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n When you read about the extent of substance abuse innVictorian Britain, you could be forgiven for wondering how the British Empirenever became a going-concern in the first place. Those people who did not spendntheir days in a drunken stupor busied themselves instead with smoking,ndrinking, inhaling, ingesting or injecting themselves with just about anynnarcotic concoction that became available to them.
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| Queen Victoria |
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nTake Queen Victoria herselfnas an example – it is on record that she used chloroform during the birth of herneighth child, Prince Leopold, in 1853, and it was so ‘delightful beyondnmeasure’ that it was also used at the birth of her next, and last, child,nPrincess Beatrice, in 1857. The use of analgesics during childbirth was unusualnat the time – good Christian women were expected to suffer during deliveryn(hadn’t God, after all, said to Eve,
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n“In pain thou shalt bring forthnchildren”n
n[Genesis 3:16])n
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n – andnVictoria’s decision to use the new anaesthetic was an unexpected move. Hernfavourite tipple was single malt Royal Lochnagar whisky mixed with fine claret,na combination that even the most seasoned of topers would think twice aboutntackling on a regular basis.
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| White and Black Poppies |
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nWe know that she suffered from menstrual crampsnand in A System of Medicine, edited by her personal physician, Sir JohnnRussell Reynolds, the remedies given are ether, lavender, henbane and cannabisnindica, together with morphia suppositories, and there is every chance that henwould have prescribed some permutation of these options for her Majesty’s monthlies,nand like any other Victorian, she also would have used laudanum for painnrelief, as was the norm back then. That is an important point. There were notnthe same restrictions on these substances that are in place today, and anVictorian would think no more of resorting to laudanum or morphine, as we wouldnthink of turning to paracetamol or ibuprofen to ease that persistent ache thatnbothers us.
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| Dr Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne |
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nLaudanum was an ingredient of many patent medicines that wereneasily available, one such being Dr Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne, a mixture ofnlaudanum, chloroform and tincture of cannabis, sold as a pain-killer, sedativenand remedy for cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea (amongst other complaints). Itnwas highly addictive and responsible for many accidental and deliberate deaths.
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| Freeman’s Chlorodyne |
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nOther manufacturers produced their own chlorodynes, such as Freeman’s,nTeasdale’s and Towle’s, competition was strong and local chemists would alsonmix their own, generic versions from recipes in the pharmacopoeias.nFurthermore, as a medicine, there was no excise duty on laudanum, unlikenalcohol, making it an attractive choice for recreational use.
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| Dr Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne |
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nIn The Sign ofnFour, Sherlock Holmes takes his hypodermic from its neat morocco case,nrolls back his left shirt-cuff, looks ‘thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearmnand wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks’ before heninjects a seven per cent solution of cocaine into a vein.
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| Sherlock Holmes |
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nSo, not a infrequentnuser then, and Dr Watson disapproves, he is a doctor after all, but he is notnshocked or surprised, his reaction is more that of your local generalnpractitioner to one of today’s habitual smokers. It’s art, of a slight sort,nreflecting life.
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| Charles Dickens – Dictionary of London – 1882 |
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nAnd in life itself, you had writers like Charles Dickens whosenDictionary of London, an early sort of tourist guide, helpfully pointednout where you might find ‘Johnny the Chinaman’ and his opium den if younfound yourself adrift in the capital, (just off the Radcliffe Highway, down thennarrow alley hard by Quashie’s Music Hall, if you’re interested, although Insuspect it no longer receives clients. Limehouse, in particular, was alsonnotorious for its opium dens). Punch, naturally, had a take on thensituation.
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| Punch – July 11 1912 |
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nA cartoon of 1912 shows a slight young thing conversing with anmonocled man-about-town, whilst in the background, judgemental tonnladies discuss her habit – they sniff,
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n“If it were only chloral, or even morphia, butnlaudanum, my dear, – laudanum is so frightfully middle-class.”n
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nThe use of intoxicants was so widespread that some modern historians havencalled the period between 1870 and 1914 ‘The Great Binge’. When the Great Warnbroke out, Harrods offered handy boxes containing cocaine, morphine, heroin andnall the assorted paraphernalia, all packed and ready for shipment to our boys onnthe frontlines. Drugs were very cheap, easily available, totally unrestrictednand were positively encouraged by the medical men – why suffer when the marvelsnof modern science could alleviate your many discomforts?
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| Thomas Healde – The London Pharmacopoeia – 1796 |
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nIt’s Progress with ancapital P, we’re not living in the Dark Ages any more, we can make all it gonaway and life can be free from all unnecessary suffering. Others yet went atnit like a bull at a gate – they saw the squalor, the inequality, thenhopelessness, the cruelty, the whole sorry mess that one tiny section of humanitynwas industriously inflicting on the rest of humanity and they sought anynthankful oblivion from the nightmare that was on offer, with an admirable finnde siècle and millenarianistic zeal.
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| In an opium den |
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nThe figures are interesting innthemselves; in 1850, opium imports into London amounted to 103,718 lbs, in thenfollowing year they increased to 118, 915 lbs, and in 1852, imports jumped ton250,790 lbs. Opium imports were one thing, but opium exports were quitenanother.
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