Emperors of Dreams

Queen Victoria's use of cannabis, for medicinal purposes, has almost come to be regarded as historical fact. The only evidence for it, according to Mike Jay, is a comment by one of her personal physicians that cannabis is 'one of the most valuable medicines we possess'. True or false, the story highlights the very different attitudes to drugs in the 19th century from those of today. We see opium as an historical curiosity, almost glamorous as a component of romantic decadence, while heroin conjures up a contemporary picture of addicts living with crime and squalor. To the Victorians, opium was a drug of filth and disease; heroin, however, was respectable, a pure, safe, over the counter remedy for coughs. We tend to think of recreational drugs and drug abuse as a problem originating in the 20th century but Kay shows that drug taking was widespread in the 19th too. Coleridge's use of opium when creating poems such as Kubla Khan, like Sherlock Holmes' predilection for cocaine, is well known. Less familiar is Kay's account of the well-respected scientist Humphrey Davy and his 'scientific' investigations into the effects of nitrous oxide which produced results 'more philosophical than physical'. This book reinforces our view of the 19th century as being self righteous and somewhat humourless. Drugs were often taken in a spirit of scientific exploration, the pursuit of self-knowledge or to reach a higher state of consciousness. Few seem to have admitted to doing it for enjoyment. Giving a chapter to each drug, Kay also deals with ether and mescaline, together with attempts at prohibition, providing a valuable commentry on the history and literature of the period. (Kirkus UK)