Opium addiction

THE DRUG HABIT is seen nowadays as an outcome of the permissive society but the problem has always been with us. Today, heroin, cocaine and cannabis figure largely among the substances banned by law and horror stories surface almost daily to illustrate the destructive effects they have on the body and mind but in past times the scourge was opium.

Opium is the juice of the white poppy and has been used for medicinal and social purposes since the earliest times because of its sedative and hypnotic powers. It was first cultivated in this country in 1794 and later widely grown in the fens, the yield being from 20,000 to 30,000 large heads per acre, the smaller heads being crushed for the production of laudanum, a solution or tincture of the drug containing equal parts of alcohol and distilled water, the result being a brown coloured liquid with the characteristic smell of opium and containing a small amount of morphine.

Laudanum was obtainable from pharmacists on demand during the 19th century and its widespread availability and the lack of regulation over its sale meant that everyone had access to it. The use of the drug was particularly prevalent in this part of the South Lincolnshire fens and began largely as a remedial means to combat the ague, a malarial fever that is now unknown, and other popular ailments. In fact, it was so freely available that the quantity which a confirmed opium taker would consume was very large, averaging as much as a dram a day, and a labouring man and his wife would spend from 1s. to 1s. 6d a week in obtaining it. At this time, it was said that more opium was being sold by chemists in the fenland towns of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, as a stimulant used by the labouring classes, than in all the rest of England put together.

On Thursday 10th May 1894, Elizabeth Swann, aged 66, wife of a farm labourer, died at her home in Braceborough, near Bourne. Her husband, William Swann, told an inquest the following week that she seemed alright when he left for work at 6 am but when he returned home he found her lying on the bed with a bottle and a mug nearby. She was quite insensible and it was impossible to rouse her and she died next day. Doctors subsequently diagnosed opium poisoning and found that the bottle contained laudanum which she had been taking for her varicose veins that had at times been extremely painful. The coroner, Mr Joe Calthrop, recorded a verdict that "deceased by misadventure, took an overdose of laudanum from the effects of which she died".

Chemists often made mistakes and in 1871, a baby died in such circumstances although no one was held to blame. The five-week-old boy was the son of Mr William Hind, a grocer, of North Street, Bourne, who had employed a nurse to look after him. She sent a servant girl, Ann Darnes, to fetch gripe water from the chemist shop owned by Mr Benjamin Wyles but the assistant, Arthur Thresh, aged 18, misheard and gave her laudanum instead with instructions how it should be taken but the baby died 17 hours later. The inquest at the Angel Hotel on Monday 13th February was told that the servant girl had brought in an empty bottle with a gripe mixture label but Thresh had put a new label on saying “Laudanum - Poison”. The jury returned a verdict that the baby had been poisoned by mistake but exonerated the shop assistant from any wilful or criminal neglect.

Other abuses of the drug were common. On Thursday 9th September 1869, for instance, an inquest was held at the Golden Lion in West Street, Bourne, upon the body of James Lightfoot, aged 34, a former soldier with the Coldstream Guards who was nearly blind and had been discharged on account of his ill health occasioned by sunstroke. The coroner, Mr William Edwards, was told that of late, his mind had been unsettled and that he was “dropsical” [suffering from dropsy, a condition characterised by an accumulation of watery fluids in the body] and had not been to bed for some time. From a statement made by him to a neighbour the previous Tuesday, it transpired that on the Monday he had procured two pennyworth of laudanum at each of the three chemists' shops in the town, which he took that night. On Tuesday, he was attended by a doctor but passed away on Wednesday morning at about three o'clock. The jury returned a verdict that he died from the effects of laudanum taken when in an unsound state of mind.

Such cases were frequent during that period. An inquest was held on Friday 21st February 1879 at the Bull Inn [now the Burghley Arms], Bourne, before Mr F T Selby, the deputy coroner, on the body of Harriet Buckberry who had died suddenly the day before at the home of William Elliott in West Street and the jury returned a verdict of "death from natural causes accelerated by the habitual use of opium".

On 1st July 1897, the body of James Lee, aged 40, a shepherd, was found in a field near Bourne and although in good health and spirits, he was known to have occasionally taken laudanum. Ann Palmer, landlady of the New Inn [now a private house] said that deceased had called on the day before his death and asked if he could have a bed as he was on the road and wanted to lie down for a few hours. He looked excited but she did not think he was under the influence of drink but later that evening, George Henry Osgothorpe, aged 11, found him sitting by the hedge side in a field along the Fen Road, asleep and snoring loudly. The boy fetched help but by then, the man was dead, lying on the ground with his feet in the hedge and his head in the field.

Police found a bottle labelled "Laudanum" in his pocket and a small amount of cash together with letters relating to his job as a shepherd. Dr John Gilpin, who carried out a post mortem, said that the stomach contained no food but a few ounces of opium fluid which in his opinion had caused his death. The inquest jury returned a verdict that the man had died from an accidental overdose of laudanum.

Opium is remembered today as the stuff of drama and literature but it is worth remembering that this was a drug taken by thousands of working class people and ruined many lives as a result, only falling into disuse because it was replaced by other more dangerous substances that threaten the stability of our society today.

NOTE: This article appeared in The Local newspaper on Friday 30th June 2006.