Chapter V: Superstitions Connected with Poisonous Plants

Many strange superstitions are associated with certain poisonous plants which have been handed down to us from past ages. The mysterious properties, especially of those which caused sleep or by supposed magical powers concealed in them produced delirium, were attributed by the ancients to a spirit or demon which dwelt in the roots of the plants, and various rites and ceremonies were connected with their gathering. The real cause of their physiological effect on the body was of course unknown, but the narcotic effects which from experience were found to produce insensibility, dreams, and frenzy made a deep impression on the mind.

The hallucinations of the witches which we read about in the Middle Ages, may be compared with those of the medicine-men of many savage tribes to-day. In all probability they were not entirely fictitious, but these effects were produced by the taking of various drugs which had the effect of causing hallucinations and temporary insanity. Weak-minded women, who probably formed the greater part of the class known as witches, made use of an unguent with which they anointed themselves in preparation for the so-called “witches’ Sabbath.” Johannes Wierius, who was a witness of such a gathering, recorded in 1566 the composition of the witches’ ointment and states it contained such powerful narcotic poisons as mandrake, belladonna, henbane and stramonium. The absorption of this unguent was followed by unconsciousness and sleep, and on being awakened the person so anointed was fully assured that she had visited the “Sabbath.”

The frenzies into which the sorcerers of the Middle Ages worked themselves may also no doubt be attributed to the action of various substances with similar properties.

There is probably no plant around which clusters more legendary lore and tradition than the mandrake (_Atropa mandragora_). Sufficient has been recorded about it to fill volumes, and between the years 1510 and 1850 no less than twenty-two treatises are known to have been written on the subject.

It was known to the Babylonians over 3,000 years ago, and their women carried a mandrake root as a charm against sterility. The ancient Egyptians called it “The Phallus of the Field” and held it in the highest esteem. The Greeks surrounded it with strange traditions, and in Eastern Europe, Arabia, Palestine and Syria, it has been associated with mysterious rites and customs from time immemorial.

Theophrastus (300 B.C.) the earliest writer on botany, alludes to the mandrake and records its property of inducing sleep and its use in the composition of love-philtres. Demosthenes, the Athenian orator, is stated to have compared his lethargic hearers to those who had eaten it. The early Greeks bestowed on it the name of Circeium, derived from the name of the witch Circe, as they believed that an evil spirit dwelt in the root. Pliny, in alluding to the mandrake, states that “he who would undertake the office of uprooting it should stand with his back to the wind, and before he begins to dig make three circles round the plant with the point of a sword, and then turning to the west proceed to dig it up.” In other countries the gathering of the root was believed to be attended with great danger to the individual who was sufficiently daring to pull it from the ground.

The Greeks believed that when dragged from the earth the root gave a dreadful shriek and struck dead the person who had the presumption to pull it up. They therefore adopted the following ingenious method of obtaining it. A dog was allowed to fast, and was then brought near the plant round which was fastened a cord, the end of which was tied to the tail of the dog. The gatherer would then place some food within a few feet of the hungry animal, who in his struggles to reach it would uproot the plant and be killed by the evil spirit in consequence. At the moment of uprooting the gatherer generally sounded a horn, which was supposed to drown the shriek of the demon that dwelt in the plant.

It is believed by some, that the mandrake is the plant alluded to in the Book of Genesis, which was called by the ancient Hebrews “Dudaïm,” and is stated to have been found by Reuben, who carried it to his mother. The inducement which tempted Leah to part with it proves the value set upon the plant at this time. Maundrell found it used in the neighbourhood of Aleppo as described in the Bible and states that the Arabs call it “tuphac el sheitan.” The Greeks sometimes alluded to Venus as Mandragoritis and the fruit of the plant was popularly termed “place of love.” Pythagoras calls the mandrake “Anthropomorphum,” and Columella terms it “semihomo.”

Dioscorides refers to it in the first century, and mentions that it is used for love charms and philtres. In the earliest MS. of his work, written in the fifth century, and which is still preserved in Vienna, there is a drawing in colour depicting Euresis, the goddess of discovery, presenting the author with a mandrake root. The root is in human form with five leaves growing out of the head, and near by on the ground is a dog in the agonies of death.

Josephus records the custom in a Jewish village of pulling up the root by means of the dog, which was killed by the shriek from the demon which resided in it. This tradition appears to have been attached to the gathering of the mandrake in nearly every country where it was grown.

Many of the traditions and superstitions connected with the plant appear to have arisen from the curious natural shape of the root, which often bears a strong resemblance to the human form. This similitude was turned to account by those who dealt in the plant, as they found they obtained a greater value after manipulating it to make the features and limbs more perfectly resemble a man or a woman.

