perienced, indeed, something of that extra- | the influence of the drug. Being at Damasordinary exaggeration of the idea of time cus with an English gentleman and his wife which most hashish-eaters have described: and a brother American, he determined upon actions and movements which could not have a repetition of the narcotic dose in an intenser occupied seconds, seemed to occupy minutes; but besides this nothing wonderful happened. form and the two other gentleman of the The subsequent nervous effect, I cannot party agreed to join him in the trial. A call it reaction, when there had been so little dragoman, on being commissioned to procure action, was as unpleasant as before; and the drug, demanded, in the lingua franca of i can thoroughly comprehend how a course the East, whether he should purchase hashish of hashish-eating must end in the degrading" "per ridere, o per dormire." “Oh, per deterioration of the mental and moral charridere, of course," was the answer. It seems acter described by eastern travellers and others. The following day in the presence of that it is the custom with the Syrians "to a very slight danger, one which would not take a small portion immediately before the have in the least degree affected me at an- evening meal, as it is thus diffused through other time,-I felt cowed, incapable, and ter- the stomach, and acts more gradually, as well rified. I have resolved not to repeat an ex- as more gently, upon the system.” The periment which has twice proved so disa- Englishman objected to Mr. Taylor's progreeable. As to the very small doses, they seem to be harmless and agreeable in their posal to take it, following the Syrian example, effect, under one condition, that while their at dinner; and it was agreed that it should action lasts, the mind and body remain in- be in the evening, when the parties under active. Any exertion of thought, even so its influence might be more in private, and much as in writing a letter, destroys the retire, if they pleased, to their separate agreeable effect, and changes it to a feeling apartments. Not knowing the proper quanof impatience and feverishness." tity to take, and finding that a teaspoonful of the preparation had no immediate effect, an additional dose was swallowed by each of the three, and its effect hastened by a cup of hot tea. It appeared afterwards, that they had taken at least six times the proper quantity. We have to thank this accident for by very much the most curious and amusing account we have read of the effects of this extraordinary drug:

Mr. Bayard Taylor has placed on record the results of two experiments on the effects of hashish. The first was while he was in a boat upon the Nile. He took the narcotic in a mild form and moderate quantity, and describes his sensations as being " physically, of exquisite lightness and airiness; mentally, of a wonderfully keen perception of the ludicrous in the most simple and familiar objects." While the fit lasted, he was perfectly able to observe and reflect upon his of the room, talking with my friends, who "I was seated alone nearly in the middle feelings. "I noted with careful attention were lounging upon a sofa placed in a sort of the fine sensations which spread through the alcove at the further end, when the same fine whole tissue of my nervous fibre, each thrill nervous thrill of which I have spoken sudBut this time it helping to divest my frame of its earthly and denly shot through me. material nature, until my substance appeared the pit of the stomach; and instead of was accompanied by a burning sensation at growto me no grosser than the vapors of the ating upon me with the gradual pace of healthy mosphere. The objects by which I was sur- slumber, and resolving me, as before, into air, rounded assumed a strange and whimsical it came with the intensity of a pang, and expression. My pipe, the oars which my shot throbbing along the nerves to the exboatman plied, the turban worn by the cap-tremities of my body. The sense of limitatain, the water-jars and culinary implements, tion, of the confinement of our senses within become in themselves so inexpressibly absurd the bounds of our own flesh and blood, inand comical, that I was provoked into a long stantly fell away. The walls of my frame were burst outward and tumbled into ruin; fit of laughter. The hallucination died away and, without thinking what form I wore, as gradually as it came, leaving me overcome losing sight even of all idea of form,-I felt with a soft and pleasant drowsiness, from that I existed throughout a vast extent of which I sank into a deep refreshing sleep." space. The blood, pulsed from my heart, This experiment, Mr. Bayard Taylor tells sped through uncounted leagues before it us, only excited his curiosity, and prompted reached my extremities; the air drawn into him for once to throw himself wholly under my lungs expanded into seas of limpid ether,

...

