HASHISCH INTOXICATION.
A common practice in some of the far Eastern countries—hashisch taking—is
comparatively rare among the people of civilized nations. Here, as there,
the practice is not one of steady, daily intoxication with this drug, but
it, more like alcohol, is resorted to at certain times, when the system
seems especially to crave it, or the temptation is offered. In this it
differs materially from the practice of opium or morphia taking. In point
of continual craving, we might, I think, arrange these drugs in the
following order: Morphine or opium, chloral, hashisch, alcohol.
It would seem that, as the more intense is the daily or hourly craving
for a stimulant or narcotic, the easier it is to permanently destroy that
craving when the habit is once broken. Thus a short struggle of from four
to eight days will, in the majority of instances, cure the opium patient,
while with alcohol or hashisch, less so with chloral, the desire seems to
be latent and to crop out at odd times, and under peculiar circumstances.
Once the desire is fully satisfied, then it remains quiescent for a
shorter or longer period, to again show itself in its original, or with
increased intensity, at a later date. Hence it is that it is so very
difficult to permanently cure dipsomania. With the opium or morphine
habituè, the desire at first, certain symptoms at a later date, come to
the surface and demand a renewal of the drug saturation as soon as the
effect of the last dose passes away.
We must differentiate between a diseased mental condition that
imperatively calls for some narcotic or stimulant, and that craving for
these substances that is only developed after their prolonged use, and
which _did not exist before their use was begun_. Both conditions are
those of disease; the one always existing, the other springing from the
prolonged use of the substance to which they become addicted. Be it
distinctly understood that where, throughout this book, I have used the
word “habit,” I have meant an _abnormal_ appetite or condition, calling
for the use of narcotics or stimulants, that either existed before or was
produced by the use of the substance in question.
There are those who use hashisch steadily the year round, as many of our
countrymen use alcohol; but this is due more to moral depravity than to
any special morbid craving for the substance used.
Were we able to procure a thoroughly reliable extract of hemp in this
country, and did physicians use it as freely, as carelessly, and in as
large doses, as they are using opium, morphine and chloral, hashisch
takers would be more common.
Known in English-speaking countries as _Indian Hemp_ or _Cannabis Indica_,
it is called _Hashisch_ by the Arabians, _Gunjah_ and _Churrus_ by the
inhabitants of India, _Bust_ or _Sheera_ by the Egyptians, _Dagga_ or
_Dacha_ by the Hottentots, _El Mogen_ by the Moors. This is the solid
extract. _Bangue_, _Bang_ or _Bendji_ is the spirituous extract.[102]
Our pharmacopœia offers a tincture of Cannabis Indica, every drachm
of which represents fully three grains of the extract. Some of our
manufacturing chemists prepare a fluid extract, and a fairly though not
thoroughly reliable extract of hemp is manufactured by the English.
The English extract is that usually employed for medicinal purposes, and
for the production of intoxication.
The only habituè that I have known was a woman, thirty-eight years of age,
who consumed, daily, nine grains of the English extract. She would roll
it up into a little lump, knead it for some time between the fingers, and
then placing it in the bowl of a common clay pipe, partly filled with
tobacco, light it, and inhale the smoke. This was done twice daily, about
four and a half grains being used at a time. Sometimes she would go a week
at a time—at least so she said—without using any; but I suspect that on
those days when she did not smoke it, she used it by the stomach.
She was of an intensely nervous temperament, formerly addicted to the
excessive use of alcoholic stimulants; of sallow complexion, dull eyes,
pupils always _widely_ dilated, pulse slow and irregular, occasionally
intermitting a beat; heart sounds feeble, body poorly nourished, skin dry,
bowels usually loose, appetite poor, and urine scanty and high colored,
but free from casts, albumen or sugar. She had been using the drug in this
way about eighteen months, and found it necessary to occasionally increase
her doses. She complained, especially in the morning, when waking from her
almost cataleptic state, of intense pain in the _left_ side of the head,
and along the course of the sciatic nerve of the same side.
She began to use the drug through curiosity, having read of its peculiar
effects, and being extremely desirous of finding something to supply the
place of the alcohol, to which she had become a slave.
When not under the influence of the drug her intellect was dull and
sluggish, and her temper, at times, bad and unreasoning. During the night,
when most completely under the influence of hemp, her dreams were highly
pleasurable; she seeming to live in a different world, a thought being
answered by its accomplishment, a wish by its fulfillment; distances were
traversed in a few seconds; feasts, marked by plenty and variety, the food
on dishes of gold, studded with diamonds and other precious stones, were
set before her. Everything was done on a scale of magnificence. At times
the dreams partook of a highly lascivious character. She assured me that
she seemed to be living a double life—the one the real, the other that
produced by the hemp. In the latter the incidents of one night’s dreams
seemed to follow as regularly, and the characters to be as real, as the
incidents and people of every day life.
