The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE HASHEESH EATER resin of the Cannabis indica is hasheesh. From time im- memorial it has been known among all the nations of the East as possessing powerful stimulant and narcotic properties; throughout Turkey, Persia, Nepaul, and India it is used at this day among all classes of society as an habitual indulgence. The forms in which it is employed are various. Sometimes it appears in the state in which it exudes from the mature stalk, as a crude resin; sometimes it is manufactured into a conserve with clarified butter, honey, and spices; sometimes a decoction is made of the flowering tops in water or arrack. Under either of these forms the method of administration is by swallowing. Again, the dried plant is smoked in pipes or chewed, as tobacco among ourselves. . a pill sufficient to balance the ten-grain weight of the scales. This, upon the authority of Pereira and the Dispen- satory, I swallowed without a tremor as to the danger of the result. Making all due allowance for the fact that I had not taken my hasheesh bolus fasting, I ought to experience its effects within the next four hours. That time elapsed without bring- ing the shadow of a phenomenon. It was plain that my dose had been insufficient. For the sake of observing the most conservative prudence, I suffered several days to go by without a repetition of the experiment, and then, keeping the matter equally secret, I administered to myself a pill of fifteen grains. This second was equally ineffectual with the first. Gradually, by five grains at a time, I increased the dose to thirty grains, which I took one evening half an hour after tea, 245