Beyond the effects attributed to it by tradition, the mandrake has undoubted powerful narcotic properties. Its active principle, discovered by Ahrens, is called mandragorine, and is said to be a mixture of bases of which hyoscyamine is the chief, mixed with scopolamine. The ancients attributed powerful aphrodisiacal virtues to the root and claimed that it could produce a condition of sexual excitement which was often attributed to natural and magical powers, and for this reason included it in the composition of their love-philtres. It was among the more important narcotic drugs employed by the ancients for producing anæsthesia, and Dioscorides gives the formula for a wine made by infusing the root in Cyprus wine, which was directed to be administered before amputation of a limb or before the application of hot cautery.

Pliny remarks that mandrake “is taken against serpents and before cutting and puncture, lest they be felt. Sometimes the smell is sufficient,” and Apuleius, writing in the second century, claims that half an ounce with wine is sufficient to make a person insensible, even to the pain of amputation.

Lyman believes it was mandragora wine mixed with myrrh that was offered to Christ on the Cross, as it was commonly given to those who suffered death by crucifixion to allay in some degree their terrible agonies.

In Shakespeare’s time the mandrake still kept its place in estimation as a narcotic. Thus we have Cleopatra asking for the drug that she may “sleep out this great gap of time,” while her Antony is away, and Iago, whilst the poison begins to work in the mind of Othello, exclaims

“Not poppy, nor mandragora
Nor all the drowsy syrups of this world
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep”

In the sixteenth century the Germans called these human-like roots Abrunes or Alraun, considering them very valuable and treating them with the greatest veneration. After fashioning them as near as possible to the form of a man or woman, they dressed them every day and consulted them as oracles. They were introduced into England in the time of Henry VIII, and met with ready purchasers. To increase their value and importance, the roots were said by the vendors to be produced from the flesh of criminals which fell from the gibbet, and that they only grew beneath the gallows:—

Lord Bacon notices their use in the following words:—

“Some plants there are, but rare, that have a morsie or downie root and likewise that have a number of threads like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostours make an ugly image, giving it the form of a face at the top of the root, and these strings to make a broad beard down to the foot.”

Madame de Genlis states that “the mandrake roots should be wrapped in a sheet, for that then they will bring increasing good luck.”

The plant is still used medicinally in China, where it is said to be largely used by the Mandarins, who believe it will give them increased intellectual powers and prolong their lives.

The origin of Alraun, the German name for the mandrake root, has been variously explained. Tacitus speaks of a formidable people among the Germans called Aurinia, believed to be endowed with magical powers, and “some attribute Allrun to their name on account of their use of the plant in sorcery. They are the same of whom Aventinus speaks as loose-haired, bare-legged witches who would slay a man, drink his blood from his skull and divine the future from his mangled remains.” There is some reason to believe, however, that the word is simply a later form of the Gothic Allrune, and that it is related to rune. The French word Mandragloire is simply a part of the Greek word Mandragora, blended with the name of the old French fairy Magloire. In Germany and France the superstition took the following form. The mandrake was said to spring up where the presence of a criminal had polluted the ground. It was sure to be found near a gallows, and so was popularly called in Germany Galgemännlein. It was to be obtained generally in the way described by Josephus, but, it was added, one must sign the cross three times over the plant before pulling it up. Having got the root it must be bathed every Friday, kept in a white cloth in a box and then it would procure manifold benefits. There is a letter still preserved from a burgess of Leipzig to his brother at Riga written in 1675, which shows the popular notion of the mandrake at that time and its various names. It reads:—

“Brotherly love and truth and all good wishes to thee dear brother. I have thy letter and have made out from it enough to understand that thou dear brother in thy home affairs hast suffered great sorrow; that thy children, cows, swine, sheep and horses, have all died; thy wine and beer soured in thy cellar, and thy provender destroyed and that thou dwellest with thy wife in great contention; which is all grievous to hear. I have therefore gone to those who understand such things to find what is needed and have asked them why thou art so unlucky. They have told me that these evils proceed not from God but from wicked people; and they know what will help thee. If thou hast a Mandrake (Allruniken oder Erdmannikin) and bring it into thy house, thou shalt have good fortune. So I have taken the pains for thy sake to go to those who have such things and to our executioner have paid 64 thalers and a piece of gold drinkgelt to his servant, and this (Mandrake) dear brother I send thee, and thou must keep it as I shall tell in this letter. When thou hast the Erdman in thy house let it rest three days without approaching it; then place it in warm water. With the water afterwards sprinkle the animals and sills of the house going all over, and soon it shall go better with thee and thou shalt come to thy own if thou serve Erdmannikin right. Bathe it four times every year and as often wrap it in silk cloth and lay it among thy best things and thou need do no more. The Bath in which it has been bathed is especially good. If a woman is in child pain and cannot bear, if she drinks a spoonful she will be delivered with joy and thankfulness. And when thou goest to law put Erdman under thy right arm and thou shalt succeed whether right or wrong. Now dear brother this Erdmannikin I send with all love and faith to thee for a happy new year. Let it be kept and it may do the same for thy children’s children. God keep thee—Leipzig, Sunday before fastnight, 75 Hans, N.”

