Editing Opium (section)

=== Reintroduction to Western medicine ===
[[File:Canons of medicine.JPG|thumb|right|Latin translation of [[Avicenna]]'s ''Canon of Medicine'', 1483]]
Manuscripts of [[Pseudo-Apuleius]]'s 5th-century work from the 10th and 11th centuries refer to the use of wild poppy ''[[Papaver agreste]]'' or ''[[Papaver rhoeas]]'' (identified as ''P. silvaticum'') instead of ''P. somniferum'' for inducing sleep and relieving pain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://collecties.meermanno.nl/handschriften/search?SearchString=papaver|title=Pseudo-Apuleius: Papaver|access-date=June 15, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928141837/http://collecties.meermanno.nl/handschriften/search?SearchString=papaver|archive-date=September 28, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

The use of [[Paracelsus]]' [[laudanum]] was introduced to Western medicine in 1527, when Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known by the name Paracelsus, claimed (dubiously) to have returned from wanderings in Arabia with a famous sword, within the pommel of which he kept "Stones of Immortality" compounded from opium thebaicum, citrus juice, and "quintessence of gold".<ref name="Frontline" /><ref name="nzepc.auckland.ac.nz">{{cite web|url=http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/young/paracelsus.asp|title=Paracelsus: the philosopher's stone made flesh|access-date=May 4, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/books/review/2006/04/18/devils_doctor/|title=The devil's doctor|date=April 18, 2006 |access-date=May 4, 2007}}</ref> The name "Paracelsus" was a pseudonym signifying him the equal or better of [[Aulus Cornelius Celsus]], whose text, which described the use of opium or a similar preparation, had recently been translated and reintroduced to medieval Europe.<ref name=paracelsus>{{cite web|title=PARACELSUS, Five Hundred Years: Three American Exhibits|url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/paracelsus/paracelsus_1.html|access-date=June 6, 2007}}</ref> ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]'', the standard medical textbook that Paracelsus burned in a public bonfire three weeks after being appointed professor at the [[University of Basel]], also described the use of opium, though many Latin translations were of poor quality.<ref name="nzepc.auckland.ac.nz" /> ''[[Laudanum]]'' was originally the 16th-century term for a medicine associated with a particular physician that was widely well-regarded, but became standardized as "[[tincture]] of opium", a solution of opium in [[ethanol]], which Paracelsus has been credited with developing.<ref name=drugs/> During his lifetime, Paracelsus was viewed as an adventurer who challenged the theories and mercenary motives of contemporary medicine with dangerous chemical therapies, but his therapies marked a turning point in Western medicine. In the 1660s, laudanum was recommended for pain, sleeplessness, and diarrhea by [[Thomas Sydenham]],<ref name=Harding>{{cite web|url=http://drugs.uta.edu/laudanum.html|author1=Stephen Harding|author2=Lee Ann Olivier|author3=Olivera Jokic|title=Victorians' Secret: Victorian Substance Abuse|access-date=May 2, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070531225628/http://drugs.uta.edu/laudanum.html|archive-date=May 31, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref> the renowned "father of English medicine" or "English Hippocrates", to whom is attributed the quote, "Among the remedies which it has pleased Almighty God to give to man to relieve his sufferings, none is so universal and so efficacious as opium."<ref name=Enersen>{{cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1989.html|author=Ole Daniel Enersen|title=Thomas Sydenham|access-date=May 2, 2007}}</ref> Use of opium as a cure-all was reflected in the formulation of [[mithridatium]] described in the 1728 ''[[Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences|Chambers Cyclopedia]]'', which included true opium in the mixture.

Eventually, laudanum became readily available and extensively used by the 18th century in Europe, especially England.<ref name=Lomax>{{cite journal |last1=Lomax |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Uses and Abuses Of Opiates In Nineteenth-Century England |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |date=1973 |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=167–176 |jstor=44447528 |pmid=4584236 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44447528 |access-date=May 31, 2022 |issn=0007-5140}}</ref> Compared to other chemicals available to 18th century regular physicians, opium was a benign alternative to arsenic, mercury, or emetics, and it was remarkably successful in alleviating a wide range of ailments. Due to the constipation often produced by the consumption of opium, it was one of the most effective treatments for cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea. As a cough suppressant, opium was used to treat bronchitis, tuberculosis, and other respiratory illnesses. Opium was additionally prescribed for rheumatism and insomnia.<ref name=Aurin>{{Cite journal|last=Aurin|first=Marcus|date=January 1, 2000|title=Chasing the Dragon: The Cultural Metamorphosis of Opium in the United States, 1825–1935|jstor=649506|journal=Medical Anthropology Quarterly|volume=14|issue=3|pages=414–441|pmid=11036586|doi=10.1525/maq.2000.14.3.414}}</ref> Medical textbooks even recommended its use by people in good health, to "optimize the internal equilibrium of the human body".<ref name=drugs/>

During the 18th century, opium was found to be a good remedy for nervous disorders. Due to its sedative and tranquilizing properties, it was used to quiet the minds of those with psychosis, help with people who were considered insane, and also to help treat patients with insomnia.<ref name="KramerJohn">{{cite journal | author = Kramer John C | year = 1979 | title = Opium Rampant: Medical Use, Misuse and Abuse in Britain and the West in the 17th and 18th Centuries | journal = British Journal of Addiction | volume = 74 | issue = 4| pages = 377–389 | doi=10.1111/j.1360-0443.1979.tb01367.x| pmid = 396938 }}</ref> However, despite its medicinal values in these cases, it was noted that in cases of psychosis, it could cause anger or depression, and due to the drug's euphoric effects, it could cause depressed patients to become more depressed after the effects wore off because they would get used to being high.<ref name="KramerJohn" />

The standard medical use of opium persisted well into the 19th century. US president [[William Henry Harrison]] was treated with opium in 1841, and in the [[American Civil War]], the Union Army used 175,000&nbsp;lb (80,000&nbsp;kg) of opium tincture and powder and about 500,000 opium pills.<ref name="Schiff" /> During this time of popularity, users called opium "God's Own Medicine".<ref>{{cite web|author=Donna Young|date=April 15, 2007|url=http://www.ashp.org/s_ashp/article_news.asp?CID=167&DID=2024&id=19461|title=Scientists Examine Pain Relief and Addiction|access-date=June 6, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206030522/http://www.ashp.org/s_ashp/article_news.asp?CID=167&DID=2024&id=19461|archive-date=December 6, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

One reason for the increase in opiate consumption in the United States during the 19th century was the prescribing and dispensing of legal opiates by physicians and pharmacists to women with "female complaints" (mostly to relieve menstrual pain and [[Female hysteria|hysteria]]).<ref name=Aurin /> Because opiates were viewed as more humane than punishment or restraint, they were often used to treat the mentally ill. Between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived in the United States in the late 19th century and between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nida.nih.gov/PDF/DARHW/033-052_Kandall.pdf |title=Drug Addiction Research and the Health of Women – pg. 33–52 |access-date=March 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822032249/http://www.nida.nih.gov/PDF/DARHW/033-052_Kandall.pdf |archive-date=August 22, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Opium addiction in the later 19th century received a hereditary definition. Dr. George Beard in 1869 proposed his theory of [[neurasthenia]], a hereditary nervous system deficiency that could predispose an individual to addiction. Neurasthenia was increasingly tied in medical rhetoric to the "nervous exhaustion" suffered by many a white-collar worker in the increasingly hectic and industrialized U.S. life—the most likely potential clients of physicians.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}