Volume 1

Biographic clinics / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1903-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Biographic clinics / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In 1821 he conquered the habit again, but he became “ ill,” “depressed in spirits,” “dejected,” “the liver deranged,” with “ derangement of the liver,” etc., and in 1823-24 he again fell under the sway of opium. In 1825 he wrote: “ I am quite free of opium, but it has left the liver, which is the Achilles heel of almost every human fabric, subject to affections which are tremendous for the weight of wretchedness attached to them.” “ Anxiety seizes on some frail part about the stomach, and produces a specific complaint which very soon abolishes all power of thinking at all.” (1825.) By 1840 he had been led to deeper relapses into opium than he had known between 1827 and 1837. “ His misery was great.” By 1844 he was taking 5,000 drops of laudanum a day. He once more set himself to subdue the indulgence. “ His constant careful jottings of graduated reductions day by day —his patient records of the effect of ordinary articles of diet, his measured round of exercise, amounting to 15 or 20 miles a day, all are touching in the agony that may be read between the lines.” He reduced the amount of opium to six grains a day at one time. “ With a measured space of 44 yards in circuit, so that 40 rounds were exactly required for one mile, I had, within 90 days, walked 1,000 miles.” (1844.) “For six months” (reform as to laudanum and keeping up with the walking) “ no results,” “ absolute desolation,” “ misery so perfect,” etc. After eight months of “ this system ” he recovered “ in a moment such a rectification of the compass as I had not known for years.” He was unable to leave off laudanum altogether, however. “ He almost entirely overcame his craving for opium, and enjoyed an old age of quiet and repose.” De Quincey never believed his trouble was due to opium, and expressly states this several times. For instance: “ Is there any key, you will say, to its original cause? Sincerely, I
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