It is certainly remarkable that in 1675 so much as seventy-five thalers could be obtained for one of these little figures, but is probable that the dealing in them had become very secret on account of the danger incurred of being suspected of witchcraft. In 1630 three women were executed in Hamburg on this account. Matthiolus, in his commentary on Dioscorides, describes the great ingenuity which had been reached in the carving of the root into the human semblance and the training of little shoots from seeds planted in it which were manipulated so as to look like hair. The same ingenuity was employed to invest each figure with a marvellous legend of its origin or potency.

A haunted spot is shown in Lower Würtemberg where a merchant of Ulm tried vainly to get rid of his Galgemännlein, and for a long time a house stood in Frankfort which was avoided because it was related, that there a baker woman had perished horribly with a mandrake in her possession, which she had long tried to be rid of.

This diabolical phase of the superstition was especially strong in France and England. It was believed by many that Joan of Arc had one of the mandrake figures in her possession, and she was even asked by the judge at her trial whether this was not the case; but she disclaimed any knowledge of the mandrake. At Romorantin, Margaret Ragum Bouchery, the wife of a Moor, was hanged as a witch in 1603, the charge against her being that she kept and fed daily a living mandrake fiend which was stated to be in the form of a female ape.

Superstitions concerning the mandrake were strong throughout the South of England, the belief being that it had a human heart at its root. It was believed that in some places it was perpetually watched over by Satan, and if pulled up at certain holy times and with certain invocations, the Evil Spirit would appear to do the bidding of the practitioner. In the mining regions of Germany the mandrake was supposed to reach down to the cobolds beneath the earth, and shrieked when it was torn up. In Silesia, Thuringia, the Tyrol and Bohemia, it is still connected with the idea of subterranean treasures, and in the Hartz, mandrake decoction is poured on animals to prevent swellings.

In 1429 the use of mandrakes as amulets was so general in France that Friar Richard furiously denounced them and vast numbers were burned. La Fontaine’s fable “La Mandragore,” copied from Machiavel’s comedy of the same title, turns upon the supposed potency of the plant to produce children. The Tyrolese believe that it not only reveals treasures, but prevents wicked possessions, and renders the possessor proof against blows. In the Alpine regions it is laid on the bed to prevent nightmare, and carried to secure the mountaineer against robbers and bad weather.

The mandrake is called in Iceland thjofarot (thieves’ root) and is believed to spring from the froth of the mouth of one who has been hanged or the cairn where he has been buried.

In Kent the mandrake may be occasionally found kept by women to prevent sterility, and the superstition still survives in Greece, where pieces of the root are worn by young people as love charms. Mandrake roots are also carried in Syria and Turkey by women against sterility and are sold to-day in the bazaars of Constantinople.

Of the poisonous plants known to the ancients, aconite may rightly be claimed to be one of the most important. It has been called the “Queen Mother of Poisons” and has been a matter of comment and note by early historians for over two thousand years. Species of the plant were known as wolf’s bane, leopard’s bane, and women’s bane. Its root was compared by some of the ancient botanists to sea crabfish, by others to a scorpion; “for,” says one writer, “the root doth turn and crook inward in manner of a scorpion’s taile.” Various origins are given to the name aconite; some attribute it to the fact that it grows quite naturally upon bare and naked rocks, which the Greeks call Aconas. Theophrastus says the name is derived from Aconæ, “a certain towne, neer to which it groweth abundantly.” It is also said to have been derived from the Greek word for javelin or arrow, because “some barbarous nations employed the juice to poison their arrows and spears.”

In ancient times apparently quite a number of poisonous plants were described under the name of aconite, as well as the _Aconitum napellus_, the species now employed in medicine. Its deadly effects are alluded to by Ovid, Virgil and Juvenal. Plutarch, in referring to the death of Orodes, says: “He fell into a disease that became a dropsie after he had lost his son Pacorus who was slain in a battle by the Romans. Phraates, his second son, thinking to set his father forwards gave him a drink of the juice of Aconitum. The dropsie received the poison and the one drave the other out of Orodes’ body and set him on foot again.”

