Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 Excerpt: ... of perry in Britain, and also in a favourite-wine of the Italians. Homer refers to similar drugged drinks--"Mixed was the bowl, With drugs of power to quench the soul' In Barbary, Egypt, and throughout large districts of the East, the leaves and juice of the hemp plant are much consumed for the purposes of intoxication. The Hindoos call it bang, the Turks malach (Mash Allah, "the work of God"), the Arabs and Moors hashisha. It is often mixed with sweetmeats and preserves; its leaves are smoked and chewed along with tobacco; and from them an intoxicating liquor is also prepared by the Orientals, and likewise by the Hottentots, who call it dacha. Given freely, bang induces a perfectly cataleptic state. The areca-nut, the fruit of the catechu palm, sometimes called the drunken date-tree, is also a favourite excitant with the inhabitants of India and the adjacent countries. With chunam (quicklime), and the leaves of the piper-betel, these nuts form the celebrated masticatory called betel. The nuts are commonly quartered, one part of which is rolled up with a little lime in the leaf of the piper-betel, and the whole chewed. Another dangerous stimulant is the leaves of the coca (Erythroxylon coca), almost universally made use of by the miners and labouring peasants of South America. The dried leaves are chewed wim finely powdered chalk, first producing a soothing exhilaration, and ultimately a total apathy to everything passing around. In its effects the coca is said to be less violent than opium, but is more dangerous, from their longer continuance on the system. Besides the above there are many other stimulants, as the bousa of the Arabs, the arrack of the Indians, kirschwassa, maraschino, &c.--all of which have a less or more powerful effect upon the animal s...