The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

THE HASHEESH EATER unloosed, I might run for my life, and hope to distance him in my own recovered territory. This end I sought to accomplish by diminishing the doses of the drug. The highest I had ever reached was a drachm, and this was seldom necessary except in the most unimpres- sible states of the brain, since, according to the law of the hasheesh operation which I have stated to hold good in my experience, a much less bolus was ordinarily sufficient to pro- duce full effect at this time than when I commenced the indulgence. I now reduced my daily ration to ten or fifteen grains. The immediate result of even this modified resumption of the habit was a reinstatement into the glories of the former life. I came out of my clouds; tite outer world was reinvested with some claim to interest, and the lethal torpor of my mind was replaced by an airy activity. I flattered myself that there was now some hope of escape by grades of renunciation, and felt assured, moreover, that since I now seldom experienced anything approaching hallucination, I might pass through this gradual course without suffering on the way. As lemon-juice had been sometimes an effectual cure for the sufferings of excess, I now discovered thata use of tobacco, to an extent which at other times would be immoderate, was a preventive of the horrors of abandonment. As, some distance back, I have referred to my own experi- ence upon the subject, asserting my ability at times to feel sights, see sounds, &c., I will not attempt to illustrate the present discussion bya narrative of additional portions of my own case. It might be replied to me, “Ah! yes, all very likely; but probably you are an exception to the general rule ; 269