Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-30
VIRGINIA, MAY 80, 1890.
THE SPELL OF HASHISH.

THE SPELL OF HASHISH.
A PHYSICIANS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION
OF HIS EXPERIENCE.
Entire Loss of Power to Measure Time.
Minutes Seemed Like They Were Hours.
Physical as Well as Mental Efects-Per-
formed Various Antics.
The following is DR.. Woods account of
his own experience with hashish:
About half past 4 p m. Sept. % I took
most of the extract No immediate symp-
toms were produced. About p. m. pro-
fessional call was requested, and, forgetting
all about the hemp went out and saw my
patient Whilst writing a prescription I
became perfectly oblivious to surrounding
objects, but went on writing without any
check to or deviation from the ordinary
series of mental acts connected with the
process at least that am aware of.
When the recipe was finished I suddenly
recollected where | was, and looking up
saw my patient sitting quietly before me.
The conviction was irresistible that l had
sat thus many minutes-perhaps hours
and directly the idea fastened itself that
the hemp had commenced to act and
thrown me into trance like state of con-
siderable duration, during which 1 had
been stupidity sitting before my wondering
patient hastily arose and apelogized for
remaining so long, but was assured had
only been very few minutes.
About 7:30 p. M I returned home. was
by this time quite excited and the feeling
of hilarity rapidly increased
WANTED TO BE FUNNY.
I was disposed to laugh, to make comic
gestures. One very frequently recurring
| fancy was to initiate with the arms the mo-
ton of a fiddler and with my lips the tune
he was supposed to be playing. There was
nothing like wild delirium or crazy halluci
nations that l remember At no time had
I any visions, or at least any that can now
call to mind, but person who was with
me at that time stated that I once raised
my head and exclaimed: ooh, the noun
tains! the mountainsr' While I was per-
forming the various antics alluded to I
knew was acting very foolishly, but could
not control myself
| think it was about o'clock when I
began to have feeling of numbness in my
limbs, also a sense of general uneasinesS
and unrest and fear lest had taken an
overdose. I now constantly walked about
the house; my skin, to myself was warm;
in fact, my whole surface felt flushed; my
mouth and throat were very dry My legs
put on strange foreign feeling, as though
they were not part of my body. 1 counted
my pulse and found it 100, quite full and
strong A foreboding and underlined and
horrible fear as of impending death, now
commenced to creep over me. In haste I
sent for medical aid
| The curious sensations of my limbs in
creased; my legs felt as though they were
waxen pillars beneath me. [ remember
feeling them with my hand and finding
them, as / thought, at least, very firm-the
muscles all in state of tonic contraction.
About s o'clock I began those marked
"spells"-periods when all connections
seemed to be severed between the external
world and myself. might be said to have
been unconscious during these times in so
| far as l was oblivious to all external OBJ
jects, but on coming out of one it was not
blank, a mere empty space, but rather q
period of active but aimless life. I do not
think there was any connected thought in
them; they seemed simply wild reveries
without any binding cord, each a mere
chaos of disjointed ideas. The mind seemed
freed from all its ordinary laws of assoeia-
ton, so that it passed from idea to idea, as
it were, perfectly at random.
COULDN'T MEASURE TIME.
| The duration Of these spells" to me was
very great, although they really lasted but
| from few seconds to a minute or two; in
deed, now entirely lost my power Of
measuring time; seconds seemed hours,
minutes seemed days, hours seemed in
finite. Still was perfectly conscious dur
ing the intermissions between the parox-
ysms. I would look at my watch and then
after an hour or two, as | thought, would
look again and find that scarcely five min
utes had elapsed. would gaze at it's face
in deep disgust, the minute hands seeming
~ motionless, as though craven in the face
ITSELF the laggard second hand moving
slowly, so slowly it seemed a hopeless task
to watch during it's whole infinite round of
minute, and always would give up in
despair before the sixty seconds had
elapsed
Occasionally, when my mind was most
lucid, there was in it sort of duplex ac-
ton in regard to the duration of time 1
would think to myself: cit has been so
long since a certain event"-an hour, for ex-
ample-since the doctor came, and then
| TGdSOu WOulll ANO3 IL las O111y NSSA O.
few minutes. Your thoughts or feelings
are caused by the hemp" Nevertheless, I
was unable to shake off the sense of the
almost indefinite prolongation of time,
even for minute. The paroxysms already
alluded to were not accompanied with mus
cular relaxation.
About quarter before o'clock was
standing at the door anxiously watching
for the doctor, and when the spells would
come on would remain standing, leaning
slightly, perhaps, against the doorway.
After awhile | saw a man approaching
whom l took to be the DOCTOR
The sound of his steps told me he was
walking very rapidly, and he was under a
gas lamp not more than one-fourth of a
square distant, yet he appeared vast dis
lance away and a corresponding time ap-
preaching. This was the only occasion on
which | noticed an eXaggeration of dis
tance: in the room it was not perceptible.
NV extremities now began to grow cold
and 1 went into the house. When l at
tempted to walk up stairs it seemed as
though their lower halves were made of
lead. X l felt as though my only
chance was to struggle against these par
oxysms, that must constantly arouse my
self to an effort of will.
That effort was made with infinite toll
and pain felt as if some evil spirit had
control of the whole of me except the will
power and was in determined conflict with
that, the last citadel of my being. l have
never experienced anything like the fearful
sense of almost hopeless anguish and utter
WEAKNESS which was upon me. Once or
twice during paroxysm had what might
be called nightmare sensation. | felt my
self mounting upward, expanding, dilat-
ing, dissolving into the wide confines Of
space overwhelmed by horrible, rending,
unutterable despair.