An essay on hasheesh : $b Including observations and experiments

Description

An essay on hasheesh by Victor Robinson is a medical-cultural essay written in the early 20th century. It explores cannabis (hasheesh) as a narcotic: its plant biology, history, chemistry, physiological action, therapeutic uses, and the lived experience of intoxication. The book opens with a sweeping tour of world materia medica, then focuses on hemp’s range, cultivation, and botany; the distinction between Cannabis sativa and “indica”; and resin harvesting and state controls. It traces references from antiquity (Homer, Dioscorides, Galen, Susruta, Chinese herbals) through Islamic lore and the Assassins, to modern reintroduction via O’Shaughnessy. It reviews disputed chemistry, outlines systemic effects (stimulation, appetite, mydriasis), medical applications (pain, insomnia, spasm, hysteria), official preparations and sample prescriptions, and emphasizes the drug’s striking safety (no proven lethal dose) alongside variable, often contradictory outcomes. The narrative then turns to experiments: animal trials with little effect on herbivores; and vivid human cases featuring cascades of laughter, grandiose ideas, temporal distortion, and elaborate visions. Notable episodes include a stenographer who believes he is on Halley’s comet, a critic convulsed by uncontrollable mirth, and the narrator’s own nocturnal voyage of music, weightless flight, erotic reverie, nausea, and next-day euphoria. The volume closes with a poem to cannabis and an appendix where one subject records his sensations and “double consciousness,” underscoring the drug’s blend of delight, subjectivity, and aftereffects. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Subjects

• Cannabis
• RC