Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
himself admit that an old gentleman “with a snow-white beard,” who eats
“ample doses of opium,” and is yet able to deliver what is meant and
received as very weighty counsel on the bad effects of that practice,
is but an indifferent evidence that opium either kills people
prematurely or sends them into a madhouse. But for my part, I see into
this old gentleman and his motives: the fact is, he was enamoured of
“the little golden receptacle of the pernicious drug” which Anastasius
carried about him; and no way of obtaining it so safe and so feasible
occurred as that of frightening its owner out of his wits (which, by
the bye, are none of the strongest). This commentary throws a new light
upon the case, and greatly improves it as a story; for the old
gentleman’s speech, considered as a lecture on pharmacy, is highly
absurd; but considered as a hoax on Anastasius, it reads excellently.
{14} I have not the book at this moment to consult; but I think the
passage begins—“And even that tavern music, which makes one man merry,
another mad, in me strikes a deep fit of devotion,” &c.
{15} A handsome newsroom, of which I was very politely made free in
passing through Manchester by several gentlemen of that place, is
called, I think, _The Porch_; whence I, who am a stranger in
Manchester, inferred that the subscribers meant to profess themselves
followers of Zeno. But I have been since assured that this is a
mistake.
{16} I here reckon twenty-five drops of laudanum as equivalent to one
grain of opium, which, I believe, is the common estimate. However, as
both may be considered variable quantities (the crude opium varying
much in strength, and the tincture still more), I suppose that no
infinitesimal accuracy can be had in such a calculation. Teaspoons vary
as much in size as opium in strength. Small ones hold about 100 drops;
so that 8,000 drops are about eighty times a teaspoonful. The reader
sees how much I kept within Dr. Buchan’s indulgent allowance.
{17} This, however, is not a necessary conclusion; the varieties of
effect produced by opium on different constitutions are infinite. A
London magistrate (Harriott’s _Struggles through Life_, vol. iii. p.
391, third edition) has recorded that, on the first occasion of his
trying laudanum for the gout he took _forty_ drops, the next night
_sixty_, and on the fifth night _eighty_, without any effect whatever;
and this at an advanced age. I have an anecdote from a country surgeon,
however, which sinks Mr. Harriott’s case into a trifle; and in my
projected medical treatise on opium, which I will publish provided the
College of Surgeons will pay me for enlightening their benighted
understandings upon this subject, I will relate it; but it is far too
good a story to be published gratis.
{18} See the common accounts in any Eastern traveller or voyager of the
frantic excesses committed by Malays who have taken opium, or are
reduced to desperation by ill-luck at gambling.
{19} The reader must remember what I here mean by _thinking_, because
else this would be a very presumptuous expression. England, of late,
has been rich to excess in fine thinkers, in the departments of
creative and combining thought; but there is a sad dearth of masculine
thinkers in any analytic path. A Scotchman of eminent name has lately
told us that he is obliged to quit even mathematics for want of
encouragement.
{20} William Lithgow. His book (Travels, &c.) is ill and pedantically
written; but the account of his own sufferings on the rack at Malaga is
overpoweringly affecting.
{21} In saying this I mean no disrespect to the individual house, as
the reader will understand when I tell him that, with the exception of
one or two princely mansions, and some few inferior ones that have been
coated with Roman cement, I am not acquainted with any house in this
mountainous district which is wholly waterproof. The architecture of
books, I flatter myself, is conducted on just principles in this
country; but for any other architecture, it is in a barbarous state,
and what is worse, in a retrograde state.
{22} On which last notice I would remark that mine was _too_ rapid, and
the suffering therefore needlessly aggravated; or rather, perhaps, it
was not sufficiently continuous and equably graduated. But that the
reader may judge for himself, and above all that the Opium-eater, who
is preparing to retire from business, may have every sort of
information before him, I subjoin my diary:—
First Week Second Week
Drops of Laud. Drops of Laud.
Mond. June 24 ... 130 Mond. July 1 ... 80
25 ... 140 2 ... 80
26 ... 130 3 ... 90
27 ... 80 4 ... 100
28 ... 80 5 ... 80
29 ... 80 6 ... 80
30 ... 80 7 ... 80
Third Week Fourth Week
Mond. July 8 ... 300 Mond. July 15 ... 76
9 ... 50 16 ... 73.5
10 } 17 ... 73.5
11 } Hiatus in 18 ... 70
12 } MS. 19 ... 240
13 } 20 ... 80
14 ... 76 21 ... 350
Fifth Week
Mond. July 22 ... 60
23 ... none.
24 ... none.
25 ... none.
26 ... 200
27 ... none.
What mean these abrupt relapses, the reader will ask perhaps, to such
numbers as 300, 350, &c.? The _impulse_ to these relapses was mere
infirmity of purpose; the _motive_, where any motive blended with this
impulse, was either the principle, of “_reculer pour mieux sauter_;”
(for under the torpor of a large dose, which lasted for a day or two, a
less quantity satisfied the stomach, which on awakening found itself
partly accustomed to this new ration); or else it was this
principle—that of sufferings otherwise equal, those will be borne best
which meet with a mood of anger. Now, whenever I ascended to my large
dose I was furiously incensed on the following day, and could then have
borne anything.