The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Hypertext Collection

[dogmas rivals chide]

The Fitz Hugh Ludlow Hypertext Collection:

* Works by and about Fitz Hugh Ludlow
* Early experiences with cannabis
* Early medical use of cannabis
* The history of drug use
* Relics from the Reefer Madness era

http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/index.html

Works of Fitz Hugh Ludlow

* The Apocalypse of Hasheesh

This essay, published anonymously in Putnam's Monthly
Magazine in December, 1856, is Ludlow's first published work
that references cannabis. "In returning from the world of
hasheesh," he writes, "I bring with me many and diverse
memories. The echoes of a sublime rapture which thrilled and
vibrated on the very edge of pain; of Promethean agonies
which wrapt the soul like a mantle of fire; of voluptuous
delirium which suffused the body with a blush of exquisite
languor -- all are mine."

* The Hasheesh Eater

A full-length book of some thirty chapters, published in
1857, describing Ludlow's introduction to, captivation by,
and escape from "hasheesh," and the visions and insights that
compelled his attention, alternatingly delighting and
terrifying him.

* Excerpts from "John Heathburn's Title"

This story, published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in
February, 1864, is the story of a man who becomes addicted to
alcohol and opiates, falls into miserable degeneracy, but is
cured through substitution therapy with cannabis. Chapter
three and excerpts from chapter four are included here.

* What Shall They Do to Be Saved?

This essay, published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in
August, 1867, is Ludlow's vivid description of the post-Civil
War epidemic of opiate addiction. The addict, says Ludlow,
"is a proper subject, not for reproof, but for medical
treatment."

* Outlines of the Opium Cure

"What Shall They Do To Be Saved?" was included in the book
The Opium Habit (1868) by Horace Day, and that author asked
Ludlow to expand on his original thoughts. Ludlow responded
with this essay in which he painted a picture in words of an
ideal, perhaps utopian, medical facility for treating opiate
addicts.

* Selected poems of Fitz Hugh Ludlow

Ludlow's poems have never before been collected. This
collection is extensively footnoted with reference to
alternate versions and to the handwritten versions from his
sister's notebook.

* "E Pluribus Unum"

This essay, published in The Galaxy in November, 1866,
summarizes the state of pre-relativistic physics and makes
some guesses as to where things are going. "[B]ecause our
only cognitions of matter are cognitions of force, matter in
the scientific sense is force."

* "The Music-Essence"

This story, from The New York Commerical Advertiser,
December, 1861, concerns a deaf woman determined to
experience the beauty of music, and her husband, who invents
ways of converting the musical scale into the visible
spectrum in order to make this possible.

* "The Phial of Dread: By An Analytic Chemist"

This story, published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine,
November, 1859, concerns a woman who kills herself in the lab
of a chemist, who uses the tools at his disposal to destroy
the body in fear that otherwise he will be accused of murder.
The distilled essence of the body continues to haunt him,
however, to the very end.

* "The Taxidermist"

This story, published in The Knickerbocker Magazine in
January, 1861, deals with love, ambition, and a woman who is
reincarnated as a marmoset.

* Ode to Old Union

The alma mater of Union College, available as an .au file.

Works about Fitz Hugh Ludlow

* A Biography of Fitz Hugh Ludlow

Ludlow died at age 34, having tried on the roles of teenage
dope fiend, author, explorer, lawyer, libertine, and
physician. He rode through Yosemite with Albert Bierstadt,
danced in Salt Lake City with Brigham Young, and wrote in San
Francisco with Mark Twain. This biography, by Dave Gross, is
the most complete biography of Ludlow available to date, and
it exists only in this hypertext collection.

* Excerpts from letters exchanged by the family of Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

The Ludlow family letters reveal a great deal about the life,
activities, and character of Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

* Ludlow on Cannabis: A modern look at a nineteenth century drug
experience

This essay, by Oriana Josseau Kalant, from The International
Journal of the Addictions, June 1971, examines Ludlow's The
Hasheesh Eater from the perspective of modern medical
knowledge about the effects of cannabis.

* A Minor DeQuincey

This essay, by Louis J. Bragman, from the Medical Journal and
Record of 1925, discusses Ludlow's writings on opiate
addiction.

* Fitz Hugh Ludlow

This is the entry on Ludlow from Appleton's Cyclopædia of
American Biography (1888).

* Fitz Hugh Ludlow -- An Introduction

By Ludlow biographyer Dionysius Doultsinos.