victorious

and the arch of my skull was broader than harmonies, such as Beethoven may have the vault of heaven. Within the concave heard in dreams, but never wrote, floated that held my brain were the fathomless deeps around me. The atmosphere itself was light, of blue; clouds floated there, and the winds odor, music; and each and all sublimated of heaven rolled them together, and there beyond any thing the sober senses are capashone the sun. It was though I thought ble of receiving. Before me, for a thousand not of that at the time-like a revelation of leagues, as it seemed, stretched a vista of the mystery of omnipresence. It is difficult rainbows. .. By thousands and tens of to describe this sensation, or the rapidity thousands they flew past me, as my dazzling with which it mastered me. In the state of barge sped down the magnificent arcade. mental exaltation in which I was then I revelled in a sensuous elysium, which was plunged, all sensations, as they rose, sug-perfect, because no sense was left ungratified. gested more or less coherent images. They But, beyond all, my mind was filled with a presented themselves to me in a double boundless feeling of triumph. My journey form: : one physical, and therefore to a certain was that of a conqueror, extent tangible; the other spiritual, and re- over the grandest as well as the subtlest forces vealing itself in a succession of splendid of nature. The spirits of light, color, odor, metaphors. The physical feeling of extended sound, and motion were my slaves; and I was being was accompanied by the image of an master of the universe. Those finer exploding meteor, not subsiding into dark- senses, which occupy a middle ground between ness, but continuing to shoot from its centre our animal and intellectual appetites, were or nucleus-which corresponded to the burn- suddenly developed to a pitch beyond what I ing spot at the pit of my stomach-incessant had ever dreamed, and gratified to the fullest 2 adumbrations (P) of light, that finally lost extent of their preternatural capacity. Mathemselves in the infinity of space. My homet's paradise would have been a curiosity was now in a way of being satisfied; poor and mean terminus for my arcade of rainthe spirit (demon shall I not rather say?) of bows. Yet in the character of this paradise, hashish had entire possession of me. I was in the gorgeous fancies of the Arabian nights, cast upon this flood of his illusions, and in the glow and luxury of all oriental poetry, drifted helplessly whithersoever they might I now recognise more or less of the agency choose to bear me. The thrills which ran of hashish. The fullness of my rapture exthrough my nervous system became more panded the sense of time; and though the rapid and fierce, accompanied by sensations whole vision was probably not more than five that steeped my whole being in unutterable minutes in passing, years seemed to have rapture. I was encompassed by a sea of elapsed.' light, through which played the pure harmonious colors that are born of light. While endeavoring, in broken expressions, to detime. M. Moreau, an habitual swallower of scribe my feelings to my friends, who sat looking upon me incredulously, not yet hav- this narcotic, states that one evening, in ing been affected by the drug, I suddenly traversing the passage of the Opera under found myself at the foot of the great pyramid its influence, the time occupied in taking a of Cheops. The tapering courses of yellow few steps seemed to be hours, and the paslimestone gleamed like gold in the sun; and the pile rose so high, that it seemed to lean sage interminable. But to return to Mr. Taylor's visions: for support upon the blue arch of the sky. I wished to ascend it; and the wish alone "By and by the rainbows, the barque, &c. placed me immediately upon its vanished; and, still bathed in light and perI cast my eyes downward; and to my aston- fume, I found myself in a land of green and ishment saw that it was built, not of lime-flowerly lawns.. The people who came stone, but of huge square plugs of Cavendish from the hills, with brilliant garments that I writhed in my chair in an shone in the sun, besought me to give them agony of laughter, which was only relieved the blessing of water. Their hands were full by the vision melting away like a dissolving of branches of the coralhoneysuckle, in till another and more wonderful vision bloom. These I took; and breaking off the arose... I despair of representing its exceed-flowers one by one, set them in the earth. ing glory. I was moving over the desert, The slender trumpet-like tubes immediately not upon the rocking dromedary, but seated became shafts of masonry; the lip of the in a barque made of mother-of-pearl, and flower changed into a circular mouth of rosestudded with jewels of surpassing lustre. colored marble; and the people lowered The sand was of grains of gold; the air was their pitchers, and drew them up again, filled radiant, though no sun was to be seen; I to the brim and dripping with honey." inhaled the most delicious perfumes; and Strange to say, all the time these visions

el

1.00

1

tobacco....

view;

apex.

