View the H-OIEAHC Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in H-OIEAHC's February 2003 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in H-OIEAHC's February 2003 logs by: [date] [author] [thread]
To: H-OIEAHC@H-NET.MSU.EDU X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 5.5.7.1 Beta Delivered-to: H-OIEAHC@H-NET.MSU.EDU Original-recipient: rfc822;saillant@vmh.cc.wmich.edu A good many months back someone emailed a query to the list about de Crevecoeur's reference in "Letters to a Farmer" about regular opium use by the women and and the local sheriff, on, was it Nantucket, I believe? I remembered it while browsing a new book in the local bookstore recently, Richard Davenport-Hines's PURSUIT OF OBLIVION: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF NARCOTICS (Norton, 2001; 2002), more particularly a chapter entitled, "Opium and the Enlightenment," which begins with observations on the 18th-century use of opium to aid in the "galenic" therapy of "balancing the humors"--the emotional ones, that is--if used in proper doses. Just scanning the chapter, there were references to prescription for and use by women, of course, but also by men, and to claims that it aided in the "dispatch of business." But also, acknowledgement of its misuse as well. Think I'll go back and buy the book, but I wanted to alert people to what looks like a very interesting historical overview that may put Crevecoeur's seemingly odd reference in context. Laura Graham Library of Congress
|