* Higher Education

Chapter IV of Dionysius Doultsinos' unpublished biography of
Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

Early experiences with cannabis

* The Physiological Activity of Cannabis Sativa

Written by H.C. Hamilton, A.W. Lescohier and R.A. Perkins for
the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association in
1913. Ostensibly a series of experiments designed to test the
efficacy and potency of American-grown cannabis in comparison
to that imported from India, this is a marvelously straight
description of three scientists getting stoned in the lab.

* Cannabis Indica Poisoning

Written by J.C. O'Day for The Plexus (1899-1900). The author
overdoses on a cannabis cough remedy while on the job and can
no longer hold it together. "We had covered about seven miles
of the road when I suddenly became aware that I had been
dreaming, and that I had forgotten that the responsibility
for the safety of the engine and the train rested on my
shoulders. The realization of this responsibility shocked me,
but did not dispel an illusion that one of my legs was larger
than the top of the smoke-stack, my arms like ponderous
levers and my hands capable of encircling a flour barrel."

* Two Cases of Poisoning by Cannabis Indica

Written by James Foulis, for the Edinburgh Medical Journal
(1900). Two brothers take a large dose of cannabis, get
paranoid, and call for a doctor. "Everything -- time, objects
-- seemed to be rushing past me. I was nerved to the
extremest limit of excitement. Would this force suddenly
break itself up and play havoc with my brain, urging me to
the very verge of insanity?"

* Excerpts from "An Essay on Hasheesh"

Written by Victor Robinson, from the Medical Review of
Reviews (1912). Robinson describes the effects of cannabis on
his brother, and what happened when he gave in to curiosity
and tried it himself. "I am transported to wonderland. I walk
in streets where gold is dirt, and I have no desire to gather
it. I wonder whether it is worth while to explore the canals
of Mars, or rock myself on the rings of Saturn, but before I
can decide, a thousand other fancies enter my excited brain."

* "On the Haschisch or Cannabis Indica"

Written by John Bell, M.D. for The Boston Medical and
Surgical Journal, April, 1857. At first sceptical about the
effects of the legendary drug, Bell tries some, and "[t]he
most trivial circumstance, the slightest noise, gave rise to
trains of thought, which went bounding from subject to
subject, completely emancipated from the rules which
ordinarily govern the mental operations, till suddenly some
other circumstance would give an entirely new direction to
them, and the last series of imaginations would seem to have
lasted from eternity, even while the eye was fixed upon the
clock, the hand of which had not perceptibly moved.

* "The Hasheesh Eater"

Published anonymously in Putnam's Magazine, September, 1856.
"My head expanded wider and wider, revolving with
inconceivable rapidity, and enlarging in space with every
revolution. It filled the room -- the house -- the city; it
became a world, peopled with the shapes of men and monsters.
I spun away into its great vortex, and wandered about its
expanses as about a universe. I lost all perception of time
and space, and knew no distinction between the realities
around me, and the phantasmata which sprung in endless
succession from my brain."

* The Club des Haschischins

From the Revue des Deux Mondes, February, 1846. Théophile
Gautier describes the antics of the Club des Haschischins.
"No longer could I feel my body; the bonds between mind and
matter were slender, I moved by simple desire into an
environment which offered no resistance. It is thus, I would
imagine, that spirits, from the aromatic world to which we
journey after death, must act."

* The Vision of Hasheesh

First published in the April, 1854 edition of Putnam's
Monthly Magazine, then included as a chapter of the book The
Lands of the Saracen, this essay by Bayard Taylor describes
his experiences with the drug. "[L]et me beg all who are
thereby led to repeat the experiment upon themselves, that
they be content to take the portion of hasheesh which is
considered sufficient for one man, and not, like me, swallow
enough for six."

* "Perilous Play"

A short story by Louisa May Alcott, published in 1869, that
uses cannabis candy and stormy weather to bring two lovers
together. "He stretched his hand to her with his heart in his
face, and she gave him hers with a look of tender submission,
as he said ardently, 'Heaven bless hashish, if its dreams end
like this!'"

* An Overdose of Hasheesh

Written in 1884 by Mary C. Hungerford, this note describes an
inadvertant overdose of a cannabis preparation being taken
for headache relief. "[I]n place of my lost senses I had a
marvelously keen sixth sense or power, which I can only
describe as an intense superhuman consciousness that in some
way embraced all the five and went immeasurably beyond them."

* Excerpts from The Arabian Nights.

Includes "The Tale of The Hashish-Eater," "The Tale of Two
Hashish-Eaters" and two interesting footnotes from Richard
Burton's translation of The Arabian Nights.

