of Helen.
+Hesychius narrates that the Thracian
+women made sheets of hemp. Pliny
+says hemp was known to the Romans,
+who manufactured cordage from it.
+The Father of History relates that the
+Scythians threw the seeds of hemp on
+red-hot stones, and bathed themselves
+in the vapor, crying with exultation.
+Moschion records that the ship <i>Syracusia</i>,
+built for Hiero—kinsman of
+Archimedes—was rigged with hempen
+ropes. In the most ancient of all
+Hindu medical works, <cite>Susruta</cite>, hemp
+is recommended for catarrh. The Pandit
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>Moodoosudun Gooptu found in the
+<cite>Rajniguntu</cite> a clear account of hemp.
+A Sanskrit work on Materia Medica,
+<cite>Rajbulubha</cite>, alludes to the use of hemp
+in gonorrhea. According to Kamalakantha
+Vidyalanka, hemp was early
+forbidden to pious Brahmins. The old
+Arabic and Persian writers made numerous
+references to cannabis, and declared
+its narcotic properties were discovered
+by Haider. Haider was a
+rigid monk who built a monastery on
+the mountains between Nishabor and
+Ramah. For ten years he never left
+his hermitage, never indulged in even
+a fleeting moment’s pleasure. One
+burning summer’s day when the fiery
+sun glared angrily upon Mother Earth
+as if he wished to wither up her
+breasts, Haider stepped out from his
+cloister and walked alone to the fields.
+All around him lay the vegetation
+weary and without life, but one plant
+danced in the heat with joy. Haider
+plucked it, partook of it, and returned
+to the convent a happier man. The
+monks who saw him immediately noticed
+the change in their chief. He encouraged
+conversation, and acted boisterously.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>He then led his companions
+to the fields, and the holy men partook
+of the hasheesh, and were transformed
+from austere ascetics into jolly good
+fellows. At the death of Haider, in
+conformity with his desire, his disciples
+planted the hemp in an arbor
+around his tomb.—— In that portion
+of the Chinese herbal, <cite>Rh-ya</cite>, which
+was written 500 B.C., the seed and
+flower-bearing kinds of hemp are
+noticed. In the first century, Dioscorides—the
+most renowned of the ancient
+writers on Materia Medica—recommended
+the seeds in the form of a
+cataplasm to soothe inflammation. In
+the second century, Galen wrote
+that it was customary to give
+hemp to guests at banquets to promote
+hilarity and happiness. At the beginning
+of the third century, the physician
+Hoa-Thoa used hemp as an anesthetic
+in surgical operations. In the thirteenth
+century, garments of hemp became
+common thruout Southern Europe,
+and it may well be that Beatrice
+herself wore it when Dante first saw
+the maiden in her father’s house.</p>
+
+<p>There is a remarkable episode in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>history of Hasheesh, indicating how
+the character of a people may be affected
+by the surrounding vegetation.
+Mohammedanism, like all other theologies,
+has been rent by schisms, and
+the question as to who was the legitimate
+successor of the Prophet split
+this Oriental faith into two great sects—the
+Sunnis and the Shiahs. The
+latter were the heretics, as they considered
+Mohammed’s son-in-law the
+true imam. The Shiahs themselves
+were further subdivided into several
+parties, the Ismaelites being the most
+important. The Ismaelites were especially
+powerful in Persia, and later—thru
+the instrumentality of an escaped
+prisoner who seized the throne—gained
+a firm foothold in Egypt. A grand
+lodge was formed in the city of Cairo—on
+the banks of the river whose ancient
+waters heard the hammering at
+the quarries for the rearing of the
+Great Pyramid. Many rules were now
+made by the Ismaelites, and the petty
+race of perishable men was much flustered,
+while the immortal Nile flowed
+indifferently from its equatorial cradle,
+refreshing the crimson water-lilies,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>bathing the reeds that lined its shore,
+and wetting the sands where the
+thoughtful Sphinx opens not its lips.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of time this lodge was
+visited by the clever Ismaelite, Hassan
+Ben Sabbah—a boyhood friend of
+Omar Khayyám—who was received
+with acclamation. Hassan soon received
+enough honors to excite jealousy,
+and while plotting for more power
+was defeated and forced to disappear
+from Egypt, but, after traveling awhile,
+he settled near Kuhistan. He gathered
+around him a considerable number of
+followers, and by strategy, in 1090,
+captured the powerful Persian fortress
+of Alamut. Hassan now introduced
+a new feature into his society—the employment
+of secret murder against all
+enemies. It was the Sheikh of this
+organization who loomed large in
+medieval folk-lore as the Old Man of
+the Mountains. Many young men became disciples,
+and willingly performed
+the bloody work. These youths were
+known as the <i>Fedais</i> or Devoted Ones.
+When a Devoted One was selected to
+commit murder, he was first stupefied
+with hasheesh, and while in this state
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>was brought into the magnificent gardens
+of the sheikh. All the sensual
+and stimulating pleasures of the erotic
+orient surrounded the excited youth,
+and exalted by the delicious hypnotic he
+had taken, the hot-blooded fanatic felt
+that the gates of heaven were already
+ajar, and heard them swing open on
+their golden hinges. When the effect
+of the drug disappeared and the Devoted
+One was reduced to his normal
+condition, he was informed that thru
+the generosity of his superior he had
+been permitted to foretaste the delights
+of Paradise. The Devoted One believed
+this readily enough—disciples
+are always credulous—and therefore
+was eager to die or to kill at a word
+from his master. From these hasheesh-eaters,
+the Arabian name of which is
+<i>hashshashin</i>, was derived the term
+“assassin.” It is not known at what
+date the epithet was first applied to
+other secret slayers. The Assassins
+soon became a terrible scourge, and the
+very sands of the desert almost learnt
+to tremble before them. Many an unprepared
+breast felt their daggers, and
+many a surprised stomach tried in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>vain to vomit up their poisons. Prince
+and calif they struck down, and more
+than one haughty chief paid tribute
+to the Old Man of the Mountains.
+During the invasion of Palestine by
+the Crusaders, the Syrian branch of
+the Assassins reached its bloody zenith,
+and who shall say how many high-born
+damsels wept for knightly shields that
+lay low in the dust of Lebanon? The
+power of the Assassins was destroyed
+in Persia about the middle of the thirteenth
+century, and some years later
+the Mameluke sultan of Egypt exterminated
+them in Syria. But just as
+there are still some Innsbruck Jesuits
+who pray for the revival of the Spanish
+Inquisition, so some remnants of the
+Assassins yet linger between the Tigris
+river and the mount of Taurus—but
+what of that? The Old Man of
+the Mountains now sleeps in Death’s
+Valley, and not all the hasheesh from
+Bengal could exalt him.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of the eighteenth
+century, when Napoleon invaded Egypt—and
+grew philosophic as he met the
+gaze of the prehistoric pyramids—hasheesh
+was brought prominently to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>the notice of Europeans by the accounts
+of DeSacy and Rouger. By this time
+its narcotic properties must have been
+known to the Occidentals, for as far
+back as 1690 Berlu in his <i>Treasury of
+Drugs</i> described it as “of an infatuating
+quality and pernicious use.”
+Nevertheless, its introduction into the
+Pharmacopeias of Europe and the
+United States is due mainly to the elaborate
+experimentation carried on during
+1839 and several succeeding years
+by the talented Dr. William B.
+O’Shaughnessy, Professor of Chemistry
+in the Medical College of Calcutta.</p>
+
+<p>This brings us to the physiological
+action of Cannabis. It primarily
+stimulates the brain, has a mydriatic
+effect upon the pupil, slightly accelerates
+the pulse, sometimes quickens
+and sometimes retards breathing, produces
+a ravenous appetite, increases
+the amount of urine, and augments the
+contractions of the uterus. In other
+words, it has an effect on the nervous,
+respiratory, circulatory, digestive, excretory
+and genito-urinary systems.</p>
+
+<p>As a therapeutic agent hasheesh has
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>its eulogizers, tho like many other
+drugs it has been replaced by later
+remedies in various disorders for which
+it was formerly used. Old drugs,
+like old folks, must give way to the
+new, and even the therapeutic master-builders
+must beware when the young
+generation of healing-agents knocks on
+the door of health.</p>
+
+<p>In medicinal doses Cannabis is used
+as an aphrodisiac, for neuralgia, to
+quiet maniacs, for the cure of chronic
+alcoholism and morphine and chloral
+habits, for mental depression, hysteria,
+softening of the brain, nervous vomiting,
+for distressing cough, for St.