Hashish-eaters agree in this curious experience of the exaggeration of the idea of

taken hashish.

were going on, Mr. Taylor was perfectly con- | baker that I could hardly see the top of his scious that he was seated in an apartment of head. "The man will be suffocated," I cried; Antonio's hotel in Damascus, and that his "but if he were to die, I cannot stop." My dreams were all simply the result of having perceptions now became more dim and confused. I felt that I was in the grasp of some giant force, and in the glimmering of my fading reason grew earnestly alarmed; for the terrible stress under which my frame labored increased every minute. A fierce and furious heat radiated from my stomach throughout my system; my mouth and throat were as dry and hard as if made of brass; and my tongue, it seemed to me, was a bar of rusty iron."

Metaphysicians," he remarks, "say that the mind is incapable of performing two operations at the same time, and may attempt to explain this phenomenon by supposing a rapid and incessant vibration of the perceptions between two states. This explanation, however, is not satisfactory to me; for not more clearly does a skilful musician with the same breath blow two distinct musical notes from a bugle than I was conscious of two distinct conditions of Being in the same moment. Yet, singular as it may seem, neither conflicted with the other. My enjoyment of the visions was complete and absolute, and undisturbed by the faintest doubt of their reality; while, in some other chamber of my brain, Reason sat coolly watching them, and heaping the liveliest ridicule on their fantastic features."

It will occur to many of our readers, that the only phenomenon that resembles the above, in a normal mental state, is that of what is commonly and expressively called poetic inspiration, in which the most lively and passionate realisation of a series of events and images goes on simultaneously with the conscious exercise of the cold skill of the ar

tistic intellect.

"The drug, which had been retarded in its operation on account of having been taken after a meal, now began to make itself more powerfully felt. The visions were more grotesque than ever, but less agreeable; and there was a painful tension throughout my nervous system. . . . . I was a mass of transparent jelly, and a confectioner poured me into a twisted mould. I threw my chair aside, and writhed and tortured myself for some time to force my loose substance into the mould. At last, when I had so far succeeded that only one foot remained outside, it was lifted off, and another mould, of still more crooked and intricate shape, substituted. I have no doubt that the contortions through which I went to accomplish the end of my gelatinous destiny would have been extremely Iudicrous to a spectator, but to me they were painful and disagreeable. The sober half of me went into fits of laughter over them.. I had laughed until my eyes overflowed profusely. Every drop that fell immediately became a large loaf of bread, and tumbled upon the shop-board of a baker at Damascus. The more I laughed, the faster the loaves fell, until such a pile was raised about the

In this condition Mr. Taylor remained for some time, deriving no alleviation from great draughts of water, heaving sighs that " and seemed to shatter his whole being; yet, at this crisis of his insanity, he was fully able to remark that "there was a scream of the wildest laughter, and my countryman sprang upon the floor, exclaiming, "Ye gods I am a locomotive!" This was his ruling hallucination; and for the space of two or three hours he continued to pace to and fro, with a measured stride, exhaling his breath in violent jets; and, when he spoke, dividing his words into syllables, each of which he brought out with a jerk; at the same time turning his hands at his sides, as if they were the cranks of imaginary wheels. The Englishman, on finding the drug begin to act, characteristically retired to his apartment, and could never be prevailed upon to relate the results. Midnight arrived, though every minute appeared centuries, and the terrific trance still continued:

66

By this time I had passed through the paradise of hashish, and was plunged into its fiercest hell.. The excited blood rushed through my frame with a sound like the roaring of mighty waters. It was projected into my eyes until I could no longer see; it beat thickly in my ears; and so throbbed in my heart, that I feared the ribs would give way under its blows. I tore open my vest, placed my hand over the spot, and tried to count the pulsations, but there were two hearts; one beating at the rate of a thousand beats a minute, and the other with a slow dull motion. My throat, I thought, was filled to the brim with blood and streams of blood were pouring from my ears. . I fled from the room, and walked over the flat terraced roof of the house. My body seemed to shrink and grow rigid, and my face to become wild, lean, and haggard. . voluntarily I raised my hand to feel the leanness and sharpness of my face. O hor

