Experiences of Haschisch. 439 



tinually dilating in size ; and though. I looked at my watch, and 

 saw that only forty minutes had elapsed, yet there was a secret 

 persuasion in my mind that a period of at least forty centuries 

 had gone by since I broke off a fragment of the cake, and com- 

 mitted myself to this dream. 



There seemed to be now only one effect of the drug re- 

 maining, and that was a sense of warmth all over the body and a 

 tendency in my head to expand and fill the room. But my 

 arms dropped down; I could not keep them up without great 

 and painful effort. I finished the coffee, experienced less of 

 the pricking sensation than at first, and then rose and went to 

 bed. I could walk without difficulty, though my legs were 

 immensely long, and felt as if they would presently be 

 cramped, so that I should cry out. As I undressed myself, my 

 clothes would fly from me far away into boundless space, and 

 become wandering stars, the buttons of my vest glittered in the 

 firmament like Orion, but much more vast and splendid. I did 

 not dare to look out of the window ; I endeavoured to control 

 myself, for I began to feel a sense of dread. As I got into bed, 

 the bed extended; as I lay down at full length I myself 

 extended, and as soon as I shut my eyes I felt that I covered 

 the space of the whole earth. I had a sense of indescribable 

 pain all over me ; my skin seemed to move to and fro upon my 

 flesh, my head swelled to awful dimensions, and I parted in two 

 from head to foot; became two persons, each throbbing., 

 breathing hard, sighing loudly, and lost in a commixture of 

 ethereal yet agonizing colours and sounds. These seemed to 

 continue for ages ; but I was really asleep, and I never could 

 call to mind at what time I went to bed, or at what point of the 

 illusion sleep came upon me, but I always supposed it to be 

 when I felt myself parted in twain, and immersed in light and 

 music. 



The next day I was awake early, and seemingly unrefreshed. 

 I lay some hours pondering on the strange effects the drug had 

 produced, and found it difficult for some time to prevent the in- 

 trusion of some broken fragments of the visions from taking 

 possession of me ; but when I had dressed and breakfasted, I 

 felt as well as usual, and experienced no sensation whatever,, 

 which I could attribute to the effects of the drug. 



In a second experiment, when unaffected by fatigue, I 

 noticed that every physical and mental power seemed inten- 

 sified. The illusions were more agreeable, and more ridiculous. 

 I was the subject of a thousand different moods in the course 

 of a few seconds, which, as in the former cases, seemed ages, and 

 these moods were nearly always swallowed up in some strange 

 vision of walls receding, landscapes rolling away to an horizon 

 they never reached ; skies opening to views of boundless space, 



