In the Arms of Morpheus: The Tragic History of Laudanum, Morphine and Patent Medicines

John H. Gryfe is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon practising in
Toronto.

What ingredient common to Mrs. Edwards’ Infant Syrup, Thomas’s
Electric Oil, and Watkin’s Vegetable Anodyne Liniment bears the name
of the Greek god immortalized as somnolence and personified by the Roman
poet Ovid in Metamorphoses? This substance has been summoned to manage
maladies as diverse as boils, chronic gonorrhea, and hemorrhoids, yet
its identification and isolation evaded investigation until the 1820s.
Today’s international law-enforcement agencies spend vast sums and
hours tracking its illicit distribution. Pain killer, cough suppressant,
creator of constipation—the varied roles and side effects of this
extract—all have one overriding menace, the ultimate steel grasp of
user dependency.

That chemical, morphine, is the principle active ingredient of opium.
Along with codeine, these two of more than two-dozen ingredients in the
dried sap of the red poppy Papaver somniferum are the only elements able
to provide the medically significant and physiologically destructive
influences to human recipients, regardless of where the plant was grown.
Opium has been used by all ages and strata of society. Despite the
international community’s concerns (expressed as early as 1909, at the
First International Opium Conference in Shanghai), widespread abuse
persists.

In Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon (1999), the author
considered attitudes toward opium smoking up to 1930. In this morbidly
fascinating and brilliantly illustrated volume, she examines
“attitudes towards medical preparations of opium in the same
period,” emphasizing use in Europe and North America. Enhanced by
photographs, illustrations, and posters (many from Hollywood movies
depicting opiate use), In the Arms of Morpheus is interesting,
informative, and—yes—addictive.