“Reader, I am sorry to say, a very numerous class indeed. Of this I became convinced some years ago by computing at that time, the number of those in one small class of English society (the class of men distinguished for talents, or of eminent station), who were known to me, directly or indirectly, as opium-eaters; such for instance, as the eloquent and benevolent ——, the late dean of ——–; Lord ——; Mr ——–, the philosopher; a late under-secretary of state (who described to me the sensation which first drove him to the use of opium, in the very same words as the dean of ——-, viz. ‘that he felt as though rats were gnawing and abrading the coats of his stomach’); Mr —— and many others, hardly less known, whom it would be too tedious to mention.”
Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822.
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