2
The
British
Journal
of
Inebriety
real than the one by which the individual finds himself circum-scribed. The drug addict, on the other hand, is not valiant; hecan neither accept this robust Universe nor escape from it by anascent to rarer regions.He searches, as
I
have said,
for
means to make reality less real,and in this search he sometimes displays great ingenuity both asregards the agents he selects and in respect of his method of usingthem.
I
propose this afternoon to describe some of the more un-usual forms of addiction which have been described in the litera-ture of the subject, but,
as
we have not an unlimited amount oftime and the subject is rich,
I
shall have to omit altogether anydescription of the vagaries
of
alcoholics and
I
must also neglectthe wide field presented by the barbituric group of drugs. Myremarks will, therefore, be mainly restricted to the vegetable addic-tion drugs, though a few instances will be culled from the non-vegetable group. Our study falls naturally into
two
main divi-sions:
(I)
The employment of unusual methods, and
(2)
thechoice of unusual substances.
Curiozcs
Forms
of
Addiction
to
Indian
Hem$
One
of
the earliest addiction drugs was
Cannabis,
and, indeed,the discovery of its inebriant properties is hidden in the uncer-tainties of pre-history. Yet we know that, unlike opium, its abusepreceded by ages its legitimate use. Some think that the
“
sorroweasing drug,” the
4a’ppaKov
v~ncvO+s
f Homer, was
Cannabis
(I),
but it is far more likely to have been some early form of opium.However, there
is
an undoubted reference to
it
in the fourth bookof Herodotus
(z),
and the reference is interesting because of themanner in which thedrugwas employed. The passage,
as
givenin Rawlinson’s translation, reads as follows
:
“
The Scythians, as
I
said, take some of this hemp seed and, creeping under the feltcoverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately itsmokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bathcan exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy, and the vapourserves
them
instead of a water-bath; for they never by any chancewash their bodies with water.”
I
am not sufficient of
a
pharma-cologist to know whether the mere fumes of hemp seed can causeintoxication or whether our author is indulging in one of his tallstories, but an apparent confirmation is to be found in Burton’sbook
(3).He
states that, according to his information, theSiberians intoxicate themselves by inhaling the vapour
of
theseed thrown upon red-hot stones. This, however, bears
200
great
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