There was one peculiarity: if she took a little more than her usual
allowance of the drug, she found her dreams of an entirely different
nature; not pleasant, but inexpressibly horrible, new faces and new scenes
taking the place of the usual ones, the thread of her dream romance being
suddenly snapped. The same thing occurred, though not so markedly, if she
took less than the usual amount.
Before commencing the use of this drug she was in fair health, stout, and
when not under the influence of liquor, bright and cheerful.
She passed entirely away from my observation, and I have never since been
able to learn what became of her, though I heard once that she had died,
how or when I do not know.
I once saw her in one of those deep sleeps produced by hashisch,
and noted that there seemed to be complete anæsthesia, deep snoring
respiration, thirteen to the minute, dilated and _irregular_ pupils,
purplish congestion of the face and conjunctivæ, and a spasmodic twitching
of the _left_ eyelid that lasted all the time I was with her—two hours.
She was possessed of some money, and was very highly educated. She claimed
to be the widow of an English army surgeon.
In the morning she rarely smoked all that was put in the pipe, and never
enough to put her to sleep. Occasionally she added a little opium to the
hemp. She was a mental and bodily wreck. Her gait was tottering, and
sometimes she would be forced to go in a direction opposite to that in
which she desired to move.
She expressed no desire to be broken of her vice, saying often that if she
wished it she could stop without any trouble. I regret exceedingly that
her temper and many peculiarities would not permit my studying her case
more closely. The urine examined was obtained by catheterization during
the semi-cataleptic spell already spoken of.
The mental effect of this drug has been variously described by different
authors. Thus, Calkins[103] says:—
“The _mental condition_ is an ideal existence, the most vivid, the most
fascinating. Time and space both seem to have expanded by an enormous
magnification; pigmies have swelled to giants, mountains have grown out
of molehills, days have enlarged to years and ages. De Moria in wending
his way one evening to the opera house, seemed to himself to have been
three years in traversing the corridor. De Saulcy having once fallen into
a state of insensibility following upon incoherent dreamings, fancied
he had lived meanwhile a hundred years. Rapidity as well as intensity
of thought is a noticeable phenomenon. De Lucca, after swallowing a dose
of the paste, saw, as in a flitting panorama, the various events of his
entire life, all proceeding in orderly succession, though he was powerless
in the attempt to arrest and detain a single one of them for a more
deliberate contemplation. Memory is sometimes very singularly modified
nevertheless, there being perhaps a forgetfulness, not of the object, but
of its name proper, or the series of events that transpired during the
paroxysm may have passed away into a total oblivion.
“The _normal mental condition_ is that of an exuberant enjoyance rather
than the opposite, that of melancholy and depression, though the
transition from the one state to the other may be as extreme as it is
swift. Oftener the subject is kept revolving in a delirious whirl of
hallucinatory emotions, when images the most grotesque and illusions the
drollest and most fantastic crowd along, one upon another, with a celerity
almost transcending thought. (Mirza Abdúl Roussac.)
“_Command over the will_ is maintainable, but temporarily only. As
self-control declines the mind is swayed by the mere fortuitous vagaries
of the fancy; and now it is that the dominant characteristic or mental
proclivity has its real apocalypsis. The outward expression may reveal
itself under a show of complacency and contentment in view of things
around, or suspicion, distrust, or querulousness of disposition may work
to the surface, or may be, a lordly hauteur that exacts an unquestioning
homage from the ‘profanum vulgus’ by virtue of an affected superiority
over common mortals, is the ruling idea of the hour; or peradventure, the
erotic impulses may, for the time, overshadow and disguise all others.
“Amid the ever-shifting spectacular scene the _sense of personal identity_
is never perhaps entirely lost, but there does arise in very rare
instances the notion of a duality of existence; not the Persian idea
precisely, that of two souls occupying one and the same body in a joint
stock association, as it were (the doctrine as alluded to by Xenophon, in
the story of the beautiful Panthea), but rather the idea of one and the
same soul in a duplication or bipartation else, and present in two bodies.”
Many persons who have put themselves once or twice under the influence of
this drug claim that no such pleasant effects, but rather torturing and
horrible conditions are produced. The results when the drug is taken in
this way, like those produced by tobacco on boys who smoke for the first
time, should not be taken as a true estimate of the results obtained by
the continued use of either.
