20 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
tent. In tlie East, opium and liemp are smoked or eaten as a 
luxury, on account of the peculiar intoxication they produce, 
and people who once become habituated to these dangerous 
medicines remain slaves to them generally for ever.* The 
criminals of Barbary endeavour to procure a drug prepared 
from hemp before undergoing amputation for crime ; under the 
influence of this drug they do not feel the knife of the 
executioner. f A Chinese physician, Hoa-tho, who lived about 
230 years before the Christian era, is said to have used 
hemp as an anaesthetic in surgical operations. The chemistry 
of hemp is not yet complete, but its remarkable intoxicating 
and pain-allaying properties appear to reside in the resin which 
every part of the plant contains in considerable quantity. The 
peasants who gather hemp in our climate often complain of 
headache after being; long- in the field. 
According to Dr. O’Shaughnessy, the hemp-resin will some- 
times induce that curious nervous effect known as Catalepsy, a 
condition of the nervous system which few have seen, and 
which many discredit. It has been once remarked in a patient 
who had taken a grain of hemp-resin, when his arm was lifted 
by the physician it remained motionless in that position ; and 
the same occurred with the other limbs, they remained motion- 
less in any position in which they were placed. 
Under the influence of hemp, also, all notion of time and 
space is apt to vanish completely. 
Aconite has been found useful in cases of rheumatism, gout, 
neuralgia, toothache, &c. It is a powerful medicine, and can 
only be administered in small quantities ; if given in too large 
a dose, it is apt to produce temporary insanity or death. Its 
peculiar action on the nervous system is owing to the principle 
Aconitine, by whose virtue it lulls the most excruciating pain, 
and has been found particularly beneficial in rheumatic com- 
plaints. 
Opium and hemp are, perhaps, more dangerous substances 
to deal with than other pain-allaying compounds which I shall 
mention hereafter. However, in 1774, Ambroise Tranquille 
Lassard, surgeon to one of the Paris hospitals, recommended 
the employment of a narcotic such as opium previous to serious 
and painful operations. And in 1782, Weiss, a pupil of Petit, 
of Paris, narcotized Augustus, king of Poland, and amputated 
* The religion of the Eastern nations forbids the use of wine ; hence they 
have habituated themselves to the use of these intoxicating drugs, which are 
far more hurtful. 
t We all know the tale of the “ Old Man of the Mountain his followers 
committed assassination under the influence of hemp preparations which he 
gave them, 
