Confessions of an English opium-eater / [Thomas De Quincey].

  • Thomas De Quincey
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Confessions of an English opium-eater / [Thomas De Quincey]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    assured me, that the number of amateur Opium-eaters (as I may term them) was, at this time, immense ; and that the difficulty of distinguishing these persons, to whom habit had rendered opium necessary, from such as were purchasing it with a view to suicide, occasioned them daily trouble and disputes. This evidence respected London only. But, 2. (which will possibly surprise the reader more,) some years ago, on pass- ing through Manchester, I was informed by several cotton- manufacturers, that their work-people were rapidly getting into the practice of opium-eating; so much so, that on a Saturday afternoon the counters of the druggists were strewed with pills of one, two, or three grains, in preparation for the known demand of the evening. The imme- diate occasion of this practice was the low- ness of wages, which, at that time, would not allow them to indulge in ale or spirits: and, wages rising, it may be thought that this practice would cease: but, as I do not readily believe that any man, having once tasted the divine luxuries of opium, will afterwards descend to the gross and mortal
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