A curious, interesting and valuable experiment was made upon himself by
Dr. H. C. Wood, of Philadelphia, who is especially qualified to undertake
and record the results of such an observation.
He says[104]:—
“When given in full doses, cannabis Indica produces a feeling of
exhilaration, with a condition of reverie, and a train of mental and
nervous phenomena, which varies very much according to the temperament or
idiosyncrasies of the subject, and very probably also, to some extent,
according to the nature of his surroundings. The sensations are generally
spoken of as very pleasurable; often beautiful visions float before
the eyes, and a sense of ecstacy fills the whole being; sometimes the
venereal appetites are greatly excited; sometimes loud laughter, constant
giggling, and other indications of mirth are present. Some years since,
in experimenting with the American extract, I took a very large dose, and
in the essay upon the subject (_Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society_, 1869, vol. xi. p. 226), the result was described as follows:—
“About half-past four P.M., September 23, I took most of the extract. No
immediate symptoms were produced. About seven P.M. a professional call
was requested, and, forgetting all about the hemp, I went out and saw
my patient. While writing the prescription I became perfectly oblivious
to surrounding objects, but went on writing, without any check to or
deviation from the ordinary series of mental acts connected with the
process, at least that I am aware of. When the recipe was finished, I
suddenly recollected where I was, and, looking up, saw my patient sitting
quietly before me. The conviction was irresistible that I had sat thus
many minutes, perhaps hours, and directly the idea fastened itself that
the hemp had commenced to act, and had thrown me into a trance-like state
of considerable duration, during which I had been stupidly sitting before
my wondering patient. I hastily arose and apologized for remaining so
long, but was assured I had only been a very few minutes. About seven and
a half P.M. I returned home. I was by this time quite excited, and the
feeling of hilarity now rapidly increased. It was not a sensuous feeling,
in the ordinary meaning of the term; it was not merely an intellectual
excitation; it was a sort of _bien-être_—the very opposite to _malaise_.
It did not come from without; it was not connected with any passion or
sense. It was simply a feeling of inner joyousness; the heart seemed
buoyant beyond all trouble; the whole system felt as though all sense of
fatigue were forever banished; the mind gladly ran riot, free constantly
to leap from one idea to another, apparently unbound from its ordinary
laws. I was disposed to laugh; to make comic gestures; one very frequently
recurrent fancy was to imitate with the arms the motions of a fiddler,
and with the lips the tune he was supposed to be playing. There was
nothing like wild delirium, nor any hallucinations that I remember. At
no time had I any visions, or at least any that I can now call to mind;
but a person who was with me at that time states that once I raised my
head and exclaimed, ‘Oh, the mountains! the mountains!’ While I was
performing the various antics already alluded to, I knew very well I was
acting exceedingly foolishly, but could not control myself. I think it
was about eight o’clock when I began to have a feeling of numbness in my
limbs, also a sense of general uneasiness and unrest, and a fear lest I
had taken an overdose. I now constantly walked about the house; my skin,
to myself, was warm—in fact, my whole surface felt flushed; my mouth
and throat were very dry; my legs put on a strange, foreign feeling, as
though they were not a part of my body. I counted my pulse and found it
one hundred and twenty, quite full and strong. A foreboding, an undefined,
horrible fear, as of impending death, now commenced to creep over me;
in haste I sent for medical aid. The curious sensations in my limbs
increased. My legs felt as though they were waxen pillars beneath me. I
remember feeling them with my hand and finding them, as I thought, at
least, very firm, the muscles all in a state of tonic contraction. About
eight o’clock I began to have marked ‘spells’—periods when all connection
seemed to be severed between the external world and myself. I might be
said to have been unconscious during these times, in so far that I was
oblivious to all external objects, but on coming out of one it was not
a blank, dreamless void, upon which I looked back, a mere empty space,
but rather a period of active but aimless life. I do not think there was
any connected thought in them; they seemed simply wild reveries, without
any binding cord—each a mere chaos of disjointed ideas. The mind seemed
freed from its ordinary laws of association, so that it passed from idea
to idea, as it were, perfectly at random. The duration of these spells,
to me, was very great, although they really lasted but a few seconds to
a minute or two. Indeed, I now entirely lost my power of measuring time.
Seconds seemed hours; minutes seemed days; hours seemed infinite. Still I
was perfectly conscious during the intermissions between the paroxysms.
