A London slum
consumption of opium, nor in a rapid
increase of mortality rates. Nor was it to
become a popular suicide method:
Whereas about 1200 people cut their
throats between 1863 and 1867 and
slightly over 2500 people hanged
themselves, there were only 115 opiate
suicides in that period. Seen in this light,
Captain Hawdon's death was rather
exceptional, albeit not as exceptional as
Krook's spontaneous self-combustion. In
his Confessions of an English Opium
Eater (1822), Thomas de Quincey remarks
how:
"Three respectable London
druggists...assured [him], that the
number of amateur opium-eaters ...was,
at this time, immense; and that the
difficulty of distinguishing these persons,
to whom habit had rendered opium
necessary, from such as were purchasing
it with a view to suicide, occasioned them
daily trouble and disputes "(Confessions,
31)
Opiates were among the most popular
poisons for self-destruction throughout
the century. Toxicology emerged as a new
medical specialism. The public health
campaign as well as the discussions on
opium poisoning and its management
marked the evolution of opium as a
problem drug. From the 1830s onwards a
climate of opinion emerged in which
opium eating was no longer considered an
everyday part of life for all classes.
De Quincey's Confessions had been
received calmly and with due interest
rather than hysterically. Other well-
known opium eaters were Coleridge,
Keats, Shelley, Sir Walter Scott, Branwell
Brontë, Florence Nightingale, Helen
Gladstone, George Harley and Southey, to
name but a few. Regular middle-class use
and addiction was socially acceptable,
even for socalled 'stimulant' reasons.
What went generally unremarked or was
viewed tolerantly in middle and upper-
class society, was criticized where the
working masses were concerned. In
official, public health and 'respectable'
circles, it was generally believed that
working classes used opiates to narcotize
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