The drug habit is seen nowadays as an outcome of the permissive society but the problem has always been with us although in past times it took other forms. Today, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy 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.

The definition of a drug when applied to narcotics is any chemical substance taken for the effect it produces and in times past, the term usually applied to opium and the more exotic hashish. As with their modern equivalents, they were dangerous in the wrong hands and successive governments have tried to legislate to control their use. Drug addiction was not a major problem half a century ago, with fewer than 400 known addicts in the United Kingdom in 1950, but the picture has changed drastically since then and today there are 150,000, so presenting a persistent difficulty that the Home Office and other official bodies are unable to solve but try to contain through regulation.

Drug taking was particularly prevalent in this part of the South Lincolnshire fens during the 19th century and began largely as a remedial means to combat the ague, a malarial fever that is now unknown. The cause of the infection was a parasite associated with the mosquito which was attracted by the sun's effects on decomposing vegetation that had been alternately covered and uncovered by water, conditions prevalent in the fens which were intersected by large dykes and containing water that was stagnant all summer. These conditions became widespread after the fens were enclosed and drained owing to the exsicction or drying out of the soil which hitherto had been covered with water and a greater surface being subsequently exposed by being ploughed and broken up. This decaying organic matter slowly disappeared with the process of cultivation and with it the insects that had caused the ague.

The effects of the ague have been graphically described by William Henry Wheeler in A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire (1868) although he mistakenly thought that the cause of the infection was the miasmatic exhalations of poisonous germs floating in the air from the rotting vegetation rather than the insects that it attracted, as later medical research established:

The persons suffering from ague were attacked intermittently with severe shiverings which shook the whole body and even the chair or bed on which the sufferer was resting, accompanied by intense pain in the limbs. At one time, they were burning hot and at another, equally cold, and fever and thirst ensued. The fits came at varying intervals, the disease being distinguished as tertian or quotidian, the latter being the most prevalent form.

Quinine is the usual treatment for malaria but this was not in general use at that time and so the remedy was invariably opium but unfortunately its use became a habit that was seldom abandoned. The drug was obtained from the juice of the white poppy (Papaver somniferum) that was known in very remote times and the Greeks and Romans collected it. The practice of opium eating and using it as a medicine probably arose in Persia and was then introduced by the Arabians into India and from thence it came to Europe where it was know as a hypnotic and sedative and frequently administered to relieve pain and calm excitement. For its astringent properties, it was also used to treat diarrhoea and dysentery and, on account of its expectorant, diaphoretic, sedative and antispasmodic properties, in certain forms of cough.

The opium poppy was first cultivated in this country for the extraction of the drug by Mr John Ball of Williton, Somerset, in 1794 and later widely grown in the fens, the yield being from 20,000 to 30,000 large heads to the acre, and these produced a thick, tenacious paste, a dram representing a piece about the size of a small walnut and the quantity taken at one time about the size of a pea. William Wheeler reported its use as follows: 

The effect on the taker is not that which has been described by persons who have formed their opinions from exaggerated reports of isolated cases. Its effect, both on the taker and on those about him, is far less deleterious than excessive beer or dram drinking. The man or woman who takes opium is never riotous or disorderly and gives no trouble to the police as an effect of its use. It tends however to make the taker silent and morose. The amount of work done is not less, nor is the life shorter than of those who do not take it, many of the confirmed opium takers living to 80 and 90 years of age. It is not pretended to defend its use but it would seem that when the habit has once been contracted, the system requires its stimulating effect to be kept up to its normal working capacity. 

In the 19th century, when it was freely available, 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.

The smaller heads from the poppy crop were crushed for the production of laudanum, a solution or tincture of the drug containing equal parts of alcohol and distilled water. The result was a brown coloured liquid with the characteristic smell of opium and contained about 1 per cent morphine and was sold legally as a narcotic and pain killer. Laudanum was available in the 19th century from pharmacists on demand in most of Europe and the United States. It was often administered as a soporific for gastric troubles although its use in the case of young infants, once popular, was eventually recognised as dangerous and replaced by morphine.

The widespread availability of laudanum from chemists’ shops and the lack of regulation over its sale meant that many mistakes were made over the counter. In 1871, a baby died in such circumstances although no one was held to blame. The events leading up to the death were described during an inquest held at the Angel Hotel on Monday 13th February on William Knight Hind, aged 5 weeks and three days, son of Mr W K Hind, a grocer, of North Street.