+Vitus’ dance, and for the falling sickness
+so successfully simulated by Kipling’s
+Sleary—epileptic fits of a most
+appalling kind. It is used in spasm of
+the bladder, in migraine, and when the
+dreaded <i>Bacillus tetanus</i> makes the
+muscles rigid. It is a uterine tonic,
+and a remedy in the headaches and
+hemorrhages occurring at the final
+cessation of the menses. It has been
+pressed into the service of the diseases
+that mankind has named in honor of
+Venus. According to Osler, cannabis
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>is sometimes useful in locomotor
+ataxia. Christison reports a case in
+which Cannabis entirely cured the intense
+itching of eczema, while the patient
+was enjoying the delightful slumber
+which the hemp induced. It is
+much employed as an hypnotic in those
+cases where opium because of long-continued
+use has lost its efficiency. As a
+specific in hydrophobia it is sometimes
+marvelous, for Dr. J. W. Palmer
+writes that he himself has seen a sepoy,
+an hour before furiously hydrophobic,
+under the influence of cannabis drinking
+water freely and pleasantly washing
+his face and hands! Its function
+in this unspeakable affliction should be
+investigated carefully, for it will be a
+gala day for mankind when it can cease
+to fear Montaigne’s terrible line: “The
+saliva of a wretched dog touching the
+hand of Socrates, might disturb and
+destroy his intellect.”</p>
+
+<p>The official definition of <i>Cannabis
+indica</i> as given by the Eighth Decennial
+Revision of our <cite>Pharmacopeia</cite> is
+as follows: “The dried flowering tops
+of the pistillate plants of <i lang="la">Cannabis
+sativa</i> Linné (<abbr title="Family">Fam.</abbr> <i lang="la">Moraceæ</i>), grown
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>in the East Indies and gathered while
+the fruits are yet undeveloped, and
+carrying the whole of their natural
+resin.” Three preparations of the
+drug are official: an Extract, a Fluid-extract,
+and a Tincture.</p>
+
+<p>In the last (third) edition of the
+<cite>National Formulary</cite>, hemp enters into
+four galenicals: in chloral and bromine
+compound which is used as a
+sedative and hypnotic, in chloroform
+Anodyne which is used in diarrhoea
+and cholera, in Brown Sequard’s anti-neuralgic
+pills, and in corn collodion.
+Hemp is a constituent in the majority
+of corn remedies. Not many drugs
+are used for both the brain and the
+feet, but with cannabis we have this
+anomaly: a man may see visions by
+swallowing his corn-cure.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the enormous number of
+prescriptions in which hasheesh enters
+as an ingredient, only half a dozen can
+be here represented. In Hager’s
+<i>Pharmaceutische Praxis</i> occurs this
+prescription for gonorrhea:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p>
+
+<ul>
+  <li><b>℞</b></li>
+  <li>Kali nitrici</li>
+  <li>Natri nitrici ana 5,0</li>
+  <li>Extracti Hyoscyami 0,5</li>
+  <li>Aquæ Amygdalarum amararum 10,0</li>
+  <li>Emulsionis Cannabis fructus 200,0</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>For dysmenorrhea the <cite>Journal de
+Médecine de Paris</cite> recommends the
+following suppositories, with the directions
+that one be introduced every evening,
+commencing with the fifth day before
+the menses:</p>
+
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><b>℞</b></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ex. cannab. indicæ</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. ¼</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ex. belladonnæ</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. ¼</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ol. theobrom.</td>
+<td class="tdl">q. s.—M.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>For phthisis, when accompanied by
+insomnia and nervous dyspepsia, Dr.
+S. G. Bonney prescribes:</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><b>℞</b></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Strychnin, sulph.</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. ⅔</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Extracti opii</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. j</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Extracti cannabis indicæ</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. j ss</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Salolis</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. c.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Aloini</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. ss.—M.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Pone in capsulas No. xx</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Dr. Rankin fights dyspepsia with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>the following formula, one capsule being
+given after meals:</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><b>℞</b></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Zinci valeratis</td>
+<td class="tdl">ʒj</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Acidi carbolici</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. xl</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Acidi arsenosi</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. ss</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Extracti cannabis indicæ.</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. v.—M.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Pone in capsulas No. xx.</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>When a patient of Van Harlingen
+is attacked with <i>ichthyosis hystrix</i>, the
+disagreeable skin-disease finds itself
+daily painted with this preparation:</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><b>℞</b></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Acid. salicylici</td>
+<td class="tdl">ʒss</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ex. cannabis ind</td>
+<td class="tdl">gr. x</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Collodii</td>
+<td class="tdl">f℥j—M.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Dr. Da Costa endeavors to relieve
+impotence by giving his patients, morning
+and evening, this pill:</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"><b>℞</b></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ex. cannabis indicæ</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ex. nucis vomicæ</td>
+<td class="tdl">aa gr. xv</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ex. ergotae aquosi</td>
+<td class="tdl">ʒj.—M.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Et. ft. pil. No. xxx</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The results of the prolonged use of
+large doses of Cannabis are thus
+epitomized by Alfred Stillé: “The
+habitual use of this drug entails
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>consequences no less mischievous than
+are produced by alcohol and opium;
+the face becomes bloated, the eyes injected,
+the limbs weak and tremulous,
+the mind sinks into a state of imbecility,
+and death by marasmus is the ultimate
+penalty paid for the overstrained
+pleasure it imparts.”</p>
+
+<p>Poisoning by hasheesh is treated by
+the administration of emetics (what
+poison isn’t), lemon-juice, tannin, coffee,
+ammonia, strychnine, atropine,
+spirit of nitrous ether. Electricity and
+artificial respiration are often useful.</p>
+
+<p>A strange thing about hasheesh is
+that an overdose has never produced
+death in man or the lower animals.
+Not one authentic case is on record in
+which Cannabis or any of its preparations
+destroyed life. We thus have a
+poison which lacks a maximum and a
+fatal dose. Indeed, if we desire to be
+finical, we can claim that according to
+what is now considered the best definition
+of a poison, Cannabis is no poison
+at all, for the aforesaid best definition
+defines a poison as “any substance
+which is capable of causing death,
+otherwise than mechanically, when introduced
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>into the body or applied to it”—and
+Cannabis does not seem capable
+of causing death by chemical or physiological
+action.</p>
+
+<p>“Hemp,” says Professor Horatio C.
+Wood, “is not a dangerous drug; even
+the largest doses of its active preparations,
+altho causing most alarming
+symptoms, do not compromise life.”</p>
+
+<p>“We have never been able,” testify
+Drs. Houghton and Hamilton, “to give
+an animal a sufficient quantity of the
+drug to produce death. When study
+of the drug was first commenced, careful
+search on the literature of the subject
+was made to determine its toxicity.
+Not a single case of fatal poisoning
+have we been able to find reported,
+altho often alarming symptoms may
+occur. A dog weighing about 25
+pounds received an injection of 2
+ounces of the U. S. P. fluidextract in
+the jugular vein, with the expectation
+that it would certainly be sufficient to
+kill the animal. To our surprise the
+animal after being unconscious for
+about a day and a half, recovered completely.