* The Herb Dangerous

A series of writings, by E. Whineray, Aleister Crowley,
Charles Baudelaire, and Fitz Hugh Ludlow, printed in the
first four issues of Crowley's journal The Equinox.

* A Hashish-House in New York

Subtitled "The Curious Adventures of an Individual Who
Indulged in a Few Pipefuls of the Narcotic Hemp," this
journalistic account by H.H. Kane from 1888 of an opulent New
York hash bar is vivid and beautiful. Puts modern-day
Amsterdam to shame.

Early medical use of cannabis

* On the Preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah"

By W.B. O'Shaugnessy, published in 1839 in Transactions of
the Medical and Physical Society of Bengal. This paper was
responsible for generating the enthusiasm of the medical
community toward cannabis in the mid-19th Century.

* Indian Hemp

A chapter from James F. Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life
(1855), detailing the extent of mid-19th Century knowledge
about the effects of cannabis. "In India it is spoken of as
the increaser of pleasure, the exciter of desire, the
cementer of friendship, the laughter-mover, and the causer of
the reeling gait."

* Cannabis Indica

A section from Dr. Robley Dunglison's New Remedies:
Pharmaceutically and Therapeutically Considered (1843),
briefly describing the medical use of cannabis extract.

* Cannabis Sativa

A section from The Dispensatory of the United States of
America (1843) by George B. Wood and Franklin Bache.

* Tilden's Extract

An 1858 catalog entry for cannabis extract from the
Laboratory of Tilden & Co., the source of Ludlow's
"Hasheesh."

* Cannabis, U.S.P. (American Cannabis)

The entry for cannabis extract from the Parke, Davis &
Company catalog of 1929-1930.

* Cannabis

Excerpts from the British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1934.

Miscellaneous early cannabis texts

* "Hemp For Victory"

A transcript of the 1942 United States propaganda film urging
American farmers to grow hemp for the war effort.

* "The Haschish"

A poem by John Greenleaf Whittier (c. 1853) that compares the
intoxicating effects of hashish on hash smokers with those of
cotton on apologists for American slavery.

* "Les Fumeurs de Hadchids"

A French cartoon by Honoré Daumier from 1845.

* Hemp

The entry on hemp from the 1856 edition of the Encyclopædia
Britannica.

* Hemp

The entry on hemp from the 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia
Britannica.

* New Billion-Dollar Crop

Hemp, of course. From Popular Mechanics, February 1938.

* Abstract from a Treatise on Hemp

Published in 1766 to encourage British American Colonists to
grow hemp.

* Science and Invention: Our Home Hasheesh Crop

From the 3 April 1926 edition of Literary Digest.

* The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

Dr. Fu Manchu took advantage of the mysterious drug hashish
to further his nefarious ends.

Early texts about other drugs

* Confessions of an Opium-Eater

The prototypical addict autobiography, and a classic of 19th
Century literature.

* Confessions of a Young Lady Laudanum-Drinker

Published anonymously in The Journal of Mental Sciences in January
1889. "Oh, why do you doctors not try prevention as well as cure!
You have it in your power to warn those who take laudanum now and
then for toothache or headache, what an insidious thing it is, and
how easily they may become the victims of it. I began that way, and
see what it came to."

* An Opium-Eater in America

Written by William Blair for The Knickerbocker in July, 1842. "I
went; and so vividly did I feel my vitality -- for in this state of
delicious exhilaration even mere excitement seemed absolute elysium
-- that I could not resist the temptation to break out in the
strangest vagaries, until my companions thought me deranged."

* An Opium Fantasy

A poem by Maria White Lowell. "Soft hangs the opiate in the brain /
And lulling soothes the edge of pain / Till harshest sound, far off
or near, / Sings floating in its mellow sphere"

* An Opium Dream

By Santa Louise Anderson, who experimented with her Chinese
servant's opium kit, and wrote about her experiences in 1879.

* "Mescal: A New Artificial Paradise"

Written by Havelock Ellis, from The Contemporary Review,
January, 1898. "The visions never resembled familiar objects;
they were extremely definite, but yet always novel; they were
constantly approaching, and yet constantly eluding, the
semblance of known things. I would see thick, glorious fields
of jewels, solitary or clustered, sometimes brilliant and
sparkling, sometimes with a dull rich glow. Then they would
spring up into flower-like shapes beneath my gaze, and then
seem to turn into gorgeous butterfly forms or endless folds
of glistening, iridescent, fibrous wings of wonderful
insects."

