by one who had often used it, is yet on that very account, like the
picture of the opium-eater, open to suspicion. We feel as if it were
intended as a kind of excuse or justification of the indulgence on the
part of the writer. Yet apart from this, the metaphysical question
raised by M. Moreau is a very interesting one. To pursue it here, as a
general question, would be out of place. We may observe, however, that
it is intimately connected not only with the peculiar action exercised
over the mind by each of the narcotics we are now considering, but with
the probable cause of all those mental aberrations we include under the
general term—_insanity_. Can we produce, for example, virtual
insanity—imaginary happiness,[48] imaginary misery, or the most
truth-like delusions—by introducing into the stomach, and thence into
the blood which is passing through the hair-like blood-vessels of the
brain, a quantity of a foreign body too minute to be recognised by
ordinary chemical processes; and may not real natural insanity, in any
of its forms, be caused by the natural production within the system
itself of minute quantities of analogous substances possessing similar
virtues? And, if so produced, will our future chemistry teach us to
remove the mental disease, by preventing the production of the cause, or
by constantly neutralising its effects? How important are these facts
and considerations to a true pathology of insanity in general, and to
every rational attempt to bring it, in all its phases, within the domain
of the healing art!
When first it begins to act, the peculiar effects of the haschisch may
be considerably diminished or altogether checked by a firm exertion of
the will, “just as we master the passion of anger by a strong voluntary
effort.” By degrees, however, the power of controlling at will and
directing the thoughts diminishes, till finally all power of fixing the
attention is lost, and the mind becomes the sport of every idea which
either arises within itself, or is forced upon it from without.
“We become the sport of impressions of every kind. The course of our
ideas may be broken by the slightest cause. We are turned, so to
speak, by every wind. By a word or a gesture, our thoughts may be
successively directed to a multitude of different subjects with a
rapidity and lucidity which are truly marvellous. The mind becomes
possessed with a feeling of pride, corresponding to the exaltation of
its faculties, which it is conscious have increased in energy and
power. It will be entirely dependent on the circumstances in which we
are placed, the objects which strike the eyes, the words which fall on
our ears, whether the most lively sentiments of gaiety or of sadness
shall be produced, or passions of the most opposite character excited,
sometimes with extraordinary violence. Irritation may rapidly pass
into rage, dislike into hatred and desire for revenge, and the calmest
affection into the most transporting passion. So fear becomes terror,
courage is developed into rashness which nothing checks, and which
seems unconscious of danger, and the most unfounded doubt and
suspicion becomes a certainty.
“The mind has a tendency to exaggerate everything, and the slightest
impulse carries it along. Hence those who make use of the haschisch in
the East, when they wish to give themselves up to the intoxication of
the _fantasia_, withdraw themselves carefully from everything which
could give to their delirium a tendency to melancholy, or excite
anything but feelings of pleasurable enjoyment. They profit by all the
means which the dissolute manners of the East place at their disposal.
It is in the midst of the harem, surrounded by their women, under the
charm of music and of lascivious dances performed by the almees, that
they enjoy the intoxicating _dawamese_; and with the aid of
superstition, they find themselves almost transported to the scene of
the numberless marvels which the Prophet has collected in his
paradise.”[49]
The errors of perception to which the patient is liable during the
period of fantasia, are remarkably experienced in regard to time and
place. Minutes seem hours, and hours are prolonged into years, till at
last all idea of time seems obliterated, and the past and the present
are confounded together. Every notion, in this curious condition, seems
to partake of a certain degree of exaggeration. One evening, M. Moreau
was traversing the passage of the Opera when under the influence of a
moderate dose of haschisch. He had made but a few steps when it seemed
to him as if he had been there for two or three hours; and as he
advanced the passage seemed interminable, its extremity receding as he
pressed forward.[50]
The effect produced by hemp in its different forms varies, however, both
in kind and in degree, with the individual to whom it is administered.