+Another dog received about
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>7 grams of the solid extract with the
+same result.”</p>
+
+<p>That herbivorous animals are even
+less affected by it I know from my own
+simple experiments. I gave a rabbit a
+drachm and a half of the fluidextract
+of cannabis. No sooner did I release
+the animal than it began to nibble a
+commonplace vegetable, indifferent to
+the circumstance that it had been baptised
+with the most precious opiate of
+the orient. For four hours I watched
+this member of the genus <i>Lepus</i>, but
+no physical effects could be observed,
+while the mild expression of its gentle
+eyes induced me to conclude that all
+mental manifestations were lacking to
+such a degree that the bunny still worshiped
+the rather material trinity of
+crackers, carrots and cabbages. This
+rabbit was sold to an experienced
+dealer, and sometime later while passing
+the store, I learnt it had become
+the sire of a goodly progeny, but what
+I really would like to learn is this: will
+those little innocent rabbits—with their
+asinine ears and angelic eyes—ever
+know of their father’s enforced
+hasheesh debauch?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p>
+
+<p>Few creatures have so slight a hold
+on life as the pretty guinea-pig—which
+does not come from Guinea and is not
+a pig. A blow of the hand, a bit of
+moisture, a breath of cold, and their
+squealing is done. But they do not
+mind cannabis. I chose a fine fellow,
+anesthetized his glossy back with ethyl
+chloride, and then by means of a hypodermic
+syringe injected 100 minims
+of the powerful fluidextract into his
+circulation. There were no results.
+After the elapse of some hours the generous
+cavy so far forgot the incident
+as to pull some sweet-pea pods from
+my hand.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. O’Shaughnessy says that all his
+experiments “tended to demonstrate
+that, while carnivorous animals and
+fish, dogs, cats, swine, vultures, crows,
+and adjutants invariably and speedily
+exhibited the intoxicating influence of
+the drug, the graminivorous, such as
+the horse, deer, monkey, goat, sheep,
+and cow, experienced but trivial effects
+from any dose we administered.”
+Lieutaud and Mabillat say the same.</p>
+
+<p>Up to this period we have considered
+hasheesh from the historic, botanic,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>microscopic, chemic, physiologic,
+therapeutic and pharmacologic viewpoints:
+what then remains? Why,
+friends, the best is yet to be, the last
+for which the first was made—as
+Browning would say.</p>
+
+<p>Why has everyone heard of opium?
+Because of its somnifacient and myotic
+properties? No, but because sixty
+million pounds are consumed by people
+for the purpose of pleasure. It is the
+same with hasheesh. All heathens use
+it to increase their joys: Moors, Mohammedans,
+Malays, Burmese, Siamese,
+Hindoos, Hottentots, Australian
+Bushmen and Brazilian Indians—three
+hundred millions of them. The grateful
+Orientals have endowed their
+hasheesh with such epithets as exciter
+of desire, increaser of pleasure, cementer
+of friendship, leaf of delusion, the
+laughter-mover, causer of the reeling
+gait. “It is real happiness,” says Monsieur
+Moreau, and Herbert Spencer
+quotes the sentence in his <i>Principles of
+Psychology</i>,—“It is real happiness
+which hasheesh causes.”</p>
+
+<p>It is unreasonable to suppose that a
+powerful narcotic like cannabis will
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>produce uniform results in all instances,
+when it is notorious that even
+coffee affects different people in different
+ways; one lady drinks tea to keep
+her awake at night, and her neighbor
+drinks it to put her asleep; an Havana
+cigar irritates Brown and tranquillizes
+Jones; a glass of grog causes one man
+to beat his children, and induces
+another to give away his coat to strangers.
+The constitutional peculiarity
+of the subject must always be taken
+into consideration: some folks are so
+absurd as to become afflicted with nettle-rash
+after partaking of delicious
+strawberries; others are poisoned by an
+egg; some become ill in the presence of
+the violet, and others faint when they
+smell the lily; Tissot mentions a person
+who vomited if he took a grain of
+sugar; Louis XIV had grand manners,
+but he preferred the odor of cat’s urine
+to that of the red rose. “Jack Sprat
+could eat no fat, his wife could eat no
+lean.” Idiosyncrasy may not be the
+star performer, but it certainly plays
+an important rôle in the therapeutic
+drama.</p>
+
+<p>No drug in the entire Materia
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>Medica is capable of producing such
+a diversity of effects as cannabis
+indica. “Of the action of hasheesh,”
+writes Professor Stillé, “many and
+various descriptions have been given
+which differ so widely among themselves
+that they would scarcely be
+supposed to apply to the same agent,
+had we not every day a no less remarkable
+instance of the same kind
+before us in the case of alcohol.
+As the latter enlivens or saddens, excites
+or depresses, fills with tenderness,
+or urges to brutality, imparts vigor and
+activity, or nauseates and weakens, so
+does the former give rise to even a still
+greater variety of phenomena, according
+to the natural disposition of the
+person, and his existing state of mind,
+the quantity of the drug, and the combinations
+in which it is taken.”</p>
+
+<p>And not only is there a contrariety
+and dissimilarity of action, but sometimes
+there is no action at all. Cannabis
+is certainly the coquette of drugdom.
+Take agaric, and it will stop
+your perspiration—take jaborandi, and
+it will sweat you half to death; take
+creosote, and it will prevent emesis—take
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>ipecac, and it will vomit you till
+your very guts cry out for mercy; take
+eserine, and your pupils will contract—take
+atropine, and they will dilate;
+veratrine will make you sneeze, the dust
+of sanguinaria will give you a bloody
+nose, aloes will act on your lower
+bowel, podophyllum will work on the
+upper, squill will make you pass water
+by the quart, an injection of strychnine
+will stimulate you, a dose of morphine
+will put you in the arms of Morpheus,—but
+take cannabis, and who can predict
+the result? It may do wondrous
+things to you, and it may let you strictly
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>To a worker on the Associated Press
+named I. M. Norr, I gave 30 minims
+of the fluidextract. There were no
+results. To a law student named
+Aaron Wolman, I gave 40 minims.
+There was no more effect than if he
+had taken 40 drops of water. It must
+be added, however, that these experimenters,
+instead of putting themselves
+in a receptive state, had determined beforehand
+to fight the influence of the
+drug. On the evening of May 18th,
+1910, I gave 25 minims to Dr. Anna
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>Mercy, and altho she threw herself at
+the shrine of science in a way that
+must have astonished the sober old
+altar of experiment, there were no results
+worth mentioning, except that
+while in the evening she looked respectable,
+in the morning she looked
+disreputable.</p>
+
+<p>Had all my experiments turned out
+thus, this essay would never have been
+written. But I have had results fully
+as interesting as those achieved by
+O’Shaughnessy, Moreau, Mabillat,
+Reidel, Schroff, Wood, Bell, Christison,
+Aubert, and many others, including
+our gifted traveler-poet Bayard
+Taylor.</p>
+
+<p>My brother Frederic Robinson
+took 25 minims in the presence of some
+ladies whom he had invited to witness
+the fun. An hour passed without results.
+A second hour followed, but—to
+use the slang of the street—there
+was nothing doing. The third hour
+promised to be equally fruitless, and
+as it was already late in the evening,
+the ladies said good-by. No sooner
+did they leave the room, than I heard
+the hasheesh-laugh. The hemp was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>doing its work. In a shrill voice my
+brother was exclaiming, “What foo-oolish
+people, what foo-oo-ool-ish
+people to leave just when the show is
+beginning.” The ladies came back.
+And it was a show. Frederic made
+Socialistic speeches, and argued warmly
+for the cause of Woman Suffrage.
+He grew most affectionate and insisted
+on holding a lady’s hand. His face
+was flushed, his eyes were half closed,
+his abdomen seemed uneasy, but his
+spirit was happy. He sang, he
+rhymed, he declaimed, he whistled, he
+mimicked, he acted. He pleaded so
+passionately for the rights of Humanity
+that it seemed he was using up the
+resources of his system. But he was
+tireless. With both hands he gesticulated,
+and would brook no interruption.</p>
+
+<p>Peculiar ideas suggested themselves.