In

ror! the flesh had fallen from my bones, and that seemed to be rapidly wearing away my it was a skeleton-head I carried on my life, my throat dry as a potsherd, and my shoulders. With one bound I sprang to the stiffened tongue cleaving to the roof of my parapet, and looked down into the silent mouth. My companion was approaching the courtyard, then filled with the shadows same condition; but as the effect of the drug thrown into it by the rising moon. Shall I upon him had been less violent, so his stage cast myself down headlong? was the ques- of suffering was more clamorous. He cried tion I proposed to myself; but though the out to me that he was dying, and reproached horror of the skeleton delusion was worse me vehemently because I lay there silent, than the fear of death, there was an invisible motionless, and apparently careless of his hand at my breast which pushed me away danger. Why will he disturb me?' I from the brink. I made my way back to the thought. He thinks he is dying, but what room in a state of the keenest suffering. My is death to madness? Let him die; a thoucompanion was still a locomotive, rushing to sand deaths were more easily borne than and fro, and jerking out his syllables with the pangs I suffer.' While I was sufficiently the disjointed accent peculiar to a steam-conscious to hear his exclamations, they only engine. His mouth had turned to brass, like provoked my keen anger; but after a time, mine, and his hand raised the pitcher to his my senses became clouded, and.I sank into a lips in the attempt to moisten it; but, before he had taken a mouthful, set the pitcher down again with a yell of laughter, crying out, 'How can I take water into my boiler, while I am letting off steam?"

stupor. As near, as I can judge, this must have been three o'clock in the morning, rather more than five hours after the hashish began to take effect. I lay thus all the following day and night, in a state of blank oblivion, broken only by a single wandering Mr. Taylor tells us that he was too far gleam of consciousness. I recollect hearing gone to fall into the absurdity of this. He François' voice. He told me afterwards that felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into I rose, attempted to dress myself, drank two unutterable agony and despair. There was cups of coffee, and then fell back into the nothing resembling ordinary pain; but a same death-like stupor; but of all this I did On the distress, from tension of nerve, which could not retain the least knowledge. not be described, because unlike any previous thirty hours, I awoke again to the world, morning of the second day, after a sleep of experience, and which was far worse than with a system utterly prostrate and unstrung, any pain. The remnant of the will was and a brain clouded with the lingering images gradually disappearing, without any cor- of my visions. I knew where I was, and responding diminution of consciousness; and what had happened to me; but all that I saw a dreadful fear arose that what he was now still remained unreal and shadowy. There suffering was real and permanent insanity. what I drank; and it required a painful effort was no taste in what I ate, no refreshment in Indeed, it appears from a fact mentioned by to comprehend what was said to me, and reDr. Madden in his Travels in Turkey, &c., turn a coherent answer. Will and reason that this fear was not so groundless as Mr. had come back, but they still sat unsteadily Taylor afterwards came to regard it. Dr. on their thrones. My friend, who was much Madden assures us that out of thirteen male further advanced in his recovery, accompanied inmates of a Turkish madhouse, no fewer than four had gone mad from over-doses of hashish. The rest of this profoundly interesting and vividly-expressed description, which we have reluctantly abridged, must be given in Mr. Taylor's words:

me to the adjoining bath, which I hoped would assist in restoring me. It was with great difficulty that I preserved the outward appearance of consciousness. In spite of myself, a veil now and then fell over my mind; and after wandering for years, as it seemed, in some distant world, I awoke with a shock to find myself in the steamy halls of "The thought of death, which also haunted the bath, with a brown Syrian polishing my me, was far less bitter than this dread. I limbs. A glass of very acid sherbet knew that in the struggle which was going was presented to me; and after drinking it, I on in my frame, I was borne fearfully near experienced instant relief. Still the spell the dark gulf; and the thought that, at such was not wholly broken, and for two or three a time, both reason and will were leaving my days I continued subject to frequent involunbrain, filled me with an agony, the depth tary fits of absence, which made me insensible and blackness of which I should vainly at- for the time to all that was passing around tempt to portray. I threw myself on my me. I walked the streets of Damascus with bed, the excited blood still roaring wildly in a strange consciousness that I was in some my ears, my heart throbbing with a force other place at the same time, and with a