A nurse looking after the baby, Mrs Ann Brown, sent the servant girl Ann Darnes to fetch gripe water from the chemist shop owned by Mr B Wyles but the assistant behind the counter gave her laudanum instead. “The nurse said that the medicine was wrong because the baby did not take it very well”, said Miss Darnes. “She told me to take it back and say that they had given me laudanum and asked for something to make the child throw it back. This time, I was served by Mr Wyles and he gave me something with instructions that the baby should have 20 drops in a little warm water and that a medical gentleman should be sent for at once.”

Dr Burn attended almost immediately and he gave the baby an emetic but his condition deteriorated and he died at 1 am on Sunday morning, about 17 hours after the laudanum had been administered. Mrs Brown told the hearing that she had looked after the baby from birth and it was a fine, healthy child, but had been griped for two or three days. When her supply of gripe water ran out, she sent Darnes for some more and administered about a quarter of a teaspoonful from the bottle but it dribbled out of the corner of the baby’s mouth. “I know so little about laudanum that I did not know the difference”, she said, “and I did not taste it until after the baby had refused it. Then when I checked the bottle I found that the label said ‘Laudanum – Poison’.”

The chemist, Mr Wyles, said that he had full confidence in the professional knowledge of his assistant who was very steady and attentive to his business.” Gripe mixture is a deal darker in colour than laudanum and the fact that he put a label on the bottle shows that he knew he was supplying laudanum and he has said positively that the girl asked for laudanum,” he said. His assistant, Arthur Thresh, aged 18, had worked at the shop since the previous October and had been in the business for two years before that. He said he had no doubt that the servant Darnes had asked for laudanum and although she had brought in a bottle with a gripe mixture label, he had put on a new label saying “Laudanum – Poison”.

The jury returned a verdict that the baby had been poisoned by laudanum being administered by mistake instead of gripe mixture and they entirely exonerated the shop assistant Thresh from any wilful or criminal neglect.

The use of both opium and laudanum continued until the early years of the 20th century and abuse was 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] and had not been to bed for some time. From a statement made by him to a neighbour the previous Tuesday, it seems that on the Monday he 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 medical gentleman but he 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 causes were frequent during that period. An inquest was held on Friday 21st February 1879 at the Bull Inn, 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 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 he had breakfasted with his wife a little before 6 am on the previous day and she seemed alright when he left for work. "She sometimes had pains but did not complain that morning", he said. "We were on good terms and had lived comfortably together for 40 years. I did not know that she had anything to trouble her lately. I got home at around 6 pm and found the house locked up. When she went out, it was her custom to leave the key of the back door in a secret place that I knew of and I found it there and opened the door. I found my wife lying on the bed with a bottle and a mug by the bedside. I spoke to her but she did not answer. I have never before known her to lock the front and back doors when she remained in the house." Mr W D Eddowes, a surgeon from Stamford who attended Mrs Swann, said that the symptoms were those of opium poisoning and a bottle was produced containing laudanum. She was quite insensible and it was impossible to rouse her. He administered the usual remedies but she was far too gone to respond. She suffered from bad varicose veins which would at times produce great pain. A neighbour, Sarah Baraby, who stayed with her, said that Mrs Swann died next day at 2.40 am. The coroner, Mr J G Calthrop, recorded a verdict that "deceased by misadventure, took an overdose of laudanum from the effects of which she died".

On 1st July 1897, the body of James Lee, aged 40, a shepherd, was found in a field near Bourne and identified by his brother Mr Thomas Lee of Westby, Grantham. He told an inquest at the New Inn [now a private house in the Spalding Road] that deceased had worked for him as a shepherd but had left for another job on June 26th, in good health and spirits although he was known to have occasionally taken laudanum. 

Ann Palmer, landlady of the New Inn, 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. At 5.30 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 Constable Berry said that in the right breast pocket, he found a bottle labelled "Laudanum". The dead man also had a small amount of cash about his person and letters relating to his job as a shepherd. Dr John Gilpin, who carried out a post mortem, said that the stomach contained no food, only a few ounces of fluid which, upon analysis, was found to contain a quantity of a preparation of opium and in his opinion, death was caused by opium poisoning. The inquest jury returned a verdict that death had resulted from an accidental overdose of laudanum.

Opium is now remembered as the stuff of drama and literature, an association connected with the romantic poets and writers of the Victorian era, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lewis Carroll and others, who some claim used it to stimulate their creative powers. One author in particular, Thomas De Quincey, is largely remembered today for his autobiographical work Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822) which gives an account of his early life, describing the growth and effects of his habit of taking opium. But it is worth remembering that this was a drug taken by thousands of working class people and ruined many lives as a result, and it only fell into disuse because it was replaced by other more dangerous substances that threaten the stability of our society today.

REVISED NOVEMBER 2003

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