Word: laudanum
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...cyanide of potassium and other poisons, as beverages? Why should attractive solutions of alcohol, a slower but no less genuine poison than those mentioned, be sold and quaffed and dignified by custom and tradition as promoting good fellowship? Why in the name of common sense, should we not drink laudanum, "blue vitriol," dilute sulphuric acid and other such beverages if we insist on having wine, beer, whiskey, brandy and gin? The acknowledged poisons would merely hasten the result by a few years...
...Oxford, and sought neither friends nor university honors. The exposure and privations which he had previously experienced drove him to the demoralizing habit of eating opium, the source of so many pains and pleasures. The deadly habit soon became a daily practice and was accompanied with the taken of laudanum...
...into a respectable physical state. I was quite alone. The picturesque Spaniards about me did not look like reliable medical authorities, and I concluded to take my case into my own hands. My supply of medicine was small, consisting of a flask of cognac, and a small bottle of laudanum, - the latter to be used in case of toothache. I began with the cognac. The pains were unabated, and before long I was in so uncomfortable a condition that my interest in the Alhambra itself almost vanished. I could think of nothing but number one and number one's stomach...
...instant after, I saw what I had done. I had taken laudanum enough to kill three men. I rushed to my bell and rang it; but the whole household - consisting of the landlord, the landlady, and a deaf and dumb attendant, - were fast asleep, well out of hearing. How to reach them I did not know; what to do I could not tell; a horrible drowsy feeling began to creep over me; I knew that the poison was beginning to work...
...practical joke. My candle was burning, and a little tin drinking-cup, full of water, stood beside it. I snatched up the cup and held it over the flame. If I could warm the water soon enough I should be saved - if not - the laudanum - how cold it was - it was nearly bedtime - I was so sleepy. A drowsy confusion of thought filled my brain. My head nodded. The narcotic was winning the race. I was almost unconscious, when, as fortune would have it, one of my long mustachios - of which I was exceedingly proud - touched the flame...