[135] It is perhaps scarcely necessary to call attention to the fact that Mr. Dendy has altogether mistaken the signification of the words in the above quotation from Tissot, printed in italics. He appears to think they mean being put on his head, a translation which would make very great nonsense out of the whole extract. The words will be found in Tissot’s Avis aux Gens de Lettres et aux Personnes sédentaires sur leur Santé, Paris, 1768, p. 28, and in English, in a translation entitled “A Treatise on the Diseases of Literary and Sedentary Persons,” Edinburgh, 1772, p. 26. The work is well worthy of attention even at this day, as containing many most interesting facts and important suggestions.
[136] On Obscure Diseases of the Brain, etc., p. 607.
[137] The word assassin is derived from the word hashish, from the fact that a sect in the East called Assassins made use of hashish to induce the temporary insanity during which their crimes were perpetrated. See History of the Assassins, by the Chevalier Joseph von Hammer, translated from the German by O. C. Wood, M.D., London, 1835, p. 233, note.
[138] Physiological Memoirs, 1863, p. 24, et seq.
[139] On Functional Nervous Disorders. London, 1864, p. 282.
[140] Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, vol. iv., art. Wakefulness.
[141] Therapeutics and Materia Medica, 2d edition, Philadelphia, 1864, vol. ii. page 659.
[142] The instance alluded to, that of Admiral Fitzroy, is thus commented upon by the Spectator of May 6th, 1865:
“Admiral Fitzroy, the well-known meteorologist, committed suicide on Monday morning at his own house. He had overworked himself of late; found that he was losing his memory; became sleepless, and resorted to opium to obtain ease, which aggravated his symptoms. His doctor had warned him that he ran great risk of paralysis, but from a false tenderness did not at once compel him to give up labor.”
The London Review of the same date says: “He (Admiral Fitzroy) acquired that terrible inability to sleep, which is one of the most dreadful of those means by which nature avenges the abuse of the mental powers, and he was forced to take opium at night; at one time to an extent which threatened serious consequences.”