Its general effect upon Orientals is of an agreeable and cheerful
character, exciting them to laugh, dance, and sing, and to commit
various extravagances—acting as an aphrodisiac, and increasing the
appetite for food. Some, however, it renders excitable and quarrelsome,
and disposes to acts of violence. It is from the extravagant behaviour
of individuals of this latter temperament that the use and meaning of
our word assassin have most probably arisen. There are some rare
individuals, however, according to Dr Moreau, on whom the drug produces
no effect whatever—upon whom, at least, doses are powerless which are
usually followed by well-marked phenomena, as is the case with opium,
long use making larger doses necessary. To some even a drachm of the
churrus is considered a moderate dose, though sufficient to operate upon
twenty ordinary men.
Upon Europeans generally, at least in Europe, its effects have been
found to be considerably less in degree than upon Orientals. “In India,
Dr O’Shaughnessy had seen marked effects from half a grain of the
extract, or even less, and had been accustomed to consider one grain and
a half a large dose; in England he had given ten or twelve or more
grains, to produce the desired effect.”—(PEREIRA, p. 1242.) In kind,
also, its effects upon Europeans differ somewhat from those produced
upon Asiatics. It has never been known, for example, to produce that
remarkable cataleptic state, described in a previous page as having been
observed in India as the consequence even of a comparatively small dose
of the hemp extract.
Of the chemistry of the hemp plant comparatively little is yet known.
Had it been as long familiar to Europeans, or used as extensively as in
the East, it would probably, like opium, have been the subject of
repeated chemical investigations.
When distilled with water, the dried leaves and flowers yield a volatile
oil in small quantity. The properties of this volatile oil have not been
studied. It is not supposed, however, to have any important connection
with the remarkable effects of the plant upon the living animal.
But the whole hemp plant is impregnated, as we have seen, with a
resinous substance, in which its active virtues reside. When collected
as it naturally exudes, this resin forms the churrus of India. It is
extracted when the leaves are boiled with butter to form the basis of
the haschisch, or when the dried plant is treated with alcohol to obtain
the hemp extract. It is soft, dissolves readily both in alcohol and
ether, and is separated from these liquids in the form of a white powder
when the solutions are mixed with water. It has a warm, bitterish,
acrid, somewhat balsamic taste, and a fragrant odour, especially when
heated.
Both the resin which naturally exudes from the hemp plant, and the
extract it yields to spirituous liquids, are probably mixtures of
several substances possessed of different properties and relations to
animal life. The remarkably complex composition of opium justifies such
an opinion. And the analogy of the same substance makes it probable that
the produce of the plant will differ in different localities and
countries—so that the churrus of India, and the haschisch of Syria, may
produce very different effects on the same constitution. But these
points have not as yet been investigated either chemically or
physiologically. This substance, therefore, holds out the promise of a
rich and interesting harvest to future experimenters.
The extract of hemp differs considerably in its effects from opium. It
does not lessen, but rather excites the appetite. It does not occasion
nausea, dryness of the tongue, constipation, or lessening of the
secretions, and is not usually followed by that melancholy state of
depression to which the opium-eater is subject. It differs also in
causing dilatation of the pupil, and sometimes catalepsy, in stilling
pain less than opium does, in less constantly producing sleep, in the
peculiar inebriating quality it possesses, in the phantasmata it
awakens, and in its aphrodisiac effects. To the intellectual activity
imparted by opium, it adds a corresponding sensitiveness and activity of
all the feelings and of the senses, both internal and external. It
seems, in fact, a source of exquisite and _peculiar_ enjoyment, with
which, happily, we are in this part of the world still altogether
unacquainted.
It is impossible to form any estimate of the quantity of hemp, of hemp
resin, or of the artificial extract, which are used for purposes of
indulgence. It must, however, be very large, since the plant is so
employed, in one form or another, by probably not less than two or three
hundred millions of the human race!