+For instance, he said something was
+“sheer nonsense,” and then reasoned as
+follows: “Since shears are the same as
+scissors, instead of sheer nonsense I
+can say scissors nonsense.” He also
+said, “I will give you a kick in the
+tickle”—and was much amused by the
+expression.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p>
+<p>At all times he recognized those
+about him, and remained conscious of
+his surroundings. When the approach
+of dawn forced the ladies to depart,
+Frederic made a somewhat unsavory
+joke, and immediately exclaimed triumphantly,
+“I wouldn’t have said that
+if the ladies were here for a million
+dollars.” Someone yawned deeply, and
+being displeased by the unexpected appearance
+of a gaping orifice, Frederic
+melodramatically gave utterance to
+this Gorky-like phrase: “From the
+depths of dirtiness and despair there
+rose a sickly odorous yawn”—and instantly
+he remarked that the first portion
+of this sentence was alliterative!
+Is it not strange that such consciousness
+and such intoxication can exist in the
+same brain simultaneously?</p>
+
+<p>The next day he remembered all that
+occurred, was in excellent spirits,
+laughed much and easily, and felt himself
+above the petty things of this
+world.</p>
+
+<p>On May 19th, 1910, this world was
+excited over the visit of Halley’s comet.
+It is pleasant to remember that the
+celestial guest attracted as much attention
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>as a political campaign or a
+game of baseball. On the evening of
+this day, at 10 o’clock, I gave 45
+minims to a court stenographer named
+Henry D. Demuth. At 11.30 the effects
+of the drug became apparent, and
+Mr. Demuth lost consciousness of his
+surroundings to such an extent that he
+imagined himself an inhabitant of Sir
+Edmund Halley’s nebulous planet.
+He despised the earth and the dwellers
+thereon; he called it a miserable little
+flea-bite, and claimed its place in the
+cosmos was no more important than
+a flea-jump. With a scornful finger
+he pointed below, and said in a voice
+of contempt, “That little joke down
+there, called the earth.”</p>
+
+<p>“Victor,” he said, “you’re a fine
+fellow, you’re the smartest man in
+Harlem, you’ve got the god in you,
+but the best thoughts you write are low
+compared to the things we think up
+here.” A little later he condescended
+to take me up with him, and said, “Victor,
+we’re up in the realm now, and
+we’ll make money when we get down
+on that damned measly earth again;
+they respect Demuth on earth.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p>
+<p>He imitated how Magistrate Butts
+calls a prisoner to the bar. “Butts,”
+he explained, “is the best of them.
+Butts—Buts—cigarette-butts.” If this
+irrelevant line should ever fall beneath
+the dignified eyes of His Honor, instead
+of fining his devoted stenographer
+for contempt of court, may he
+bear in his learned mind the fact that
+under the influence of narcotics men
+are mentally irresponsible.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Mr. Demuth’s vanity
+was enormous. “God, Mark Twain
+and I are chums,” he remarked casually.
+“God is wise, and I am wise.
+And to think that people <i>dictate</i> to
+me!”</p>
+
+<p>He imagined he had material for a
+great book. “I’m giving you the
+thoughts; slap them down, we’ll make
+a fortune and go whacks. We’ll make
+a million. I’ll get half and Vic will
+get half. With half a million we’ll
+take it easy for a while on this damned
+measly earth. We’ll live till a hundred
+and two, and then we’ll skedaddle didoo.
+At one hundred and two it will
+be said of Henry Disque Demuth that
+he shuffled off this mortal coil. We’ll
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>skip into the great idea—hooray!
+hooray! Take down everything that
+is signifi<i>cant</i>—with an accent on the
+<i>cant</i>—Immanuel Kant was a wise man,
+and I’m a wise man; I am wise, because
+I’m wise.”</p>
+
+<p>It is to be regretted that in spite of
+all the gabble concerning the volume
+that was to make both of us rich, not
+even one line was dictated by the inspired
+author. In fact he got no further
+than the title, and it must be admitted
+that of all titles in the world,
+this is the least catchy. It is as follows:
+“Wise is God; God is Wise.”</p>
+
+<p>Later came a variation in the form
+of a hissing sound which was meant
+to be an imitation of the whizzing of
+Halley’s comet; there was a wild
+swinging of the sheets as a welcome to
+the President; a definition of religion
+as the greatest joke ever perpetrated;
+some hasheesh-laughter; and the utterance
+of this original epigram: Shakespeare,
+seltzer-beer, be cheerful.</p>
+
+<p>A little later all variations ceased,
+for the subject became a monomaniac,
+or at any rate, a fanatic. He became
+thoroly imbued with the great idea
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>that the right attitude to preserve
+towards life is to take all things on
+earth as a joke. Hundreds and hundreds
+and hundreds of times he repeated:
+“The idea of the great idea,
+the idea of the great idea, the idea of
+the great idea.” No question could
+steer him out of this track. “Who’s
+up on the comet? Any pretty girls
+there?” asked Frederic. “The great
+idea is up there,” was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>“Where would you fall if you fell
+off the comet?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’d fall into the great idea.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you do when you want to
+eat and have no money?”</p>
+
+<p>“You have to get the idea.”</p>
+
+<p>“When will you get married?”</p>
+
+<p>“When I get the idea.”</p>
+
+<p>Midnight came, and he was still
+talking about his great idea. At one
+o’clock I felt bored. “If you don’t
+talk about anything else except the
+idea, we’ll have to quit,” I said.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” he replied, “we’ll all quit,
+we’ll all be wrapped up in the great
+idea.” He took out his handkerchief
+to blow his nose, remarking, “The idea
+of my nose.” I approached him.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>“Don’t interfere,” he cried, “I’m off
+with the great idea.”</p>
+
+<p>I began to descend the stairs. When
+half way down I stopped to listen.
+He was still a monomaniac. Had he
+substituted the word thought or theory
+or conception or notion or belief or
+opinion or supposition or hypothesis
+or syllogism or tentative conjecture, I
+would have returned. But as I still
+heard only the idea of the great idea,
+I went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning his countenance was
+ashen, which formed a marked contrast
+to its extreme redness the evening
+before. He should have slept
+longer, but I thought of the duties to
+be performed for Judge Butts, and determined
+to arouse him, altho I knew
+my touch would cast him down from
+the glorious Halley’s comet to the
+measly little flea-bite of an earth, besides
+jarring the idea of the great idea.</p>
+
+<p>So I shook him, but instead of manifesting
+anger, he smiled and extended
+his hand cordially, as if he had not
+seen me for a long time. The effects
+of the drug had not entirely disappeared,
+and his friends at work thought
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>him drunk, and asked with whom he
+had been out all night. Mr. Demuth
+was in first-class spirits, he bubbled
+over with idealism, and felt a contempt
+for all commercial transactions.
+He was the American Bernard Shaw,
+and looked upon the universe as a joke
+of the gods. While adding some
+figures of considerable importance—as
+salaries depended upon the results—a
+superintendent passed. Mr.
+Demuth pointed to the column that
+needed balancing, and asked, “This is
+all a joke, isn’t it?” Not appreciating
+the etiology of the query, the superintendent
+nodded and passed on.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>One midnight, while preparing to retire,
+it occurred to Courtenay Lemon
+that this was a good time for him to try
+hasheesh. As I did not discourage
+him in the slightest degree, 30 minims
+were forthwith swallowed, with the
+result that the Socialist dramatic critic
+spent an unusual night. It must be remarked
+that over the bed on which he
+lay hangs a portrait of Ralph Waldo
+Emerson. For an hour and a quarter
+we discussed various topics of mutual
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>interest, such as decadent poetry, and
+Marx’s influence on the revolutionary
+youth of Russia. The conversation
+was cut short by the hasheesh-laugh.</p>
+
+<p>It had begun: the flood of laughter
+was loose, the deluge of mirth poured
+forth, the cascade of cachinnation
+rushed on till it swelled into a torrent
+of humor while the waves of snickering
+and tittering mingled with the
+freshets of hilarity and jollity till the
+whole flowed into a marvelous Niagara
+of merriment. What a pity the audience
+was so small! What a shame the
+old humorists could not be present!
+How the belly of Aristophanes would
+have thundered a loud <i>papapappax</i>,
+how Scarron would have grinned, how
+Sydney Smith would have enjoyed it,
+how Tom Moore would have held his
+aching sides, how Rabelais would have
+raised the rafters with his loud ho-ho-hos!
