History of cannabis. Part II
The New English Dispensatory of 1764 suggested applying hemp roots to the skin for redness, a cure that was well-liked in eastern Europe. The Edinburgh New Dispensary of 1794 included a long description of the effect of hemp and said that the oil was helpful in the treating of coughs, venereal disease, and urinary incontinence. One or two years later Nicholas Culpeper summarised all the conditions for which cannabis was meant to be medically useful.
But cannabis didn’t come into maturity in the West as a drugs till the middle of the nineteenth century. During its boom time, from 1840 to 1900, more than 100 papers were released in the Western medical literature commending it for diverse diseases and discomforts. It could virtually be recounted that consultants of a century back knew more about cannabis than modern doctors do ; actually they were more keen on exploring its healing potential. The first Western consultant to take an interest in cannabis as a medication was W B. O’Shaughnessey, a young lecturer at the Medical Varsity of Calcutta who had noted its use in India.
He gave cannabis to animals, satisfied himself that this was safe, and started to use it with patients who suffer from rabies, rheumatism, epilepsy, and tetanus. In a brief printed in 1839, he wrote he had found tincture of hemp ( a solution of cannabis in alcohol, taken by mouth ) to be a useful drug. He was also impressed with its muscle relaxant properties and called it an anticonvulsive cure of the best value. O’Shaughnessey returned to Britain in 1842 and provided cannabis to chemists. Doctors in Europe and the U. S. shortly started to prescribe it for a selection of physical conditions. Cannabis was even given to Queen Victoria by her court consultant. It was listed in the U. S.
Dispensatory in 1854 ( with a caution that big doses were perilous and it was a strong drug ). Commercial cannabis preparations could be bought in drug stores. In the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, some chemists carried 10 pounds or more of hashish. In the meantime , reports on cannabis accumulated in the medical literature.
In 1860 Dr. R. R. M’Meens reported the conclusions of the Board on Cannabis Indica to the Ohio State Medical Society. After recognizing a debt to O’Shaughnessey, M’Meens reviewed symptoms and conditions for which Indian hemp had been found handy, including tetanus, neuralgia, dysmenorrhea ( agonizing menstruation ), convulsions, rheumatic and birth agony, asthma, postpartum psychosis, gonorrhea, and prolonged bronchitis.
As a hypnotic he compared it to opium : Its effects are less intense, and the secretions aren’t so much suppressed by it. Digestion isn’t ruffled ; the appetite rather increased ; … The entire effect of hemp being less violent, and manufacturing a more natural sleep, without interfering with the actions of the interior organs, it is definitely frequently superior to opium, though it isn’t equivalent to that drug in strength and trustworthiness. Like O’Shaughnessey, M’Meens stressed the outstanding capacity of cannabis to excite appetite. Interest endured into the following generation.
In 1887, H. A. Hare advocated the capacity of hemp to subdue restlessness and anxiety and distract a patient’s mind in terminal illness. In these circumstances, he wrote, The patient, whose most agonizing symptom has been psychological terror, may become more satisfied or funny. He thought cannabis to be as effective a pain reliever as opium : in the time this remarkable drug is alleviating pain, a particularly curious psychical condition often reveals itself ; specifically, the diminution of the agony appears to be caused by its fading away in the distance. The agony becomes less, just as the agony in a fragile ear would grow less and less as a beaten drum was carried further and further out of the range of hearing. Hare also noted that hemp is a superb topical pain-killer, particularly for the mucous surfaces of the mouth and tongue – a property well-known to dentists in the nineteenth century. In 1890, J. R. Reynolds, a UK surgeon, summarised 30 years of expertise with Cannabis indica, endorsing it for patients with senile sleeplessness and endorsing that in this class of cases I’ve found nothing analogous in use to a modest dose of Indian hemp. According to Reynolds, hemp stayed effective for months and even years without an increase in the dose. He also found it valuable in the treating of numerous sorts of neuralgia, including twitch douloureux ( an agonizing facial neurological disorder ), and added that this was helpful in stopping headache attacks.