* An "Opium Joint" Raided: Lee Young's Place on Park Street
Cleaned Out by the Police

From The New York Times 28 September 1891.

* Alcohol and Opium Compared: Opinions of Over 100 Physicians on
the Use of Opium in China

By William H. Park, American Presbyterian Mission Press,
1899.

* An American's Palace Joint

By Allen S. Williams, chapter IV of The Demon of the Orient
(1883). "To the neophyte the toned softness of the light, the
graceful abandon of the forms, negligent and lapped in lazy
luxury upon their Oriental couches, the silent footsteps of
the attendants as they move to and fro in the misty air, the
dulcet and beautifully modulated tones in which the fiends
murmur, all creep upon the mind like a vision from another
world, and the imagination, reeking with the seductive fumes,
yields itself up helplessly to the beatitude of the hour."

* How the Opium Habit is Acquired

By Virgil G. Eaton, from The Popular Science Monthly,
September 1888. "A whole opium 'lay-out,' including pipe,
fork, lamp, and spoon, can now be had for less than five
dollars. This affords a chance for those who have acquired
the habit to follow their desires in private, without having
to reveal their secret to anyone."

* An Enterprising Turk: He Travels Many Miles to Find His
Occupation Gone

From the New York Times, 1 July 1890. Details an unsuccessful
attempt to make a mint selling cut opium in New York.

* In the Land of Opium: The Immense Areas Given to the Growth of
the Poppy

From the New York Times, 29 March 1896.

* San Francisco Opium Joints

From The Review of Reviews, June 1892. "Nor is it only the
Chinese who use the demoralizing drug. The vice is spreading
among Americans to a serious extent."

* The Opium Industry in America

By C.F. Holder for Scientific American (1898). "The
difficulty of conviction lies in the universality of the
habit, as it pervades the home and business. Wherever the
Chinese are found there will be the odor of opium. They smoke
it as Americans do tobacco."

* The Opium Monopoly

A book by Ellen N. LaMotte (1920).

The history of drug use

* On Indications of the Hachish-Vice in the Old Testament

This essay, by C. Creighton, M.D., published in Janus in
1903, asserts that cryptic references to cannabis can be
found in the Old Testament of the Christian bible.

* The Legal History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States

A speech given by Charles Whitebread to the California Judges
Association at their 1995 annual conference.

* The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry into
the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition

Written by Charles H. Whitebread and Richard J. Bonnie. From
the Virginia Law Review, October 1970.

* Indian Hemp and the Dope Fiends of Old England: A Sociopolitical
History of Cannabis and the British Empire 1840-1928

A paper by Sean Blanchard and Matthew J. Atha.

* The Mythical Roots of U.S. Drug Policy: Soldier's Disease and
Addicts in the Civil War

A paper by Jerry Mandel that claims that there is little
evidence for "Soldier's Disease" -- an epidemic of opiate
addiction among American Civil War veterans.

Reefer Madness

* The New York Times collection

A collection of articles about the dread marihuana published
in the New York Times from 1929 through 1937.

* Holiday of Horrors

A vintage drugsploitation comic book in which the hero starts
off with marijuana, but moves on to crime, heroin,
degeneracy, addiction, madness, prison, murder, and of
course, an early grave.

* Marihuana: A cheap and evil girl sets a hopped-up killer against a city

A jpeg image of this pulp paperback's cover illustration.

* Assassin of Youth! Marihuana: Feeding the God Moloch

A jpeg image of a vivid illustration from the height of
reefer madness.

* Reefer Club

Subtitled "A daring novel of reefer smoke, reckless thrills,
and the wild love of boys and girls of the city streets --
the story your children won't dare tell you!" A jpeg image of
the paperback's cover illustration.

* The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937

The law that ushered in federal cannabis prohibition in the
United States, along with transcripts of the hearings that
accompanied passage of the law.

* History of Marihuana Legislation

From The Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and
Drug Abuse.

* Hemp Around Their Necks

A chapter from prohibitionist Harry Anslinger's book The
Murderers: The Story of the Narcotic Gangs."

Miscellaneous

* hashfort.tar

A selection of quotes from the documents in this collection
in a format suitable for use in the UNIX "fortune"
application.

* Historical Research on Drug Policy

A web site being run by Cliff Schaffer that contains a number
of interesting documents.

* Victorian Tales of Cannabis

An audio tape produced by Sound Photosynthesis featuring
Terence McKenna and Kathleen Harrison reading the works of
Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Bayard Taylor, Louisa May Alcott and
Richard Burton.