+But as these gentlemen were unavoidably
+detained elsewhere, I must
+testify that it was the funniest show on
+earth,—so here’s to you, Courtenay
+Lemon, you Leyden jar of laughter,
+charged to the limit.</p>
+
+<p>Never having been a disciple of good
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>old Isaac Pitman, I could not record
+all that was said, but here are my
+notes: “I feel a satisfaction,” he says,
+“in seeing Emerson’s picture, as I always
+felt like laughing at him.” Rolls
+on the bed and laughs uncontrollably.
+“It makes my face tired,” he explains.
+In reply to my question, he answers
+that he enjoys laughing. Begins to
+expound something, but is stopped by a
+laughing fit. Says he would like to
+have his photo taken now, and then
+laughs immoderately. Says it doesn’t
+seem so much like laughing as like letting
+wind out of a bag. Says it is
+worth while staying up to see such a
+show. Giggles terrifically. Says
+“Open the window, as I am using up
+all the air.” Laughs loud and long.
+Strangely enough his laughter begins to
+sound exactly like a negro’s, as represented
+on the stage. He recognizes
+this and says “I’se laughin’ now jes’
+like a niggah.” He is extraordinarily
+comical. From top to bottom his
+body is shaking with laughter. He
+twirls his arms, kicks his feet, and for
+the first time I understand what Milton
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>meant when he wrote “the light fantastic
+toe.”</p>
+
+<p>“I feel as if any way I put my leg
+I have to keep it. If I stuck it in the
+air and kept it there—wouldn’t that be
+funny?” Loud laughing. Imitates
+the music of a military band. His
+eyes glisten with pleasure, his whole
+countenance is beaming, and he seems
+infinitely delighted with himself. “Forward
+march!” he exclaims. He plays
+a fife and beats a drum: Boom! Boom!
+Boom! Says sternly, “I don’t want
+this band to play any patriotic air, not
+even in my sleep.”</p>
+
+<p>“Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you a
+story. You think I’m a damn fool,
+don’t you?” Laughter. “This reminds
+me of a story.” Laughter.
+“O what a damn fool am I!” Laughter.
+“I’m going to tell that story,” he
+says determinedly. Makes several attempts,
+but it is a difficult feat, on account
+of the frequent outbursts of
+laughter, and because it is next to impossible
+for him to concentrate his
+thoughts. At last he gets this out: “A
+man said he hadn’t laughed so much
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>since his mother-in-law died. Oh,
+how funny!”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Courtenay Lemon: Imitation
+of laughter. Pretty good, eh?”
+Makes a speech, imitates the gestures,
+and bows as politely as it is possible
+for one who is stretched out in bed.</p>
+
+<p>“This would be a good dope to try
+on a fellow who is accused of having
+no sense of humor. Oh, I’m getting
+funnier every minute.”</p>
+
+<p>“Emerson, O you, you were a kid
+once too, weren’t you? I don’t believe
+you ever were. If I had a rotten
+egg I’d throw it at you.”</p>
+
+<p>“There’s a blue phosphorescent light
+in your face,—.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’d rather laugh than vomit any
+day.” Strikes the bowl which was
+placed near him in case the cannabis
+produced emesis. “But I’m not a dog
+and I’ll not return to my vomit. That
+dog was a damn fool. There are a lot
+of things in the Bible that are damn
+fool things.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been doing all sorts of laughter.
+Couldn’t you have a system of
+prosody, and divide it off into feet like
+poetry, and have a Laughing Poet
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>whose contributions would be accepted
+by the comic papers?” Whistles and
+sings and drums rhythmically with his
+finger-tips on the bowl.</p>
+
+<p>When I confirm a statement of his
+by answering “Yes,” he says, “Don’t
+be butting in, Victor, this is my show.”
+Points his finger at me and laughs.
+Sensations must be very acute, for
+while clearing my throat to say something,
+but before uttering anything, he
+hears me and exclaims. “There you
+go, butting in again. But don’t be
+afraid, I’m not getting pugnacious; it
+all ends in laughter.” But for a moment
+does become quarrelsome.</p>
+
+<p>“I had a good thought, but I don’t
+know what’s best: to stick to the
+thought or stick to the laughter?”</p>
+
+<p>“If Chauncey Depew should be
+wrecked in the New York Central,
+wouldn’t that be funny? Would it be
+poetic justice? No, it would be the
+justice of laughter. Oh, it would be
+the laughter of the gods!” He raises
+himself and swings his arm dramatically.
+Laughter leaps from his insides
+as if it were a geyser spouting up, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>rushes from his lips as if it were a
+cataract bounding down a boulder.</p>
+
+<p>He theorizes about egoism and Max
+Stirner, but I can not jot down the
+reflection in its entirety.</p>
+
+<p>He says I have no sense of humor
+to sit there taking notes, instead of
+joining him in laughing.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course you understand why I
+am laughing. But your old cook—if
+she hears me, she’ll send for the police.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s too bad that when I’m having
+such a good time, I should be troubled
+by a dry taste in the mouth. It’s
+another evidence that the world was
+created by a damn fool or a lunatic.
+There is always some little thing that
+interferes.”</p>
+
+<p>Talks sensibly awhile, and then says
+impatiently: “I want to stop all this
+talking, and get to laughing again.
+I’m not complaining about the effects
+from hasheesh, because I consider it
+worth everything.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, tell me, pretty maiden, why
+can’t a little canary bird whistle a
+symphony, for instance, Tchaykovsky’s
+<i>Le Pathetique</i>?” Whistles,
+waves his hand fantastically. “As
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>damn little as I know about music, not
+having been gifted by nature in that
+direction”—twists his arms in a grotesque
+manner—“I’m able to get a
+bunch out of Tchaykovsky. I don’t
+mean Comrade Tchaykovsky, the revolutionist
+in Russia, I mean Peter
+Ilitch Tchaykovsky. The itch of that
+Ilitch—it seems like a personal ailment,
+it sounds insulting.”</p>
+
+<p>Throws a piece of paper at me, but
+says, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll break no
+bones.”</p>
+
+<p>I ask him to tell the time. He gazes
+intently at the clock, and says, “I want
+to get it exactly on the fraction of
+a second. But it changes so quickly, I
+can’t.” Gives it up in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>Claims a heavy feeling is creeping
+over him, and wonders if it is due to
+increased blood-pressure. “But what
+am I beginning to talk serious for? I
+could keep on laughing for a couple
+of weeks, except that I don’t want to
+keep you up.”</p>
+
+<p>“If Spencer had been more of a sport
+and had taken some of this stuff, he
+would have had material for his essay,
+<i>The Physiology of Laughter</i>.” To
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>see a man drugged with hasheesh quoting
+the profoundest of synthetic philosophers
+is too much for my gravity,
+and for a moment my scream of laughter
+eclipses even his.</p>
+
+<p>“Ah, I’m beginning to get light
+again. It’s much nicer to be light and
+delicate. To be a filmy butterfly, and
+float in fancy,”—his face assumes an
+expression of poetic beauty, and he
+speculates whether man should live a
+life of beauty or of duty.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I’m willing to laugh....”
+Throws off the blankets and cries,
+“Throw off the bonds of all existence!”</p>
+
+<p>I ask him what day it is. “I hope,”
+says he, with a melodramatic wave
+of the hand, “I will express the modest
+hope, that in accordance to my
+wishes, and in conformity to my desires,
+it is Sunday night! Sunday
+night! Sunday night!”</p>
+
+<p>Sits up, looks at me roughishly and
+laughs.</p>
+
+<p>“I feel a metalliferous touch within
+me.” “I’d rather have a cramp in
+my leg than in my brain. Some
+people would call this a brain-cramp,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>wouldn’t they?” Laughs, kicks up
+his legs.</p>
+
+<p>“If you got erotic while laughing,
+wouldn’t it be blasphemy? Worse than
+laughing in church.”</p>
+
+<p>“Have no illusions of death yet. I
+am still in a position to laugh death
+in the face, to laugh death in the face,
+to laugh ...”—and he proves it.
