opium and the people

More documents

Recommendations

Info

list of text figures List of Text Figures 1. George Meggeson's price list. (By courtesy of the Pharmaceutical Society) 2. Prescription book of a Scarborough chemist c. 1870. (By courtesy of the Wellcome Trustees) 3. Five-year averages of actual and estimated home consumption of opium per 1,000 population. 4. A chemist's recipe book of the 1880s. (By courtesy of the late Mr Lloyd Thomas) 5. Dr Collis Browne's chlorodyne. (By courtesy of the Pharmaceutical Society) 6. Freeman's chlorodyne. (By courtesy of the Pharmaceutical Society) 7. Thomas Morson's price list for 1822. (By courtesy of the Pharmaceutical Society) index | part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | tables | plates | appendix | bibliography file:///I|/drugtext/library/books/opiumpeople/text.html[12-8-2010 16:57:03]
preface Preface It is surprising that the vast outpouring of words 0n the `drug problem' in the last ten years has produced no serious historical examination of the place of narcotics in English society. Reactions to contemporary events have been immediate and specific, strangely isolated in their assumption that drug use is peculiarly a feature of the 1960s and 1970s. This book attempts to fill at least part of that gap by examining the place of opium in nineteenth-century society, in language which it is hoped will appeal to that much sought-after being, the `general reader', as much as to the academic historian or drug researcher. Technical language is kept to a minimum. But where it is unavoidable, as for instance with the term `narcotic' or the battery of language used to describe drug habits and their pharmacological basis, readers will find definitions in the Introduction. This book is, like any history, the product of its own time. It reflects the interests of the I970s, and in particular the efflorescence of writing on social history which has taken place in the last twenty years. Social history as `history with everything else left out' is no longer acceptable; its place has been taken by a concern for the structure of social groups, the study of social movements, popular culture, for urban history and demography. Had this history of opium in the nineteenth century been written say even ten years ago, it would undoubtedly have been classified as `medical' rather than `social' history. It would have concentrated on the `public health' aspects of opium, and would have accepted at face value the testimony 0f the official reports and inquiries. Today there is a greater awareness of the bias of the sources which earlier writers so unhesitatingly and unquestioningly used, a willingness to use a wider range of evidence or to ask different questions of it. There is a desire to re-create not just `official opinion' but the actual experience of people living at the time, and to consider more analytically the contribution of the social groups involved. This book, in devoting itself primarily to such matters as the `popular culture' of opium, the place of opium in working-class life, and the contribution of the medical and pharmaceutical professions to changed perceptions of opium use, rather than to the individual experience of `famous opium eaters' such as Thomas De Quincey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is very much the product of those concerns. Any writing, historical writing in particular, is the outcome of cooperation and help, both practically and in terms of ideas and insights, from a large number of people. In a joint publication, this is particularly the case. Virginia Berridge, as a social historian, has been responsible for the historical section (part of the Introduction and Chapters 1 to 17) and Griffith Edwards, as a psychiatrist concerned with drug research and the formation of control policy, for the consideration of the nineteenth century in relation to the present position and for the section of definitions (Chapter 18 and part of the Introduction). The inter-disciplinary nature of the project was an unusual one. It is not often that a historian is so directly confronted with the contemporary implications of historical arguments, or that a psychiatrist looks back to the perceptions and structures which moulded present-day approaches to drug use. Comments and criticisms on each other's drafts have thus flowed freely. The disjunction between the conclusions of academic historical research and present-day concerns in many respects remains great; but the authors feel that they have at least attempted an exercise in collaboration which could prove productive in other areas of social policy. The historical research on which the nineteenth-century section is based has involved the assistance of many others. Virginia Berridge would like in particular to thank