THE EQUINOX
but rule-of-thumb! The old Chancery Lane rule: begin with
half the minimum dose of the Pharmacopeeia, and if nothing
happens within the expected time, double the dose. If you
go on long enough, something is nearly sure to happen!
IV
“The Mind of the Father said Into Three! and immediately
all things were so divided.”—ZOROASTER.
Let my readers be good enough to remember, then, that
what follows concerns myself only. This must excuse the
use of the first person, highly improper in a scientific essay,
were it not that the personality of the experimenter is
perhaps an essential. I cannot assert that my results would
be achieved by another. Yet I have the strong conviction
that I have eliminated many sources of error, and that my
observations may possess a more absolute value in psychology
than those of Ludlow or even of my great master Baudelaire.
The few on whom I have been able to test the drug have in
large measure confirmed, and in no way contradicted, my
results.
In the first place, I make an absolute distinction between
three effects of hashish, which may be, and I think probably
are—so distinct they appear—due to three separate substances.
Possibly a simple stimulus-curve may account for it, but
I do not think so.
1. The volatile aromatic effect (a).
This, the first evanescent symptom, gives the “ thrill”
described by Ludlow, as of a new pulse of power pervading
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