Hanbury says the ancients were well aware of the poisonous properties of aconite, though the various species were not more exactly distinguished until the close of the Middle Ages. It was used by the Chinese in ancient times and is still employed by the less civilized of the hill tribes of India as an arrow poison. It is said also to have been used for the same purpose by the aborigines of ancient Gaul. It is mentioned in the well-known ancient Welsh MS. of “The Physicians of Myddvai,” written in the thirteenth century, as “one of the plants that every physician is to grow.”

Matthiolus, in his commentary on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, relates the results of certain experiments carried out by order of Pope Clement VII, on the persons of two criminals condemned to death, for the purpose of testing the value of an antidote to aconite, which he describes as the most deadly of all known poisons. One of the criminals was used as a test and the other for control experiment.

The root, which contains the largest proportion of the active principle called aconitine, has often caused fatal results in being mistaken for that of horse-radish. It had rarely been used for criminal purposes until Lamson in 1881 employed the alkaloid to take the life of Percy Malcolm John. In connection with aconitine it is related that Christison, the famous toxicologist, who was professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Edinburgh, when giving evidence in a certain case as to the recognition of poisonous substances sought for in the body after death, said to the judge, “My Lord, there is but one deadly agent of this kind which we cannot satisfactorily trace in the human body after death, and that is—” when the Judge sharply interrupted him with, “Stop, stop, please, Dr. Christison. It is much better that the public should not know it.” Years afterwards it was vividly recalled to the memory of his then student class, that Lamson, who was a member of his audience as a medical student, and exceptionally assiduous in note-taking, was present on one of the occasions when Professor Christison was explaining to his class that the real name of the poison which the Court had prevented him from naming was “aconitine.”

It is satisfactory to record that toxicology has advanced since the days of Christison, for Sir Thomas Stevenson, who gave evidence for the Crown at Lamson’s trial, was able to prove by clinical tests that the boy John had been poisoned by aconitine, and his murderer, Dr. Lamson, suffered the extreme penalty of the law.

The aconite now used for medicinal purposes is derived from the _Aconitum napellus_, chiefly grown in Britain. It is also found in the mountainous districts of the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. It grows on the Alps, the Pyrenees, the mountains of Germany and Austria and also in Denmark and Sweden. On the Himalayas it is found at 10,000 to 16,000 feet above the sea-level. Both the root and the leaves are used medicinally. Aconite contains several alkaloids, all of which are powerful poisons, the chief of these being aconitine—one of the most deadly poisons known—the fiftieth part of a grain of which has nearly caused death. Indian aconite known as “Bish” is chiefly derived from _Aconitum ferox_—a native of high altitude in the Himalaya regions—and is mentioned by the Persian physician, Alhervi, in the tenth century, and also by many early Arabian writers on medicine. Ali Ben Isa pronounced it to be the most rapid of deadly poisons, and describes the symptoms with tolerable correctness. The chief symptoms of poisoning by aconite are heat, numbness and tingling in the mouth and throat, giddiness, and loss of muscular power. The pupils become dilated, the skin cold and pulse feeble, with oppressed breathing and dread of approaching death. Finally, numbness and paralysis come on, rapidly followed by death in a few sudden gasps. The poison being extremely rapid in effect, immediate action is absolutely necessary to save life.

Several species of aconite grow plentifully in India, where it has been used for centuries. It is found growing, among other places, in the Singalilas, a mountain range which forms the watershed boundary between Nepal and British territory, north-west of Darjiling. _Aconitum palmatum_ is collected in abundance at Tongloo, the southern termination of the Singalilas, but _Aconitum napellus_, which is more poisonous, requires a higher elevation in which to thrive. The natives, especially the hill tribes, take aconite in the crude state as a remedy for various ailments, and every Bhotiah has a few dried roots put away in some secure corner of his hut.

Early in October, when the aconite root has matured, the collecting begins, and one of the leading men of the village organizes a party composed of both sexes. He, for the time, becomes their leader, settles all disputes and quarrels while out in camp, and, while keeping an account of general expenses, supplies to each all necessaries in the way of food. Before starting he has to obtain a ‘permit’ from the Forest Department, the charge for which is fifteen rupees. Carefully wrapping the permit in a rag and placing it in his network bag of valuables, he collects his band together, and they set out for the higher ranges. As soon as they arrive at the slopes where aconite is growing plentifully, they set to work to build bamboo huts about five feet high, roofing them with leaves. After the morning meal they all set off for the lower slopes, each with his basket and spade over his shoulder. But before the actual work is commenced, a ceremony has to be performed. The Bhotiahs, like the Nepalese, have a belief that the presiding demon of the hills imprisons evil spirits in the aconite plant, which fly out as soon as it is dug up, and inflict dire calamity on the digger. In order, therefore, to counteract this, every morning before the digging commences, the lama or headman, standing on a convenient hill with his followers around him, makes a fire and burns some dhuna, a native resin, then, inserting two fingers in his mouth, blows several shrill whistles. All wait in breathless silence till an answering whistle is heard, which may be an echo or the cry of some bird. Whatever it may be, it is taken as the dying dirge of the evil spirits, and digging begins at once.