gen

constant effort to reunite my divided per- duced by opium in countries where it is ceptions. Previous to the experiment, we habitually taken, might probably stand good had decided on making a bargain for the for hashish also. Dr. Burnes, long resident Journey to Palmyra..... But all the charm at the court of Sciende, writes, that "in which lay in the name of Palmyra, and the romantic interest of the trip, was gone. I eral the natives do not suffer much from the was without courage and without energy, use of opium. Is does not seem to destroy and nothing remained for me but to leave the powers of the body, or to enervate the Damascus. mind, to the degree that might be imagined." Dr. Macpherson observes of the Chinese, that" although the habit of smoking opium is universal among rich and poor, yet they are a powerful, muscular, and athletic people; and the lower orders more intelligent, and far superior in mental acquirements, to those of corresponding rank in our own country." Dr. Eatwell writes:

"Yet, fearful as my rash experiment proved to me, I did not regret having made it. It revealed to me deeps of rapture and of suffering which my natural faculties never could have sounded. It has taught me the majesty of human reason and of human will, even in the weakest; and the awful peril of tampering with that which assails their integrity."

is

ure

The action of hashish, like that of opium, very different with different persons. We have heard of several attempts to excite the fantasia proving utter failures; indeed, failseems to be far more frequent than success. Probably the experience of M. de Sauley and his friends, recorded in his Journey round the Dead Sea, would be that of at least nine English, or French, hashisheaters out of ten. "The experiment," says this traveller, "to which we had recourse for an amusement, proved so extremely disagree able, that I may say with certainty that none of us is likely to wish to try it again, Hashish is an abominable poison,

"The question to be determined is, not what are the effects of opium used in excess, but what are its effects on the moral and physical constitution of the mass of individuals who use it habitually, and in moderation, either as a stimulant to sustain the frame under fatigue, or as a restorative and sedative after labor, bodily or mental? Having passed three years in China, I can affirm thus far, that the effects of the abuse of the drug do not come very frequently under observation; and that when cases do occur, the by the presence of some painful chronic habit is frequently found to have been induced disease, to escape from the sufferings of which the patient has fled to this resource. which There are doubtless many who indulge in the habit to a pernicious extent, led by the same morbid influences which induce men to become drunkards in even the most all events, come before the public eye. A clvilized countries; but these cases do not, at regards the effects of the habitual use of the drug on the mass of the people, I must affirm that no injurious results are visible. I conclude, therefore, that proofs are wanting to show that the moderate use of opium produces more pernicious effects upon the constitution than the moderate use of spirituous liquors; whilst, at the same time, it is certain that the consequences of the former are less appalling in their effects upon the victim, and less disastrous to society at large, than the consequences of the abuse of the latter." Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. xi

we had the folly to take in excessive doses one New-Year's day. We expected a delightful evening; but were nearly killed through our imprudence. I, who had taken the largest dose, remained insensible for above twenty-four hours; after which I woke to find myself completely shattered in nerves, and subject to nervous spasms and incoherent dreams, which seemed to last hundreds of years."

....

It is to be observed, that almost all the foregoing experiments were made with doses far greater than are usually taken by habitual hashish-eaters in the East. According to Dr. O, Shaughnessy, half-a-grain is considered a sufficient quantity to be taken at a time in India. There is no proof that, when Hashish is now in considerable use as a mentaken with moderation, and with the purpose dicant, under the name of Cannabis indica; only of causing the gentle exhilaration pro- and its therapeutic application seems desduced by a prudent use of wine or tea, the tined to be much extended, particularly in one would be more damaging than the others. connection with nervous derangements, as its The testimonies of Dr. Burnes, Dr. Mac- properties become better understood. Inpherson, and Dr. Eatwell (quoted by John-deed, the above statements with reference to ston), concerning the amount of effect pro- the comparative innocuousness of moderate