the staffs of the Pharmaceutical Society and Miss Jones, the librarian; those of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, and the Royal Society of Medicine, the Society of Friends, the University of London Library, Goldsmiths' Library, the Guildhall Library and the library of the Institute of Actuaries. Her thanks are due to the staff of the Greater London Council Record Office, Pauline Sears in particular, and the Middlesex Record Office, to Dr Charles Newman, Harveian Librarian at the Royal College of Physicians, and to Patricia Allderidge, archivist of Bethlem Royal Hospital. The Librarian of Tower Hamlets Local History Library was helpful in providing access to that library's unrivalled collection of material on East London opium `dens'. The staff of the British Museum and the Public Record Office gave considerable assistance; and the pharmacists and others who provided reminiscences about the open dispensing of opium at the turn of the century have added a valuable perspective. A debt is owed to the many historians who contributed suggestions and criticisms when earlier versions and sections of the book were presented as papers. For an historian working in a non-historical environment there is a danger of file:///I|/drugtext/library/books/opiumpeople/preface.html[12-8-2010 16:57:03]
Page 1 and 2: opium and the people OPIUM and the
Page 3: List of Plates List of Plates 1. Th
Page 7 and 8: introduction Introduction The most
Page 9 and 10: introduction quantity of Indian hem
Page 11 and 12: introduction Opium was to be found
Page 13 and 14: introduction deviance was undoubted
Page 15 and 16: part one file:///I|/drugtext/librar
Page 17 and 18: The Import Trade Turkish opium was
Page 19 and 20: The Import Trade this level until,
Page 21 and 22: the cultivation of opium in britain
Page 23 and 24: the cultivation of opium in britain
Page 25 and 26: part two file:///I|/drugtext/librar
Page 27 and 28: open sale and popular use The opium
Page 29 and 30: open sale and popular use It is eas
Page 31 and 32: open sale and popular use pennywort
Page 33 and 34: open sale and popular use But home
Page 35 and 36: open sale and popular use 15. W. Ba
Page 37 and 38: opium in the fens Opium in the Fens
Page 39 and 40: opium in the fens was a well-known
Page 41 and 42: opium in the fens Actual expenditur
Page 43 and 44: opiate use in literary and middle-c
Page 51 and 52: opium in medical practice .6 Opium
Page 53 and 54: opium in medical practice useful in
Page 55 and 56:
opium in medical practice opium in
Page 57 and 58:
opium poisoning and the longevity d
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
the adulteration of opium making va
Page 67 and 68:
the adulteration of opium 6. A. Nor
Page 69 and 70:
Opium and the Workers file:///I|/dr
Page 71 and 72:
Opium and the Workers Yet professio
Page 73 and 74:
Opium and the Workers not for medic
Page 75 and 76:
Opium and the Workers reprinted Lon
Page 77 and 78:
the 1868 pharmacy act file:///I|/dr
Page 79 and 80:
the 1868 pharmacy act included in t
Page 81 and 82:
the 1868 pharmacy act customers wer
Page 83 and 84:
the patent medicine question The ex
Page 85 and 86:
the patent medicine question prepar
Page 87 and 88:
the patent medicine question Refere
Page 89 and 90:
part 6 file:///I|/drugtext/library/
Page 91 and 92:
Morphine and Its Hypodermic Use Mor
Page 93 and 94:
Morphine and Its Hypodermic Use dea
Page 95 and 96:
Morphine and Its Hypodermic Use gre
Page 97 and 98:
Morphine and Its Hypodermic Use not
Page 99 and 100:
Morphine and Its Hypodermic Use 45.
Page 101 and 102:
the ideology of opium: opium eating
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
part 7 file:///I|/drugtext/library/
Page 113 and 114:
itain's opium harvest the anti-opiu
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
the myth of the opium den in late v
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
the other narcotics: cannabis and c
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Opium at the End of the Century dem
Page 143 and 144:
Opium at the End of the Century fig
Page 145 and 146:
changes of scene 18 Changes of Scen
Page 147 and 148:
changes of scene pounds and dollars
Page 149 and 150:
changes of scene The supplanting of
Page 151 and 152:
changes of scene but in this instan
Page 153 and 154:
changes of scene benign than the al
Page 155 and 156:
changes of scene explicit and empha
Page 157 and 158:
changes of scene during the ninetee
Page 159 and 160:
changes of scene it is obvious that
Page 161 and 162:
changes of scene 33. C. Suwanwela,
Page 163 and 164:
Table 1 file:///I|/drugtext/library
Page 165 and 166:
table 3 file:///I|/drugtext/library
Page 167 and 168:
appendix: the nature and significan
show all

opium and the people

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?