The roots, after being shaken from the soil, are placed in the baskets, which on return to the encampments are emptied and formed into heaps, and covered with bamboo leaves to protect them from the frost. During the day they are spread out in the sun to dry. When a sufficient quantity has been collected and dried thus, bamboo frames are fixed up with a fire below, on which the aconite is placed when the flame has died out. The one who looks after the drying process has a cloth tied round his head covering the nose, as the constant inhalation of the fumes causes a feeling of heaviness and dizziness in the head. This process is carried on three or four days until the roots are dried. When sufficient have been collected and dried they are packed in baskets. These are shouldered, and with their cooking utensils and blankets on the top, the whole band set their faces homeward. On arrival at the commercial centre at the termination of their march the results of the expedition are soon sold, and each man is handed his share of the profits, according to the amount of aconite he has collected.

Hemlock, or cicuta, was a classical poison well known to the ancients. References are made to it in Greek literature as early as the fourth or fifth century B.C. The old Roman name of Conium was Cicuta, but it was applied in the sixteenth century by Gesner to other varieties of the plant, such as _cicuta virosa_, which is of a non-poisonous nature. Its use by the ancient Greeks as a State poison has already been fully described in a preceding chapter. It was used in Anglo-Saxon medicine, and is mentioned in the vocabulary of Alfric as early as the tenth century. The name “Hemlock” is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words “hem,” border or shore, and “leac.” Its chief active principle, conine, is a colourless oily liquid, which resembles nicotine in its action. It is to Linnæus we owe the use of the classical Greek name _Conium maculatum_ in 1737.

Another plant around which clustered many superstitions in ancient times was black hellebore, called Melampus root, or Christmas Rose. It is said to have taken its name from Melampus, a traditionary physician, who is said to have flourished at Pylus about 1530 B.C. He is reputed to have cured the daughters of Proetus, King of Argus, of mental derangement and leprosy with hellebore. Pliny states that the daughters of Proetus were restored to their senses by drinking the milk of goats which had fed on hellebore. Black hellebore root was used by the ancients to hallow their dwellings, and they believed that by strewing it about it would drive away evil spirits. This ceremony was performed with great devotion, and accompanied with the singing of solemn hymns. They also blessed their cattle with hellebore in the same manner to keep them free from the spells of the wicked. For these purposes it was dug up with many religious ceremonies—such as drawing a circle round the plant with a sword; then, turning to the East, a humble prayer was finally offered up by the devotee to Apollo and Æsculapius for leave to dig up the root. The flight of the eagle was particularly attended to during the ceremony, for should this bird approach near the spot during the celebration of the rite, it was considered so ominous as to predict the certain death of the person who uprooted the plant in the course of the year. Others ate garlic previous to the rite, which was supposed to counteract the poisonous effluvia of the plant. Dioscorides relates that when Carneades, the Cyrenaic philosopher, undertook to answer the books of Zeno, he sharpened his wit and quickened his spirit by purging his head with powdered hellebore, and it is of this plant Juvenal sarcastically observes “Misers need a double dose of hellebore.” It is stated that the Gauls never went to the chase without rubbing the point of their arrows with this herb, believing that it would render the game killed with them all the more tender.

Hyoscyamus, commonly called henbane, is a herb which has been employed in medicine from early times. Benedictus Crispus, Archbishop of Milan, in a work written shortly before A.D. 681, alludes to it under the name of hyoscamus and symphoniaca, and in the tenth century its virtues are recorded in the works of Macer Floridus. In the early Anglo-Saxon manuscripts it is called henbell and sometimes belene. In a French herbal of the fifteenth century it is called hanibane or hanebane. From ancient times it has been employed as a sedative and anodyne for producing sleep, although hallucinations sometimes accompany its use. Its chief active principles are hyoscyamine and hyoscine, both of which are very powerful poisons. An old tradition states, that once in the refectory of an ancient monastery, the monks were served in error by the cook with henbane instead of some harmless vegetable. After partaking of the dish they were seized with the most extraordinary hallucinations. At midnight one monk sounded the bell for matins, while others walked in the chapel and opened their books, but could not read. Others sang roystering drinking songs and performed mountebank antics, which convulsed the others with uncontrollable laughter, and the pious monastery for the nonce was turned into a lunatic asylum.

