Experiences of HascMsch. 435 



EXPEBIENCES OF HASOHISCH. 



BY SHIRLEY HIBBEED. 



The translation of a note by M. S. de Luca, on Haschisch, 

 which appeared in the December number of the Intellectual 

 Observer (page 846), recalled to my memory some experiences 

 of my own in the use of Haschisch. These experiences might 

 not be worth recording were it not a matter of some interest to 

 the medical profession whether or not Haschisch can be exhibited 

 as a therapeutic agent, a matter to be determined very much by 

 a comparison of its effects on persons of various habit and con- 

 stitution. It may be right to preface these remarks by stating 

 that I am of middling height, spare habit, sanguine-nervous 

 temperament, not robust, but have always enjoyed sound health, 

 have great powers of endurance, and possess altogether a 

 vigorous constitution. 



The publication, in ] 845, of a work on Haschisch, by Dr. 

 Moreau,* occasioned between myself and a friend, who was then 

 preparing for the medical profession, some conversations on this 

 and other narcotics, the result of which was that we several 

 times smoked and swallowed opium, and resolved also to possess 

 ourselves of some Haschisch. We made application to Messrs. 

 Battley and Watts, the druggists, of Fore Street, without suc- 

 cess, and, after other fruitless efforts, gave up the hope of ever 

 tasting the fascinating compound of Cannabis Inclica. In 1849 

 my friend was sent to Paris, and he soon after wrote to me 

 to say that the students at the Medical Schools were all 

 indulging in the intoxication of Haschisch, and by the next 

 post he would forward me a sample. In due time I received a 

 small brown slab, resembling a refined sample of Cavendish 

 tobacco, and with it instructions to take not more than one 

 drachm at a time. I was so eager to make acquaintance with 

 it that I could have taken the whole at once. It weighed about 

 half an ounce ; it emitted an agreeable odour when broken, and 

 felt sticky between the fingers. I trembled with joy as I 

 turned it over and over in my hand, and I thought the odour 

 affected me so as to produce a sense of inward satisfaction, like 

 that of the first few whiffs of a good cigar. I retired to my 

 study, it was then growing dusk, the season July, and I had 

 been up two nights in succession reading Jacob Behmen. I 

 remember feeling quite fatigued and low, yet in perfect health, 

 and in the mood for any wild freak which might promise a 

 sensation agreeable to the imagination. I sat down at the 

 window, broke off a piece of the cake as near a drachm as I 

 could guess, and swallowed it. I put away the remainder, that 

 * " Du Haschisch et de V^Llienation Mentals Etudes Psychologiques" 



