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High Society, Wellcome Collection | reviews, news & interviews

High Society, Wellcome Collection

High Society, Wellcome Collection

A mind-expanding trip through the history of drug-taking across cultures

It’s amazing what you might have found in your average bathroom cabinet 100 years ago. For those niggling aches and pains, what could be more effective than a bottle of Bayer’s Heroin Hydrochloride? Or how about a soothing spoonful of Sydenham’s Laudanum? If you’re simply in need of a quick pick-me-up, a sip or three of Hall’s Coca Wine – the “Elixir of Life” (basically liquid cocaine) - might put a jolly spring in your step. Oh, and don’t forget those cocaine eyedrops after a particularly long day staring at the officer ledger.

HS_HeroinHydroclorIn your great-grandmother’s bathroom cabinet, you’ll find effective tinctures for children, too (effective for getting them addicted, that is). For those nasty coughs, colds and sniffles, there was the scrumptious-sounding Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral, which contained morphine. Marketed like Pears Soap, the label sported a trio of blushing tiny tots, gurgling with unsurprising pleasure. And if it didn't quite do what it said on the bottle, at least you’d get them sleeping through the night (while probably inducing brand loyalty into the bargain). 

Those were the days of a fairly unregulated market, before the United Nations Convention on Narcotics in 1961 that implemented its hardline ban; and way before the love-ins of the Sixties made recreational drug-use a counter-cultural must-try.

But of course, drugs have a long, long history. Evidence of hallucinogenic, ritualistic drug-taking goes back to 2000 BC, with Chillum pipes made from puma bones. And in 300 BC Theophrastus wrote the first botanical treatise on the medicinal properties of plants. And take this description of a particularly animated dope-fest on the Bay of Biscay in 1670. Thomas Bowry, an English sea captain noticed how the locals’ love of bhang, a substance made from crushed cannabis pods mixed with milk, would induce a pleasant stupor. He thought he’d give it a go, so he invited some of his shipmates round for what sounds like quite a riot of a party. His eloquent description will certainly ring a few bells:

“It Soon tooke it Operation Upon most of us, but merrily…One of them Sat himself downe Upon the floore, and wept bitterly all the Afternoone, the Other terrified with feare did runne his head into a great Mortavan Jarre, and continued in the posture four hours or more; four or five of the number lay upon the Carpets (that were Spread in the roome) highly Complimentinge each Other in high terms, each man fancyinge himself noe lesse than an Emperour…My Selfe and one more Sat sweating for the Space of three hours in Exceeding Measure…” [sic]

High Society takes us on a thrilling, expansive, and one might say "mind-expanding" journey through the history of drug-taking, whether ritualistic, medicinal, recreational, legal or contraband. There's an awful lot to take in (so you really need to tune in, not out). But your attention is well rewarded. I was particularly taken by a drawing by the 19th-century French neurologist (and Freud's teacher) Jean-Martin Charcot, executed under the influence of hashish (frenetic doodles featuring pipe-smoking gargoyles and opium-smoking Chinamen - he was rather a good artist, and it was one of the ways he recorded expressions of different states of mind, including obviously his own).

Self-experimentation among doctors, psychiatrists and scientists was, in fact, commonplace. Indeed, the plethora of new drugs discovered in the19th century was often due to first-hand experimentation, both for research and for recreational purposes. Sir Humphrey Davis's study of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) led to its use as an anaesthetic. Later, in the 1940s, the psychedelic effects of LSD were discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hofman: he had accidentally absorbed a small quantity through his fingertips. The drug  was soon being used to treat certain mental illnesses.

HS_SpidersWebI was also taken by the Nasa spider experiment, conducted in 1993, which studied the webs of a spider after it had imbibed three different substances (pictured above). The poor creature obviously lost its way after a dose of benzedrine (left), while it loses interest altogether mid-way through on cannabis (right). But it's surprisingly caffeine (centre) that manages to wreck the most chaos.

This absolutely fascinating exhibition certainly doesn't suggest that you say no - but it does raise an awful lot of awareness.

  • High Society at the Wellcome Collection until 27 February, 2011

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do you have any recollection of any photographic projects that have used unusual perspectives or used reflection. I am doing a MA in photography and looking for sources of information that can support my project that of using different vantage points and inversion pof position of some images. Thank You for your help.

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