" "In the mental areas, under the
influence of alcohol," Schmiedeberg remarks (in his _Elements of
Pharmacology_), "the finer degrees of observation, judgment, and
reflection are the first to disappear, while the remaining mental
functions remain in a normal condition. The soldier acts more
boldly because he notices dangers less and reflects over them
less; the orator does not allow himself to be influenced by any
disturbing side-considerations as to his audience, hence he
speaks more freely and spiritedly; self-consciousness is lost to
a very great extent, and many are astounded at the ease with
which they can express their thoughts, and at the acuteness of
their judgment in matters which, when they are perfectly sober,
with difficulty reach their minds; and then afterwards they are
ashamed at their mistakes."
The action of opium in small doses is also to some extent
aphrodisiacal; it slightly stimulates both the brain and the
spinal cord, and has sensory effects on the skin like alcohol;
these effects are favored by the state of agreeable dreaminess it
produces. In the seventeenth century Venette (_La Generation de
l'Homme_, Part II, Chapter V) strongly recommended small doses of
opium, then little known, for this purpose; he had himself, he
says, in illness experienced its joys, "a shadow of those of
heaven.
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