* * * * *
V. COCA.—When the Spanish conquerors overcame the Indians of the hilly
country of Peru, they found among them plantations of an herb called
coca, and the custom extensively prevalent of chewing its leaves during
frequent short periods of repose specially set apart for the purpose. So
universal, indeed, was the use of it, that it was the common money or
medium of exchange of Peru, and after the introduction of gold and
silver money, the principal article of traffic. The practice of using it
was already ancient among the Indian races, and its origin is lost in
the mists of remote antiquity. It continues equally prevalent to the
present day among the Indian inhabitants of Bolivia and Peru. Coca is in
reality the _Narcotic of the Andes_, and it is not less interesting than
hemp, either in its social or in its physiological relations.
The _Erythroxylon coca_[51] is a bush which attains the height of six or
eight feet, and resembles the blackthorn in its small white flowers and
bright green leaves. It grows wild in many parts of Bolivia, but that
which is used by the people is chiefly the produce of cultivation. Like
our common thorn, it is raised in seed-beds, from which it is planted
out into regular coca plantations. It is extensively cultivated in the
tropical valleys of the eastern slopes of the Andes, in Upper and Lower
Peru. The steep sides of these valleys, below the level of 8000 feet,
are often covered with plantations of coca, arranged in terraces like
the vine-culture of Tuscany and the Holy Land. The leaves, when ripe
enough to break on being bent, are collected and dried in the sun. In
favourable localities, the bushes yield three, and even four, crops of
leaves in a year. When nearly dried, or exposed to the sun, they emit an
odour similar to that of new-made hay, in which much mellilot, or
sweet-scented vernal grass, is contained; and they give a headache to
new-comers, as haymaking does to some persons among ourselves. These
dried leaves form the coca of commerce. When of good quality, they are
of a pale-green colour. Dampness causes them to become dark coloured, in
which state they are less esteemed; and if they heat through dampness,
they become altogether useless. Their taste is not unpleasant; it is
slightly bitter and aromatic, and resembles that of green tea of
inferior quality. It is more piquant and agreeable when a sprinkling of
quicklime or plant ashes is chewed along with it.
The use of this herb among the Indians dates, as we have said, from very
remote periods. Its cultivation was a care of the native government
during the reign of the Incas, and it is still to the Indian of the
mountains the delight, the support, and in some measure a necessity of
his life. He is never seen without the leathern pouch (his _chuspa_) to
contain his coca leaves, and his little gourd-bottle to hold powdered
unslacked lime—or, if he is a Bolivian, the alkaline ashes left by the
quinoa or the musa root when burned. Always three, and sometimes four
times a-day, he rests from his mining or other labour, or pauses in his
journey, and lays down his burden to chew in quiet the beloved leaf.
When riding, or walking, or labouring, the leaves have little effect. As
with opium and hemp, stillness and repose are indispensable to his full
enjoyment of the luxury it produces. In the shade of a tree he stretches
himself at ease, and from time to time puts into his mouth a few leaves
rolled into a ball (an _acullico_), and after each new supply a little
unslacked lime on the end of a slip of wood moistened and dipped into
his lime-flask. This brings out the _true taste_ of the leaf, and causes
a copious flow of greenish-coloured saliva, which is partly rejected and
partly swallowed. When the ball ceases to emit juice it is thrown away,
and a new supply is taken. The interval of enjoyment conceded to the
labouring Indian lasts from fifteen minutes to half an hour, and is
generally wound up by the smoking of a paper cigar. Repeated three or
four times a-day, his average consumption is an ounce or an ounce and a
half in the twenty-four hours, and on holidays double that quantity. The
owners of mines and plantations have long found it for their interest to
allow a suspension of labour three times a-day for the _chaccar_, as it
is called; and the Indian speedily quits an employer who endeavours to
stint or deprive him of these periods of indulgence. During these
periods his _phlegm_ is something marvellous. No degree of urgency or
entreaty on the part of his master or employer will move him; while the
confirmed _coquero_, when under the influence of the leaf, is heedless
of the thunder-storm which threatens to drown him where he lies, of the
roar of approaching wild beasts, or of the smoking fire which creeps
along the grass, and is about to suffocate or scorch him in his lair.
