346 Effects of Haschisch. 



EFFECTS OF HASCHISCH.* 



"Undek the name of Haschisch is indicated the intoxicating 

 preparations made from a species of hemp which hears the ap- 

 pellation of Cannabis Inrlica. The tops of the plants in flower, 

 gathered before the maturity of the seeds, are employed in its 

 production, but the details of the process are not known. It is 

 prepared in two distinct forms — an extract shaped into slender 

 cylinders more or less long, and thin tablets containing sugar, 

 which have an agreeable and peculiar flavour. From the 

 extract an alcoholic tincture is obtained, also pastilles sucrees, 

 and several other preparations, in which fatty and aromatic 

 substances enter. Sometimes the haschisch is smoked with 

 tobacco, or it is mixed with coffee, tea, or other drinks. 



(C Haschisch is remarkable for a special action upon the 

 human economy, which must not be confounded with that 

 occasioned by alcoholic fluids, or by opium, and the general 

 run of uarcotics. 



" Being desirous of testing its action on my own person, I 

 seized, without hesitatiou, a favourable opportunity offered by 

 one of my friends, who brought from the East a certain quantity 

 of haschisch under the form of extract and pate sucre'e. I took 

 two or three grammes of this paste with great indifference 

 and doubt as to the marvellous effects it was alleged to produce. 

 It was in the spring of 1854, about nine o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, and soon afterwards I repaired to the chemical laboratory of 

 the College of France, and set to work as usual. In about a 

 quarter of an hour I felt a peculiar movement in the extremities, 

 Avhich propagated itself towards the interior of the body. I felt 

 as if something entered at the tips of my fingers and moved 

 'progressively, and without interruption, to my brain, without, 

 however, producing the slightest derangement of the intellec- 

 tual faculties, or the faintest impression of pain. I can only 

 compare this sensation to that produced by nettles on the skin, 

 or that occasioned by a great number of ants moving over the 

 body, or that of a gentle titillation of the sole of the foot, or 

 other delicate part of the skin. But all these comparisons are 

 only approximations, and cannot convey a true idea of the effect 

 produced by haschisch during the first period of its action. The 

 movement I wish to describe has the peculiarity of being pro- 

 gressive, without intermittence, and without any pain. 



" In this first period of the operation of haschisch, I felt that 

 I was in an abnormal state, and was contented. Nevertheless, 

 I desired to continue the work I had begun, but was unable to 

 do so, as my hands, affected by a peculiar nervous excitement, 



* Note by M. S. de Luca, Comptes Eendus, 13th October, 1S62. 