There are few drugs used to-day with a more interesting history than opium. It figures not only in history but also in romance and crime. It has been associated with the acquisition of wealth and prosperity and with the most terrible degradation. Opium has been the cause of war, of bitter feeling and punishments, and whilst it has enslaved many with the most pleasurable hallucinations, and relieved the most agonizing pains, it is capable of reducing human beings to the level of the beasts.

It is mentioned in the Papyrus Ebers, one of the earliest known records of medicine, as having been known and used by the Egyptians about 1550 years B.C. It is described by Theophrastus as having been used by the Greeks 300 years B.C. and is supposed to have formed the chief ingredient in the potion known as “Nepenthe” which Helen of Troy gave to the guests of Menelaus to drive away their care. This conjecture receives support from Homer, who states that Nepenthe was obtained from Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. According to Prosper Alpinus, the Egyptians were practised opium eaters and were often faint and languid through the want of it. They prepared and drank it in the form of “Cretic Wine,” which they flavoured and made hotter by the addition of pepper and other aromatics. Scribonius Largus (A.D. 40) mentions the method of preparing opium and points out that the true drug is derived from the capsules of the poppy and not from the foliage of the plant.

Dioscorides, in the same century, describes how the capsules from which the drug is collected should be cut and the milky juices collected, and one can infer from his statements that the collection of opium was at that time a source of industry in Asia Minor. Pliny gives an account of “opion,” while it is also mentioned by Celsus, a Roman medical writer of the first century, and by several other Latin authors, who allude to it by the quaint name of “poppy tears.”

It was well known to the Arabs, who transmitted their knowledge of its properties first to the Persians and then to other nations of the East. In India its introduction would appear to be connected with the spread of Mahommedanism, and may have been favoured by their prohibition of the use of wine. The earliest mention of opium in connection with India occurs in the travels of Barbosa, who visited Calicut and the Malabar Coast in 1511, and who gives it a prominent place with other valuable drugs. Pyres, the first ambassador from Europe to China in 1516, speaks of the opium of Egypt, Cambay, and the kingdom of Coûs (Kus Bahar, S.W. Bhotan in Bengal), and states it was eaten by “the kings and lords, and even the common people, though not so much because it costs dear.” In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries its praises were sung by poets of the Far East.

It is believed that opium was introduced by the Arabs into both India and China, as they are known to have traded with the southern parts of the empire as early as the ninth century. In the eighteenth century the Chinese marketed the drug in their junks as a return cargo from India, and it was at that time almost exclusively used as a remedy for dysentery, but the trade grew, and in 1787 the importation reached a thousand chests, for some years most of the trade being in the hands of the Portuguese.

The East India Company in 1780 opened an opium depot with two small vessels at Lark’s Bay, Macao. The Chinese authorities began to complain of these two ships in 1793, but the traffic still increased, until they issued an edict forbidding any vessel having opium on board to enter the Canton River. This led to political differences which culminated in the war that was called the “Opium War.” It was concluded by the Treaty of Nankin, after which five ports of China were opened to foreign trade, opium being admitted as a legalized import in 1858.

Opium smoking does not appear to have been known in China until the latter part of the seventeenth century, but within a hundred years it spread like the tentacles of an octopus over the entire empire. At this time the authorities became greatly alarmed at the injurious effects among the people following the abuse of opium. Suicides became frequent and the high officials and all classes were becoming rapid slaves to the habit; the sale rose from 2,300 chests in 1788 to 17,500 in 1836. The first edict was issued in 1796 and since that time they have been innumerable, but the traffic increased and is still almost universally carried on. In 1879 in the State of Amoy and its adjacent towns the proportion of opium smokers was estimated at from fifteen to twenty per cent. of the total population.

With regard to the introduction of opium into India, the Mahommedans, once having established its use, began to make it a source of income. The Great Mogul monopolized the opium production and trade, and derived an immense income from its sale. From reliable reports it appears that in India “the largest amount of opium is produced in the central tract of the Ganges, extending from Dinapore in the east to Agra in the west, and from Gorakhpur in the north to Hazaribagh in the south, comprising an area of about six hundred miles long and two hundred miles broad.” In the district of Bengal, the Government has the monopoly of the opium industry, and the districts are divided into two agencies, Behar and Benares, which are under the control of officers residing in Patna and Ghazipur. In 1883 the number of acres under poppy cultivation in Behar was 463,829, and the Benares district 412,625; but the export of opium has somewhat diminished since then. Anyone may undertake the industry, but cultivators are obliged to sell the opium exclusively to the Government agencies, at a price which is fixed beforehand by the officials. The Government sells the ready goods to merchants at a much higher price, which difference is paid by the country to which the opium is exported. In India itself, the sale of opium is restricted to licensed shopkeepers, a practice which has proved to be useful, because in some places, when the licensed shops have been closed, a greater number of unlicensed and secret places have sprung up, and have made the contract insufficient.