The Indians of the Peruvian Andes are subject to fits of melancholy, or
are generally perhaps of a gloomy temperament. “In their domestic
relations,” says Von Tschudi, “the Indians are unsocial and gloomy.
Husband, wife, and children live together with but little appearance of
affection. The children seem to approach their parents timidly, and
whole days sometimes elapse without the interchange of a word of
kindness between them. When not engaged in out-door work, the Indian
sits gloomily in his hut, chewing coca and brooding silently over his
own thoughts.”—_Travels_, p. 481.
It does not appear, however, that the coca adds to his gloom; on the
contrary, he takes it to relieve himself for the time from the
peculiarities of his temperament. Silence and abstraction are necessary
to the enjoyment, but the use of it makes him cheerful; and it is to the
unhappy, often oppressed, and always poor Peruvian, the source of his
highest pleasures. It has come down to him as a relic of the ancient
enjoyments of his people, and during the phantasy it produces, he
participates in scenes and pleasures from which in common life he is
altogether excluded. Dr Weddell very sensibly remarks, that, as a relic
of the past, he attaches “superstitious ideas to the coca, which must
triple, in his imagination, the benefits he receives from it,” and that
its value to him is further enhanced by its being the “sole and only
distraction which breaks the incomparable monotony of his existence.”
We have no detailed account, by an actual chewer of the leaf, of the
special effects which it produces; but these must be very seducing,
since, though long stigmatised, and still very generally considered as a
degrading, purely Indian, and, therefore, despicable vice, many white
Peruvians at Lima and elsewhere retire daily at stated times to chew the
coca; and even Europeans in different parts of the country have fallen
into the habit. A confirmed chewer of coca is called a “coquero,” and he
is said to become occasionally more thoroughly a slave to the leaf than
the inveterate drunkard is to spirituous liquors.
Sometimes the coquero is overtaken by a craving which he cannot resist,
and he betakes himself for days together to the silence of the woods,
and there indulges unrestrained in the use of the weed. Young men of the
best families in Peru become sometimes addicted to it to this extreme
degree of excess, and are then considered as lost. Forsaking cities and
the company of civilised men, and living chiefly in woods or in Indian
villages, they give themselves up to a savage and solitary life. Hence
the term, a _white coquero_, has there something of the same evil sense
as irreclaimable drunkard has with us.
The chewing of coca gives “a bad breath (abominable, according to
Weddell), pale lips and gums, greenish and stumpy teeth, and an ugly
black mark at the angles of the mouth. The inveterate coquero is known
at the first glance. His unsteady gait, his yellow skin, his dim and
sunken eyes encircled by a purple ring, his quivering lips, and his
general apathy, all bear evidence of the baneful effects of the coca
juice when taken in excess.”—VON TSCHUDI, p. 450.
Its first evil effect is to weaken the digestion; it then gradually
induces a disease locally named the _opilacion_. Biliary affections,
with all the painful symptoms which attend them in tropical climates,
and, above all, gall stones, are frequent and severe. The appetite
becomes exceedingly uncertain, till at length the dislike to all food is
succeeded by an inordinate appetite for animal excrement. Then dropsical
swellings and boils come on; and the patient, if he can get it, flies to
brandy for relief, and thus drags out a few miserable years, till death
relieves him.[52]
This description is sufficiently repulsive, but it is only the dark side
of the picture. A similar representation could be truthfully made of the
evil effects of wine or beer in too numerous cases, without thereby
implying that these liquors ought either to be wholly forbidden, or of
our own accord entirely given up. “Setting aside all extravagant and
visionary notions on the subject, I am clearly of opinion,” says Von
Tschudi, “that the moderate use of coca is not merely innoxious, but
that it may even be very conducive to health. In support of this
conclusion, I may refer to the numerous examples of longevity among
Indians who, almost from the age of boyhood, have been in the habit of
masticating coca three times a-day. Cases are not unfrequent of Indians
attaining the great age of 130 years; and these men, at the ordinary
rate of consumption, must in the course of their lives have chewed not
less than 2700 lb. of the leaf, and yet have retained perfect health.”
