The seven sisters of sleep: popular history of the seven prevailing narcotics of the world / [M.C. Cooke].

  • Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt), 1825-1914.
Date:
[1860?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The seven sisters of sleep: popular history of the seven prevailing narcotics of the world / [M.C. Cooke]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mind, without repose, have so acted upon the body, that, as in the case of Marie Antoinette, Ludovico Sforza, and others, their hair has grown white in a single night-— “ As men’s have grown from sudden fears. ” * Mind and body alike suffer from the want of sleep, the spirit is broken, and the fire of the ardent imagination quenched. Who can wonder that when disease or pain has racked and tortured the frame, and prevented a subsidence into a state so natural and necessary to man, he should have re- sorted to the aid of drugs and potions, whereby to lull his pains, and dispel the care which has banished repose, and woo back again— “ the certain knot of. peace, The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe ; . 1 The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release, Tk’ indifferent judge between the high and low.” * A correspondent of the Medical Times having asked for authentic instances of the hair becoming grey within the space of one night, Mr. D. F. Parry, Staff-Surgeon at Aldershott, transmitted the following account, of which he made memor- andum shortly after its occurrence. “ On February 19, 1858, the column under General Franks, in the south of Oude, was engaged with a rebel force at the village of Chainda, and several prisoners were taken. One of them, a sepoy of the Bengal army, was brought before the authorities for examination, and I, being present, had an opportunity of watching from the com- mencement the fact I am about to record. Divested of his uniform, and stripped completely naked, he was surrounded by the soldiers, and then first apparently became alive to the danger of his position ; he trembled violently, intense horror and despair were depicted in his countenance, and although he answered all the questions addressed to him, he seemed almost stupified with fear; while actually under observation, within the space of half-an-hour, his hair became grey on every por- tion of his head, it having been, when first seen by me, the glossy jet black of the Bengalee, aged about twenty-four. The attention of the bystanders was first attracted by the serieant whose prisoner he was, exclaiming, ‘ He is turning grey •’ and 7 , several other persons, watched its progress. Gradually but decidedly, the change went on, and a uniform greyish colour was completed within the period above named.”