The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-16
M|lIl(t gayle
THE SPELL OF HASHISH.
A PHYSICIANS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION
OF HIS EXPERIENCE.

Minutes Seemed Like They Were Hour.
Physical as Well as Mental Efects-PeI
formed Various Antics.
The following is DR.. Woods account @
his own experience with hashish:
About half past 4 p. m. Sept. % I tool
most of the extract. No immediate s7mu
toms were produced. About Z p. IN. a pro
fessiOnal call was requested, and ,forgettin.
all about the hemp, went out and saw m,
patient. Whilst writing prescription
became perfectly oblivious to surroundin!
objects, but went on writing without an
check to or deviation from the ordinar.
series of mental acts connected with tn
process, at least that an aware Of
When the recipe was finished l suddenl,
recollected where | was, and looking VI
saw my patient sitting quietly before. me
The conviction was irresistible that / hal
sat thus many minutes-perhaps hours
and directly the idea fastened itself thai
the hemp had commenced to act and
thrown me into trance like state Of con
siderable duration, during which | haC
been stupidity sitting before my wondering
patient. / hastily arose and apOlOgized fol
remaining SO long, but was assured hac
only been very few minutes.
About 7:30 p N. | returned home. l was
by this time quite excited, and the feeling
OF hilarity rapidly increased.
WANTED TO BE FUNNY.
/ was disposed TO laugh, TO make comic
gestures One very frequently recurring
fancy was to initiate with the arms the mo-
ton Of fiddler and with my lips the tune
he was supposed to be playing. There was
nothing like wild delirium or crazy halluci-
nations that | remember. At no time had
| any visions, or at least any that can now
call to mind, but a person who was with
me at that time stated that | once raised
my head and exclaimed: "Oh, the noun
tainsl the mountainsW While / was per
forming the various antics alluded to /
knew was acting very foolishly, bat could
not control myself.
| think it was about o'clock when |
began to have feeling of numDness in my
limbs, also a sense OF general uneasiness
and unrest and fear lest | had taken an
overdose. | 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 a strange foreign feeling, as though
they were not part Of my body / counted
my pulse and found it 100, quite full and
strong. A foreboding and underlined and
horrible fear, as Of impending dea;5h, now
commenced to creep over me. In haste
sent for medical aid
The curious sensations of my limbs in
creased; my legs felt as though they were
waxen pillars beneath me. I remember
feeling them with my hand and finding
them, as | thought, at least, very firnl-the
muscles all in a state of tonic contraction.
About o'clock | began those marked
"spells" 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 | was obliyiouS TO all external OBJ
Iects, but on coming out of one it was not
blank, a mere empty space, but rather a
period of active but aimless life. | 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 associa-
ton, so that it passed from idea to idea, as
it were, perfectly at random.
COULDN'T MEASURE TINE.
The duration of these spells" to me was
very great, although they really lasted but
from a few seconds to a minute or two; in
deed, l 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, would look at nay 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 its face
in deep disgust, the minute hands seeming
~ motionless, rs though craven in the face
itself, the laggard second hand moving
slowly, so slowly it seemed a hopeless tas K
TO watch DUR 3 its whole infinite round Of
minute, ana always would | give up In
despair before the sixty seconds hal
elapsed.
Occasionally, when my mind was most
lucid, there was IN it sort of duplex ac-
ton in regard to the duration of time. l
would think TO myself: "It has been so
long since certain event''-an hour, for ex-
ample-since the doctor came, and then
reason would say: mo, it has only been
few minutes. Your thoughts or feelings
are caused by the hemp" Nevertheless,
was unable to shake Of the sense of the
almost indefinite prolongatioH of time,
even for a minute. The paroXysms already
alluded to were not accompanied with mus
culRr relaxation.
About a quarter before 9 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 man approaching
whomS 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-tourth of a
squsre distant, yet he appeared a vast dis
lance away and a corresponding time APP
preaching. This was the only occasion on
which ! noticed an eXaggeTation Of dis
tance; in the room it was rot perceptible.
Ny oxtramities now began 10 grow cold
and went into the house. When l at
tempted TO walk up stairs it seemed as
though their lower halves were made of 1
lead. ! telr rs though my only
chance was to struggle against these par