Even the Indian coquero, who takes it in excess, reaches the age of
fifty years. It is consumed both more abundantly, however, and with less
baneful results, in the higher Andes than in the lower and warmer
regions.
It is certain that the Peruvian Indians ascribe to it the most
extraordinary virtues. They regard it even at the present day as
something sacred and mysterious. This impression they have inherited as
a fragment of their ancient religion, for in all the ceremonies, whether
warlike or religious, of the times of the Incas, the coca was
introduced. It was used by the priests either for producing smoke at the
great offerings to the gods, for throwing in handfuls upon the
sacrifice, or as the sacrifice itself.
“During divine worship the priests chewed coca leaves, and unless they
were supplied with them, it was believed that the favour of the gods
could not be propitiated. It was also deemed necessary that the
supplicator for divine grace should approach the priests with an
acullico in his mouth. It was believed that any business undertaken
without the benediction of coca leaves could not prosper, and to the
shrub itself worship was rendered. During an interval of more than 300
years Christianity has not been able to subdue this deep-rooted
idolatry, for everywhere we find traces of belief in the mysterious
powers of this plant. The excavators in the mines of Cerro de Pasco
throw masticated coca on hard veins of metal, in the belief that it
softens the ore and renders it more easy to work. The origin of this
custom is easily explained, when it is recollected that in the time of
the Incas it was believed that the _cozas_, or the deities of metals,
rendered the mountains impenetrable if they were not propitiated by
the odour of coca. The Indians, even at the present time, put coca
leaves into the mouths of dead persons, to secure to them a favourable
reception on their entrance into another world; and when a Peruvian
Indian on a journey falls in with a mummy, he, with timid reverence,
presents to it some coca leaves as his pious offering.”—VON TSCHUDI,
p. 454.
And even Europeans cannot deny that, in addition to the ordinary
properties of a narcotic, this leaf possesses two very remarkable
properties not known to coexist in any other substance.
_First_, They lessen, when chewed, the necessity for ordinary food, and
not only enable the chewer, as opium does, to put forth a greater
nervous energy for a short time, but actually, with the same amount of
food, perseveringly to undergo more laborious fatigue or
longer-continued labour. With a feeble ration of dried maize, or barley
crushed into flour, the Indian, if duly supplied with coca, toils under
heavy burdens, day after day, up the steep slopes of the mountain
passes, or digs for years in the subterranean mines, insensible to
weariness, to cold, or to hunger. He believes, indeed, that it may be
made a substitute for food altogether; and an instance given by Von
Tschudi seems almost to justify this opinion.
“A cholo of Huari, named Hatan Huamang, was employed by me in very
laborious digging. During the five days and nights he was in my
service he never tasted any food, and took only two hours’ sleep each
night. But at intervals of two and a half or three hours he regularly
chewed about half an ounce of coca leaves, and he kept an acullico
continually in his mouth. I was constantly beside him, and therefore I
had the opportunity of closely observing him. The work for which I
engaged him being finished, he accompanied me on a two days’ journey
of twenty-three leagues across the level heights. Though on foot, he
kept up with the pace of my mule, and halted only for the _chaccar_.
On leaving me he declared he would willingly engage himself again for
the same amount of work, and that he would go through it without food,
if I would but allow him a sufficient supply of coca. The village
priest assured me that this man was sixty-two years of age, and that
he had never known him to be ill in his life.”—VON TSCHUDI, p. 453.
How this remarkable effect of the coca is to be accounted for, in
accordance with the received notions as to animal nutrition, it is not
easy to see.
_Second_, Another striking property of this leaf is, that, either when
chewed or when taken in the form of infusion, like tea, it prevents the
occurrence of that difficulty of respiration which is usually felt in
ascending the long and steep slopes of the Cordillera and the Puna.