+He claps his hands together merrily.</p>
+
+<p>Has a lucid moment, looks at the
+clock, and says simply and correctly,
+“10 to 3.”</p>
+
+<p>Imitates a Frenchman most admirably,
+accent, gestures, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The door opens, and my father—who
+has found it impossible to sleep
+with a roaring volcano in the house—enters.
+I ask Mr. Lemon to tell
+my father about Chauncey Depew and
+the Grand Central. Mr. Lemon is
+highly pleased, and repeats the story
+with intense zest. He enlarges it, and
+claims Depew has got Elbert Hubbard
+beat as a hypocrite. He says all who
+believe Depew deserves to be killed
+should signify it by saying Aye, and
+then he himself, as if he were a whole
+assembly, shouts out, Aye! Aye! Aye!
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>“The Ayes have it,” he announces with
+the air of a man who has just won
+an important victory. My father and
+I laugh heartily. There is no limit
+to Mr. Lemon’s happiness. “That’s
+right,” he says, “it’s good, take it
+down, old man.”</p>
+
+<p>He cannot bear a moment’s abstinence
+from laughter. “Cast aside all
+irrelevant hypotheses, and get to the
+laughing. I proclaim the supremacy
+of the laugh, laughter inextinguishable,
+laughter eternal, the divine laughter
+of the gods.”</p>
+
+<p>My father leaves the room. “Everything
+has a comic element if you look
+at it right. It seemed to me that your
+father went down into the cellar because
+he couldn’t sleep on account of
+my damn foolishness.” He wallows
+in amusement, but at the same time
+expresses sincere regret that he is preventing
+my father and me from sleeping,
+and says next time he will take
+hasheesh in the daytime.</p>
+
+<p>My father re-enters, and desires to
+feel his pulse. At first Mr. Lemon
+objects vehemently to being touched,
+but then smiles the sweetest of smiles,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>and with the demeanor of a martyred
+Bruno marching to the stake, stretches
+forth his hand, saying, “In the interests
+of science I am willing.” But
+after a few seconds Mr. Lemon pulls
+his hand impatiently away, and exclaims
+angrily, “You’ve been holding
+it half an hour.” His pulse is about
+100.</p>
+
+<p>“Come on in, the hasheesh is fine!
+You laugh and laugh and laugh and
+laugh like an imbecile. Who can
+laugh in more ways than me? Not
+any fellow that I can see.”</p>
+
+<p>Begins to philosophize about savages,
+but loses the thread of his
+thoughts. I remind him what he was
+talking about; he thinks a moment,
+taps his forehead significantly, and
+says, “There was a laugh there before,
+and now I’ve lost it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Every tick of the clock is another
+instant that you’re wasting time over
+this damn foolishness.”</p>
+
+<p>“Laughter is indisputable and for
+its own sake. I proclaim the laugh
+for the laugh’s sake.” The English
+tongue is insufficient for him; he coins
+words of his own: “Laughfinity!” he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>shouts. “Laughinosity!” he screams.
+“The whole world is a blooming joke.”</p>
+
+<p>“Which is best,” he asks innocently,
+“the Laughing Goddess, or the Goddess
+of Laughter?” “The Laughing
+Goddess,” answers my father. Exultation
+shines thru the dilated pupils
+of the questioner, as he responds, “I
+knew I would catch you. The Laughing
+Goddess reminds you by the association
+of ideas of the laughing
+hyena, and then instead of being the
+goddess presiding over the divine
+function of laughter, she becomes a
+laughing stock.”</p>
+
+<p>I ask him something about figures.
+“Figures,” he answers, “are intellectually
+beneath me. In short, I would
+never be a great mathematician. Yet
+I appreciate the metaphysics of mathematics.
+I adore, I prostrate myself
+before mathematics as long as there
+are no figures in it.” Hearing our
+laughter, he explains, “Yet this isn’t
+so foolish as it seems. Up to a certain
+point in geometry there are no
+figures.”</p>
+
+<p>“I would have talked more sensibly
+if Emerson had not been there.”
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span>Bangs his legs against the edge of the
+bed; my father asks him if he hurt
+himself. “Not on a material plane;
+it was a psychic jar of which you cannot
+conceive.”</p>
+
+<p>Speaks in a declamatory tone: “I
+am all the time on the borderline between
+Science and Folly. Which god
+shall ye follow, young man?”</p>
+
+<p>My father tells him he can stop
+laughing if he wishes. “No, sir,”
+comes the emphatic response, “not if
+you lived in my world. It is a categorical
+imperative in the world of
+hasheesh: Thou shalt laugh.”</p>
+
+<p>It is already four o’clock in the
+morning. I am loath to leave this
+frolicsome dynamo of blithesomeness,
+this continuous current of good-cheer,
+this generator of joyousness, but there
+is a hard day’s work before me and
+I need a little sleep, so with a last look
+at his Mirthful Majesty, I leave him
+alone in his glory and his giggles.</p>
+
+<p>Four hours later I peep in. The intellectual
+merry-andrew who criticizes
+the Concord Transcendentalist and
+juggles philosophic conceptions even
+under the effects of dope, is motionless.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>Lassitude has usurped the throne of
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot tell what effect the reading
+of this case will produce on others,
+but in me it awakens such risibility
+that I hope never to think of it on an
+occasion when silence or solemnity is
+enjoined; for if I do, there is danger
+of my being ejected as unceremoniously
+as was Washington Irving on the day
+he laughed at <i>The Art of Book Making</i>,
+in the grave sanctuary of the
+British Museum.</p>
+
+<p class="break">There yet remains my own case.
+On March 4th, 1910, I came home,
+feeling very tired. I found that some
+cannabis indica which I had expected
+had arrived. After supper, while finishing
+up an article, I began to debate
+with myself whether I should join the
+hasheesh-eaters that night. The argument
+ended in my taking 20 minims
+at 9 o’clock. I was alone in the room,
+and no one was aware that I had
+yielded to temptation. An hour later
+I wrote in my memoranda book: Absolutely
+no effect. At 10.30, I completed
+my article, and entered this
+note: No effect at all from the hemp.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>By this time I was exhausted, and being
+convinced that the hasheesh would
+not act, I went to bed in disappointment.
+I fell asleep immediately.</p>
+
+<p>I hear music. There is something
+strange about this music. I have not
+heard such music before. The anthem
+is far away, but in its very faintness
+there is a lure. In the soft surge and
+swell of the minor notes there breathes
+a harmony that ravishes the sense of
+sound. A resonant organ, with a stop
+of sapphire and a diapason of opal,
+diffuses endless octaves from star to
+star. All the moon-beams form
+strings to vibrate the perfect pitch,
+and this entrancing unison is poured
+into my enchanted ears. Under such
+a spell, who can remain in a bed? The
+magic of that melody bewitches my
+soul. I begin to rise horizontally from
+my couch. No walls impede my progress,
+and I float into the outside air.
+Sweeter and sweeter grows the music,
+it bears me higher and higher, and I
+float in tune with the infinite—under
+the turquoise heavens where globules
+of mercury are glittering.</p>
+
+<p>I become an unhindered wanderer
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>thru unending space. No air-ship can
+go here, I say. I am astonished at the
+vastness of infinity. I always knew
+it was large, I argue, but I never
+dreamt it was as huge as this. I desire
+to know how fast I am floating
+thru the air, and I calculate that it
+must be about a billion miles a second.</p>
+
+<p>I am transported to wonderland. I
+walk in streets where gold is dirt, and
+I have no desire to gather it. I wonder
+whether it is worth while to explore
+the canals of Mars, or rock myself
+on the rings of Saturn, but before
+I can decide, a thousand other fancies
+enter my excited brain.</p>
+
+<p>I wish to see if I can concentrate my
+mind sufficiently to recite something,
+and I succeed in correctly quoting this
+stanza from a favorite poem which I
+am perpetually re-reading:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0a">“Come into the garden, Maud,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">For the black bat, night, has flown,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Come into the garden, Maud,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">I am here at the gate alone;</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent2">And the musk of the rose is blown.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It occurs to me that it is high honor
+for Tennyson to have his poetry
+quoted in heaven.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p>
+
+<p>I turn, I twist, I twirl. I melt, I
+fade, I dissolve. No diaphanous cloud
+is so light and airy as I. I admire the
+ease with which I float. My gracefulness
+fills me with delight. My
+body is not subject to the law of gravitation.
