The anatomy of drunkenness / [Robert Macnish].

  • Robert Macnish
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of drunkenness / [Robert Macnish]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    senses. Every thing is steeped in poetic exaggera- tion. The zephyrs seem converted into aerial mu- sic, the trees bear golden fruit, the rose bluskes with - unaccustomed beauty and perfume. Earth, in a word, is brought nearer to the sky, and becomes one vast Eden of pleasure. Such are the first effects of opium; but in proportion as they are great, so is the depression which succeeds them. Languor and exhaustion invariably come after ; to remove which, the drug is again had recourse to, and becomes almost an essential of existence. Opium retains at all times its power of exciting the imagination, provided sufficient doses are taken. But, when it has been continued so long as to bring disease upon the constitution, the pleasurable feel- ings wear away, and are succeeded by others of a very different kind. Instead of disposing the mind to be happy, it now acts upon it like the spell of a demon, and calls up phantoms of horror and disgust. The fancy is still as powerful as ever, but it is turned in another direction. Formerly it clothed all objects with the light of heaven ; now it invests them with the attributes of hell. Goblins, spectres, and every kind of distempered vision haunt the mind, peopling it with dreary and revolting imagery. The sleep is no longer cheered with its former sights
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