POISONS OF THE INTELLIGENCE. 485 



ghost, he has an illusion. Illusion presupposes an actual sensation, the 

 perception of which is exaggerated and erroneous, whereas hallucination 

 comes spontaneously without requiring a sensation to give rise to it. 

 Now, under the hasheesh influence, the sensations are exaggerated so as 

 to produce endless illusions. The slightest sound becomes a crash, and 

 we hear the fall of waters, the roar of cataracts, the blare of trumpets, 

 or brilliant harmonies. I have seen persons, naturally almost insensible 

 to music, lifted by a few musical notes into an ecstasy such as we read 

 of in the lives of saints. But, for a description of all these sensa- 

 tions, I would refer the reader to the brilliant pages of Theophile Gau- 

 tier's " Club des Hachichins." 



I will not go over ground trod by Gautier, but will content myself 

 with touching upon another point of psychological interest. We will 

 suppose the illusion to be stronger than anything noticed in the fore- 

 going instances ; that instead of being a simple disorder of the percep- 

 tive faculties, it affects the conceptive powers. Under normal con- 

 ditions, external impressions awaken manifold ideas in our minds ; 

 besides the association of ideas, there is association of impressions with 

 ideas. For instance, a certain taste, smell, or sound, gives rise to a mul- 

 titude of conceptions that follow one another according to the direction 

 we may be pleased to give them. The faculty of attention enables us 

 to check the uprising of the conceptions called forth by the taste, smell, 

 or sound. Often, while attention is fixed on an object, we neither hear 

 nor see what is passing without. In reality we do see and hear, but 

 these sensations are obliterated, and pass out of the mind without leav- 

 ing a trace behind. In the use of hasheesh, in virtue of the loss of will, 

 the intensity of the perceptions, and the excitation of the brain, every 

 external impression calls forth a series of delirious conceptions, and 

 there is no check. 



Dr. Moreau lays great stress on the resemblance subsisting between 

 these hasheesh illusions and the systematic delirium of the insane. In 

 most lunatics the delirious idea has its origin in fact, in a sensation, a 

 pain, an impression from without. This forms for them the logical 

 basis of a system of erroneous judgments. If, for instance, they suffer 

 from nausea or gastric pains, they say the) 7 have been poisoned ; that 

 their enemies have mixed poison with their food. Precisely the same 

 thing is found in the use of hasheesh. Every sensation immediately calls 

 forth an insane thought, or rather a thousand such thoughts. Hence it 

 really appears as though the veil were rent in twain, and that by the 

 use of this drug we are enabled to witness the mind itself at its work. 

 The mysterious and silent travail which in the normal state produces 

 our thoughts and judgments is no longer either mysterious or silent: 

 we can see how the whole is connected, and can look on while ideas are 

 being evolved. But, unfortunately, under the hasheesh influence one is 

 no longer master of his own thoughts, and must, perforce, follow them 

 in their disorderly course. Here we observe close resemblance between 