I would look at my watch, and then, after an hour or two, as I thought,
would look again, and find that scarcely five minutes had elapsed. I would
gaze at its face in deep disgust, the minute-hand seemingly motionless, as
though graven in the face itself; the laggard second-hand moving slowly,
so slowly it appeared a hopeless task to watch during its whole infinite
round of a minute, and always would I give it up in despair before the
sixty seconds had elapsed. Occasionally, when my mind was most lucid,
there was in it a sort of duplex action in regard to the duration of time.
I would think to myself, it has been so long since a certain event—an
hour, for example, since the doctor came; and then reason would say, no,
it has been only a few minutes; your thoughts or feelings are caused by
the hemp. Nevertheless, I was not able to shake off this sense of the
almost indefinite prolongation of time, even for a minute. The paroxysms
already alluded to were not accompanied with muscular relaxation. About a
quarter before nine o’clock I was standing at the door, anxiously watching
for the doctor, and when the spells would come on I would remain standing,
leaning slightly, perhaps, against the doorway. After awhile I saw a man
approaching, whom I took to be the doctor. The sound of his steps told me
he was walking very rapidly, and he was under a gas-lamp, not more than
one-fourth of a square distant, yet he appeared a vast distance away, and
a corresponding time approaching. This was the only occasion in which I
noticed an exaggeration of distance; in the room it was not perceptible.
My extremities now began to grow cold, and I went into the house. I do not
remember further, until I was aroused by the doctor shaking or calling
me. Then intellection seemed pretty good. I narrated what I had done and
suffered, and told the doctor my opinion was that an emetic was indicated,
both to remove any of the extract still remaining in my stomach, and also
to arouse the nervous system. I further suggested our going into the
office, as more suitable than the parlor, where we then were. There was at
this time a very marked sense of numbness in my limbs, and what the doctor
said was a hard pinch produced no pain. When I attempted to walk up-stairs
my legs seemed as though their lower halves were made of lead. After
this there were no new symptoms, only an intensifying of those already
mentioned. The periods of unconsciousness became at once longer and more
frequent, and during their absence intellection was more imperfect,
although when thoroughly aroused I thought I reasoned and judged clearly.
The oppressive feeling of impending death became more intense. It was
horrible. Each paroxysm would seem to have been the longest I had
suffered; as I came out of it a voice seemed constantly saying, ‘You are
getting worse; your paroxysms are growing longer and deeper; they will
overmaster you; you will die.’ A sense of personal antagonism between
my will power, as affected by the drug, grew very strong. I felt as
though my only chance was to struggle against these paroxysms—that I must
constantly arouse myself by an effort of will; and that effort was made
with infinite toil and pain. I felt as if some evil spirit had control of
the whole of me, except the will power, and was in determined conflict
with that, the last citadel of my being. I have never experienced anything
like the fearful sense of almost hopeless anguish and utter weariness
which was upon me. Once or twice during a paroxysm I had what might be
called nightmare sensations; I felt myself mounting upward, expanding,
dilating, dissolving into the wide confines of space, overwhelmed by a
horrible, rending, unutterable despair. Then, with tremendous effort, I
seemed to shake this off, and to start up with the shuddering thought,
next time you will not be able to throw this off, and what then? Under the
influence of an emetic I vomited freely, without nausea, and without much
relief. About midnight, at the suggestion of the doctors, I went up-stairs
to bed. My legs and feet seemed heavy, I could scarcely move them, and
it was as much as I could do to walk with help. I have no recollection
whatever of being undressed, but am told I went immediately to sleep. When
I awoke, early in the morning, my mind was at first clear, but in a few
minutes the paroxysms, similar to those of the evening, came on again, and
recurred at more or less brief intervals until late in the afternoon. All
of the day there was marked anæsthesia of the skin. At no time were there
any aphrodisiac feelings produced. There was a marked increase of the
urinary secretion. There were no after effects, such as nausea, headache,
or constipation of the bowels.
“The sense of prolongation of time which I experienced was to me very
remarkable, but is not uncommon in these cases. It is evidently due to
the immense rapidity of the succession of ideas. The mind, without doubt,
measures time by the duration of its own processes, and when an infinitude
of ideas arise before it in the time usually occupied by a few, time
becomes infinitely prolonged to the mind. It is a lifetime in the minute.
A very common mental phenomenon, not yet mentioned, is a condition of
double consciousness, a sense of having two existences, of being at the
same time one’s self and somebody else.”
Pleasurable as may be the stage of excitement or intoxication, fascinating
as may be the dreams that follow, the evil effect upon the body is rapid
and decisive.
Wasting of the muscles, sallowness of the skin, hebetude of the mind,
interference with coördination, failure of the appetite, convulsive
seizures, loss of strength, and idiotic offspring, seem, from all
accounts, to be the uniform result of the long continued use of this drug.