The opium question is so complex in its nature, and is so largely influenced by the habits and constitution of those nations who are addicted to its use, that it is obvious that only those with skilled medical knowledge, who are on the spot and have lived and had a daily experience of the people, are in a proper position to deal with the question. So much has been written by religious enthusiasts, and other persons totally ignorant of the nature and properties of the drug, that one almost hesitates to touch upon the subject.

The following facts have been furnished by reliable medical authorities, who are really in a position to judge on the matter.

The cause which led to the use of this narcotic drug by the races of the East, as already stated, may have been primarily due to the prohibition of wine by the Moslems, but more likely on account of its remedial or protective properties being needed by a race subject to malaria and kindred diseases, and to counteract the effect of the hot climate to which they are exposed. It is a remedy at hand, and would seem to be one to which they at once fly. The evil lies more in the smoking than the eating of the drug, the former habit being more prevalent in China, and has the more demoralizing effect. The extent of its use in the East varies according to the geographical and social differences of the people, and it is used in various degrees of moderation and excess.

The drug is employed in various forms, according to the class of people who consume it. In India it is largely used in the crude state, and is sold at about two annas a drachm, in small square pieces. The opium eater will take two or three grains and roll them into the form of a pill between his fingers, and then chew or swallow it, often twenty times in the day. It is also used in a liquid form called Kusamba, made by macerating opium in rose water; others boil it with milk, then collect the cream and eat it. The varieties for smoking are known as Chundoo and Mudat, the former being a very impure extract of a fairly stiff consistency, and the latter made from the refuse of Chundoo, of which it largely consists; but being much cheaper, is chiefly used by the low-class Hindus and Mahomedans. From two to four grains a day may be called a moderate use of the crude drug. The poorer people regularly give it to children up to two years of age, to keep them quiet, also as a preventive against such complaints as enteritis, which is very common in the East; and so before youth is reached they become inured to its action. Licences to sell the drug are sold to the highest bidder at the opium auctions, the licensee having the privilege of supplying a certain number of small dealers.

The Chinese smoker usually lays himself down on his side, with his head supported by a pillow. On the straw mat beside him between his doubled-up knees and his nose, a small glass oil lamp, covered with a glass shade, is burning. Close to this is a tray, containing a small round box, holding the drug, a straight piece of wire used for manipulating it, a knife to scrape up the fragments, and the pipe used for smoking. The latter is about two feet long, with a nose of about half an inch in diameter, and is not unlike the stem of a flute before it is fitted. About two inches from the bottom of the tube, is a closed cup or bowl of earthenware or stone, having a central perforation. To charge the pipe, a small portion of the drug (weighing a few grains) is picked up with the wire, kneaded and rolled in the closed surface of the cup, then heated in the flame of the lamp till it swells. This is rolled up and again manipulated, then finally placed in the aperture in the surface of the bowl. It is then lighted from the lamp, and the smoke drawn into the lungs through the tube till the first charge is exhausted.

In a report made by the _British Medical Journal_ concerning the use of opium in India, from the evidence of medical men long resident in that country, there seems a general consensus of opinion that opium eating, in the majority of cases, exercises no unfavourable influence on the people who indulge in the habit, and that it is a prophylactic against fever, and prevents the natives from malaria and excessive fatigue. There is no comparison between the effects of the opium habit and the habitual use of alcohol. English people cannot judge, from their own standard, the manners and customs of people living under conditions with which they are unacquainted. While we look upon opium as a narcotic, the Hindu uses it as a stimulant to enable him to go through hard work on the smallest quantity possible of food. With reference to the measures suggested by the Committee of the League of Nations for the suppression of the use of opium in India, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar has recently declared that it would be impossible to carry them out. It was a habit among working men who needed opium, just as the European wanted tobacco. In Persia, at the present time, according to Wills, nine out of ten of the aged, take from one to five grains of the drug daily. It is largely used by the native physicians. It does not appear that the moderate use of Persian opium in the country itself is deleterious. Opium smoking is almost unknown, and when it is smoked, it is, as a rule, by a doctor’s orders. The opium pillbox—a tiny box of silver—is as common in Persia as the snuffbox was once with us. Most men of forty in the middle and upper classes take from a grain to a grain and a half, divided into two pills, one in the afternoon and one at night. The majority of authorities agree that opium smoking as a habit is much more harmful and attended with much more demoralizing influences than opium eating; but either habit is undoubtedly harmful to Europeans, and when once formed, is extremely difficult to break.

