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diff --git a/77838-0.txt b/77838-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a410749 --- /dev/null +++ b/77838-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1555 @@ +*** 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 *** |