+I sail dreamily along, lost in
+exquisite intoxication.</p>
+
+<p>New scenes of wonder continually
+unravel themselves before my astonished
+eyes. I say to myself that if
+I could only record one one-thousandth
+of the ideas which come to me every
+second, I would be considered a
+greater poet than Milton.</p>
+
+<p>I am on the top of a high mountain-peak.
+I am alone—only the romantic
+night envelops me. From a distant
+valley I hear the gentle tinkling of
+cow-bells. I float downwards, and
+find immense fields in which peacock’s
+tails are growing. They wave slowly,
+to better exhibit their dazzling ocelli,
+and I revel in the gorgeous colors. I
+pass over mountains and I sail over
+seas. I am the monarch of the air.</p>
+
+<p>I hear the songs of women. Thousands
+of maidens pass near me, they
+bend their bodies in the most charming
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>curves, and scatter beautiful flowers
+in my fragrant path. Some faces
+are strange, some I knew on earth,
+but all are lovely. They smile, and
+sing and dance. Their bare feet glorify
+the firmament. It is more than
+flesh can stand. I grow sensual unto
+satyriasis. The aphrodisiac effect is
+astonishing in its intensity. I enjoy
+all the women of the world. I pursue
+countless maidens thru the confines
+of heaven. A delicious warmth suffuses
+my whole body. Hot and blissful
+I float thru the universe, consumed
+with a resistless passion. And in the
+midst of this unexampled and unexpected
+orgy, I think of the case reported
+by the German Dr. Reidel,
+about a drug-clerk who took a huge
+dose of hasheesh to enjoy voluptuous
+visions, but who heard not even the
+rustle of Aphrodite’s garment, and I
+laugh at him in scorn and derision.</p>
+
+<p>I sigh deeply, open my eyes, and find
+myself sitting with one foot in bed,
+and the other on my desk. I am
+bathed in warm sweat which is pleasant.
+But my head aches, and there is
+a feeling in my stomach which I recognize
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>and detest. It is nausea. I pull
+the basket near me, and await the inevitable
+result. At the same time I
+feel like begging for mercy, for I have
+traveled so far and so long, and I am
+tired beyond limit, and I need a rest.
+The fatal moment approaches, and I
+lower my head for the easier deposition
+of the rising burden. And my
+head seems monstrously huge, and
+weighted with lead. At last the deed
+is done, and I lean back on the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>I hear my sister come home from
+the opera. I wish to call her. My
+sister’s name is Ellen. I try to say it,
+but I cannot. The effort is too much.
+I sigh in despair. It occurs to me
+that I may achieve better results if
+I compromise on Nell, as this contains
+one syllable instead of two. Again
+I am defeated. I am too weary to
+exert myself to any extent, but I am
+determined. I make up my mind to
+collect all my strength, and call out:
+Nell. The result is a fizzle. No
+sound issues from my lips. My lips
+do not move. I give it up. My head
+falls on my breast, utterly exhausted
+and devoid of all energy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p>
+
+<p>Again my brain teems. Again I
+hear that high and heavenly harmony,
+again I float to the outposts of the
+universe and beyond, again I see the
+dancing maidens with their soft yielding
+bodies, white and warm. I am
+excited unto ecstasy. I feel myself a
+brother to the Oriental, for the same
+drug which gives him joy is now acting
+on me. I am conscious all the
+time, and I say to myself in a knowing
+way with a suspicion of a smile:
+All these visions because of 20
+minims of cannabis indica. My only
+regret is that the trances are ceaseless.
+I wish respite, but for answer I
+find myself floating over an immense
+ocean. Then the vision grows so
+wondrous, that body and soul I give
+myself up to it, and I taste the fabled
+joys of paradise. Ah, what this night
+is worth!</p>
+
+<p>The music fades, the beauteous girls
+are gone, and I float no more. But
+the black rubber covering of my typewriter
+glows like a chunk of yellow
+phosphorus. By one door stands a
+skeleton with a luminous abdomen
+and brandishes a wooden sword. By
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>the other door a little red devil keeps
+guard. I open my eyes wide, I close
+them tight, but these spectres will not
+vanish. I know they are not real, I
+know I see them because I took
+hasheesh, but they annoy me nevertheless.
+I become uncomfortable, even
+frightened. I make a superhuman effort,
+and succeed in getting up and
+lighting the gas. It is two o’clock.
+Everything is the way it should be, except
+that in the basket I notice the remains
+of an orange—somewhat the
+worse for wear.</p>
+
+<p>I feel relieved, and fall asleep.
+Something is handling me, and I start
+in fright. I open my eyes and see my
+father. He has returned from a meeting
+at the Academy of Medicine, and
+surprised at seeing a light in my room
+at such a time, has entered. He surmises
+what I have done, and is anxious
+to know what quantity I have
+taken. I should have answered, with
+a wink, <i>quantum sufficit</i>, but I have
+no inclination for conversation; on
+hearing the question repeated, I answer,
+“Twenty minims.” He tells me
+I look as pale as a ghost, and brings me
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>a glass of water. I drink it, become
+quite normal, and thus ends the most
+wonderful night of my existence.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning my capacity for happiness
+is considerably increased. I
+have an excellent appetite, the coffee
+I sip is nectar, and the white bread
+ambrosia. I take my camera, and
+walk to Central Park. It is a glorious
+day. Everyone I meet is idealized.
+The lake never looked so placid
+before. I enter the hot-houses, and
+a gaudy-colored insect buzzing among
+the lovely flowers fills me with joy.
+I am too languid to take any pictures;
+to set the focus, to use the proper
+stop, to locate the image, to press the
+bulb—all these seem herculean feats
+which I dare not even attempt. But
+I walk and walk, without apparent effort,
+and my mind eagerly dwells on
+the brilliant pageantry of the night before.
+I do not wish to forget my
+frenzied nocturnal revelry upon the
+vast dome of the broad blue heavens.
+I wish to remember forever, the floating,
+the mercury-globules, the peacock-feathers,
+the colors, the music, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>women. In memory I enjoy the carnival
+all over again.</p>
+
+<p>“For the brave Meiamoun,” writes
+Theophile Gautier, “Cleopatra danced;
+she was apparelled in a robe of green,
+open at either side; castanets were attached
+to her alabaster hands....
+Poised on the pink tips of her little
+feet, she approached swiftly to graze
+his forehead with a kiss; then she recommenced
+her wondrous art, and
+flitted around him, now backward-leaning,
+with head reversed, eyes half-closed,
+arms lifelessly relaxed, locks
+uncurled and loose-hanging like a
+bacchante of Mount Maenalus; now
+again active, animated, laughing, fluttering,
+more tireless and capricious in
+her movements than the pilfering bee.
+Heart-consuming love, sensual pleasure,
+burning passion, youth inexhaustible
+and ever-fresh, the promise
+of bliss to come—she expressed
+all.... The modest stars had
+ceased to contemplate the scene; their
+golden eyes could not endure such a
+spectacle; the heaven itself was blotted
+out, and a dome of flaming vapor covered
+the hall.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p>
+
+<p>But for me a thousand Cleopatras
+caroused—and did not present me a
+vase of poison to drain at a draught.
+Again I repeated to myself: “And all
+these charming miracles because of 20
+minims of <i>Fluidextractum Cannabis
+Indicæ</i>, U. S. P.”</p>
+
+<p>By the afternoon I had so far recovered
+as to be able to concentrate
+my mind on technical studies. I will
+not attempt to interpret my visions
+psychologically, but I wish to refer to
+one aspect. Spencer, in <i>Principles of
+Psychology</i>, mentions hasheesh as possessing
+the power of reviving ideas.