Paracelsus is generally credited with being the originator of the word “laudanum,” the name by which tincture of opium is commonly known. Yet there seems little doubt the word was first applied to the gum of the cistus. Clusius, in his _Rariorum Plantarum Historia_, states: “The gum of the cistus is called in Greek and Latin, ladanum, and in shops laudanum.” It is therefore very likely that the secret preparation originated by Paracelsus which he called laudanum, was composed of the gum of the cistus as well as opium, and that he adopted the title from the former ingredient.

Sir Henry Holland, in his Recollections,[5] relates that Mehemet Ali, whom he visited, brought the conversation round to poisons. It ended by Mehemet Ali asking him point-blank whether he knew of any poison which, put on the mouthpiece of a pipe or given in coffee, might slowly and silently kill, leaving no note behind. Holland instantly answered that “as a physician he had studied how to save life, not destroy it.” This reply, he added, was probably faithfully translated to Mehemet Ali, for he dropped the subject abruptly, and never afterwards reverted to it. Desgenettes, when it was suggested to him by Napoleon that he should poison the plague-stricken soldiers at Jaffa, curtly answered that it was his business to prolong life, not to kill.

Footnote 5:

_Recollections of Past Life_, Sir Henry Holland.

When he was driven from Leipzig in defeat and disaster, culminating in his abdication at Fontainebleau, it is said Napoleon attempted to end his life by means of opium. During the retreat from Moscow the Emperor requested his physician to provide him with means to prevent his falling into the hands of the enemy alive, and was supplied with a drug which he carried in a small packet suspended round his neck. Either from the poison losing its properties or having become innocuous, it is said only to have thrown Napoleon, after he took it, into a deep sleep, from which he awoke in spasms.

The Kiowa and other Mexican Indians use the fruit of the _Anhelonium Lewinii_, which they call “mescal buttons,” to produce a species of intoxication and stimulation during certain of their religious ceremonies. The effects of this fruit, which, like Indian hemp, varies considerably in different individuals, are very peculiar, and have been described by Lewin, Prentiss and Morgan.

The eating of the fruit first results in a state of strange excitement and great exuberance of spirits, accompanied by volubility in speech. This is shortly followed by a stage of intoxication in which the sight is affected in a very extraordinary manner, consisting of a kaleidoscopic play of colours ever in motion, of every possible shade and tint, and these constantly changing. The pupils of the eyes are widely dilated, cutaneous sensation is blunted and thoughts seem to flash through the brain with extraordinary rapidity. The colour visions are generally only seen with closed eyes, but the colouring of all external objects is exaggerated. Sometimes there is also an indescribable sensation of dual existence.

Some years ago Havelock Ellis published an account of the use and his personal experiences of the properties of mescal buttons. The Mexican Indians treat this cactus with great veneration, gathering it with uncovered heads and amid clouds of incense.

The celebration of the rite is usually held on a Saturday night, when seated in a circle around a large camp fire, for the visions are said to be most intense by flickering firelight. The men pray for “a good intoxication,” and then the leader passes the drug around. Throughout the night the men sit quietly round the fire in a state of reverie, absorbed in colour visions, amid continual singing and beating of drums by assistants. The effects do not pass off till the following noon, when they get up and go about their business with apparently no depression or other after-effects.

After taking three of the buttons in small fragments by pouring boiling water on them twice and drinking the infusion thrice at intervals of an hour, Ellis states that the phenomena of mescal intoxication are merely the saturnalia of the specific senses and chiefly an orgy of vision.

After a transient consciousness of energy, he felt faint and giddy, pale violet shadows floated before him, suggesting, without any definite form, pictures. The air seemed to be filled with a vague perfume, then he saw glorious fields of jewels which sprang into flower-like shapes before his gaze, and then turned into butterfly forms.

“I was further impressed,” he says, “not only by the brilliance and delicate beauty of their colours, but even more by their lovely and various textures.”

A friend, to whom he gave some of the drug, experienced a pain at the heart and a sensation of imminent death, then with the suddenness of a neuralgic pain the back of his head seemed to open and emit streams of bright colour. “I had the sensation of the skin disappearing from the brow; any movement sent out streams of blue flames of wondrous beauty.”

The Mexicans also make a drink from the mescal, which is distilled from the juice of the plant, and during their social entertainments swallow it in copious draughts. Its effects are said to be highly intoxicating, and according to the reports of authorities 90 per cent. of the crimes perpetrated in the ranches and villages are due to this poisonous liquid.

Recent investigation into the pharmacology of the mescal plant prove it to be a poison of a very powerful nature. Large doses produce complete paralysis, and death is caused by respiratory failure.