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.