+I found this to be the case. I spoke
+about air-ships because there had been
+a discussion about them at supper; I
+quoted from Tennyson’s <i>Maud</i> because
+I had been re-reading it; I saw
+mercury-globules in the heavens because
+that same day I had worked with
+mercury in preparing mercurial plaster;
+and I saw the peacock-tails because
+a couple of days previous I had
+been at the Museum of Natural History
+and had closely observed a magnificent
+specimen. I cannot account for
+the women.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p>
+
+<p>All poets—with the possible exception
+of Margaret Sangster—have celebrated
+Alcohol, while Rudyard Kipling
+has gone so far as to solemnize
+delirium tremens; B. V. has glorified
+Nicotine; DeQuincy has immortalized
+Opium; Murger is full of praise for
+Caffeine; Dumas in <i>Monte Cristo</i> has
+apotheosized Hasheesh, Gautier has
+vivified it in <i>Club des Hachichins</i>,
+Baudelaire has panegyrized it in <i>Artificial
+Paradises</i>, but as few American
+pens have done so, I have taken it upon
+myself to write a sonnet to the most
+interesting plant that blooms:</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">Near Punjab and Pab, in Sutlej and Sind,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the cobras-di-capello abound,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Where the poppy, palm and the tamarind,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">With cummin and ginger festoon the ground—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the capsicum fields are all abloom,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">From the hills above to the vales below,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Entrancing the air with a rich perfume,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">There too does the greenish Cannabis grow:</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Inflaming the blood with the living fire,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Till the burning joys like the eagles rise,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">And the pulses throb with a strange desire,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">While passion awakes with a wild surprise:—</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">O to eat that drug, and to dream all day,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Of the maids that live by the Bengal Bay!</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span></p>
+<h2>
+APPENDIX
+</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mr. Courtenay Lemon has written
+the following memorandum of the
+subjective features of his experience:</p>
+
+<p>The first symptom which told me
+that the drug was beginning to take
+effect was a feeling of extreme lightness.
+I seemed to be hollowing out
+inside, in some magical manner, until
+I became a mere shell, ready to float
+away into space. This was soon succeeded,
+in one of the breathless intervals
+of my prodigious laughter, by a
+diametrically opposite sensation of extreme
+solidity and leaden weight. It
+seemed to me that I had changed into
+metal of some sort. There was a
+metallic taste in my mouth; in some
+inexplicable way the surfaces of my
+body seemed to communicate to my
+consciousness a metalliferous feeling;
+and I imagined that if struck I would
+give forth a metallic ring. This
+heavy and metallic feeling travelled
+rapidly upwards from the feet to the
+chest, where it stopped, leaving my
+head free for the issuance of the
+storms of laughter. Most of the time
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span>my arms and legs seemed to be so
+leaden that it required Herculean effort
+to move them, but under any special
+stimulus, such as the entrance of
+a third person, the vagrant conception
+of a new idea, or an unusually hearty
+fit of laughing, this feeling of unliftable
+heaviness in the limbs and torso
+would be forgotten and I would move
+freely, waving my arms with great
+vigor and enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>Thruout the experiment I experienced
+a peculiar double consciousness.
+I was perfectly aware that my laughter,
+etc., was the result of having taken
+the drug, yet I was powerless to stop
+it, nor did I care to do so, for I enjoyed
+it as thoroly as if it had arisen
+from natural causes. In the same way
+the extension of the sense of time induced
+by the drug was in itself indubitable
+and as cogent as any normal
+evidence of the senses, yet I remained
+able to convince myself at any moment
+by reflection that my sense of time
+was fallacious. I divided these impressions
+into hasheesh-time and real time.
+But in their alternations, so rapid as
+to seem simultaneous, both these standards
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>of time seemed equally valid.
+For instance, once or twice when my
+friend spoke of something I had said
+a second before, I was impatient and
+replied: “What do you want to go
+back to that for? That was a long
+time ago. What’s the use of going
+back into the past?” At the next moment,
+however, I would recognize,
+purely as a matter of logic, that he
+was replying to the sentence before the
+last that I had uttered, and would thus
+realize that the remark to which he referred
+was separated from the present
+only by a moment’s interval. I did
+not, however, at any time on this occasion,
+attain the state sometimes
+reached in the second stage of hasheesh
+intoxication in which mere time
+disappears in an eternity wherein
+ages rush by like ephemera; nor did
+I experience any magnification of the
+sense of space, my experiences in regard
+to such extensions being confined
+to an intermittent multiplication of the
+sense of time.</p>
+
+<p>When my laughter began it seemed
+for an instant to be mechanical, as if
+produced by some external power
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>which forced air in and out of my
+lungs; it seemed for an instant to proceed
+from the body rather than from
+the mind; to be, in its inception, merely
+physical laughter without a corresponding
+psychic state of amusement.
+But this was only momentary. After
+the first few moments I enjoyed laughing
+immensely. I felt an inclination
+to joke as well as to laugh, and I remember
+saying: “I am going to have
+some reason for this laughing, so I
+will tell a story; if I have to laugh anyway,
+I’m going to supply good reasons
+for doing so, as it would be idiotic to
+laugh about nothing.” I thereupon
+proceeded to relate an anecdote. Altho
+I knew that my condition was the
+result of the drug, I was nevertheless
+filled with a genuine sense of profound
+hilarity, an eager desire to impart
+similar merriment to others, and a feeling
+of immense geniality and mirth,
+accompanied by sentiments of the most
+expansive good-will.</p>
+
+<p>Against the effects of the drug,
+much as I enjoyed and yielded to it,
+there was opposed a preconceived intention.
+I had determined to tell my
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>friend Victor Robinson, who was
+taking notes of my condition, just how
+I felt; had determined to supply as
+much data as possible in regard to my
+sensations. The result was that I repeatedly
+summoned all the rational
+energy that remained to me, and
+fought desperately to express the
+thoughts that came to me, whether
+ridiculous or analytical. Sometimes
+when I felt myself slipping away again
+into laughter or dreaminess I summoned
+all my strength to say what I
+had in mind, and would lose the thread
+of my thought and could not remember
+what I wanted to say, but would
+return to it again and again with the
+utmost determination and tenacity until
+I succeeded in saying what I wished
+to—sometimes an observation about
+my sensations, often only a jest about
+my condition. I believe that this
+acted as a great resistant to the effect
+of the drug. The energy of the drug
+was dissipated, I think, in overcoming
+my will to observe and analyze my sensations,
+and it was probably for this
+reason that I did not pass very far on
+this occasion into the second stage in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>which laughter gives place to grandiose
+visions and charming hallucinations.</p>
+
+<p>After my friend Victor and his
+father turned out the light and left the
+room, my laughter gradually subsided
+into a few final gurgles of ineffable
+mirth and benevolence, and after a
+period of the amorous visions sometimes
+induced by this philtre from the
+land of harems, I fell into a sound
+sleep after my three hours of continuous
+and exhausting laughter.</p>
+
+<p>I awoke next morning after seven
+hours sleep, with a ravenous appetite,
+which I think was probably as much
+due to the great expenditure of energy
+in laughing as to any direct effect of
+the drug itself. I was also very thirsty
+and my skin was parched and burning.
+Altho I immediately dressed and went
+down to breakfast, I felt very drowsy
+and disinclined to physical exertion or
+mental concentration. And while no
+longer given to causeless laughter, I
+felt a lingering merriment and was
+easily moved to chuckling. I slept
+several hours in the afternoon and
+after dinner I slept all evening, awaking
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>at 11 <span class="allsmcap">P. M.</span>, when I arose feeling
+very much refreshed and entirely normal,
+and went out to get another meal,
+being still hungry. I should say that
+the immediate after-effect, the reaction
+from the stimulation of hasheesh, is
+not much greater, except for the
+drowsiness, than that following the
+common or beer garden variety of intoxication.
+My memory of what I
+said and did while under the hasheesh
+was complete and accurate.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter transnote">
+  <h3 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Note">
+    Transcriber’s Note:
+  </h3>
+<p> Obsolete and alternative spellings were retained. Nine misspelled
+words were corrected; a missing accent was added to “Médecine;” one
+instance of “DeMuth” was changed to Demuth.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77838 ***</div>
+</body>
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