|
|
Page 4
Cannabis indica became available in American pharmacies in the 1850’s following its introduction to western medicine by William O'Shaughnessy (1839).6
In its original pharmaceutical usage, it was regularly consumed orally, not smoked. The first popular American account of cannabis intoxication was published in 1854 by Bayard Taylor, writer, world traveler and diplomat.7
Though an easterner, Taylor had California connections, having ventured to the state in 1849 to write a popular Gold Rush travelogue, El Dorado.
After returning home to New York he departed for Egypt and Syria, where he encountered hashish. Having indulged his curiosity, he recounted his experiences in the manner of his French contemporaries of the Club des Haschischins in an article for Putnam's magazine and two books, A Journal to Central Africa and The Land of the Saracens.8
Taylor’s work was soon eclipsed by that of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, who created a sensation with what has been aptly described as the first psychedelic book, The Hasheesh Eater (1857).9 Ludlow had become infatuated with the drug as a student at Union College in New York after trying a sample of Tilden's medicinal extract obtained from a pharmacist. Adopting the voice of a selfstyled "Pythagorean" philosopher enthralled with the sublime harmonies of the universe, he expounded upon his hallucinogenic visions, alternating between ecstatic dreams of heaven and guilt-ridden nightmares of hell. After considerable trial and torment, he concluded with the successful resolve to "break away from the hasheesh thralldom." Having attained a degree of literary success that he would never again equal in his short career, Ludlow proceeded in 1863 to visit San Francisco, where he became an influential figure in literary circles, writing for the Golden Era and consorting with Mark Twain and Bret Harte. After a few weeks he returned east, never to come back to California, dying of tuberculosis in 1870 at the age of 34.
6 O’Shaughnessy announced his discovery working in India in 1839. His discovery was reviewed in the New York Journal of Medicine 1 (3):390-398 in November 1843, but supplies of the drug were still scarce even in England at that time: “Remarks on Indian Hemp," (Unsigned) New York Journal of Medicine 2:273 (March 1844). In 1850, cannabis was listed as a ”substance introduced into the materia medica” by the National Medical Convention in Washington D.C., in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America (Lippincott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia, 1851) Around the same time, Frederick Hollick, a popular medical lecturer from Philadelphia, experimented with and successfully grew cannabis for himself, recommending it as an aphrodisiac in his Marriage Guide (N.Y., 1850): Michael Aldrich, "A Brief Legal History of Marihuana," (Do It Now Foundation, Phoenix, AZ c. 1970). 7
Another early American account of cannabis intoxication is that of Kirtley Ryland, M.D., “Experiments with Indian hemp - hashish,” Iowa Medical Journal, Vol.2 #2 (Keokuk, Iowa Dec 1854- Jan 1855), pp. 103-7. 8
The Vision of Hasheesh," Putnam's Magazine, Vol. 3, April 1854, pp. 402-8; A Journey to Central Africa and (G.P. Putnam & Sons, N.Y., 1854) and The Land of the Saracens (G.P. Putnam & Sons, N.Y., 1855). On Taylor's life, see Ernest Abel, Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years (Plenum Press, N.Y., 1980), pp. 172-4; and Arthur Quinn, The Rivals (Crown Publishers, N.Y., 1994), pp. 71-76, 104. 9
Fitz Hugh Ludlow, The Hasheesh Eater (Harper & Bros., New York, 1857); reprinted in the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library Edition, ed. Michael Horowitz (Level Press, San Francisco, 1975). Ludlow published an earlier, abbreviated account of his experiences in an article, “The Apocalypse of Hasheesh,” Putnam’s Magazine, Vol. 8, Dec. 1856, pp. 625-40.
|
|
|