Cocaine is a stimulant, and before the age of antibiotics, it was used medically to help those fighting deadly infections. TB is a bacterial infection, so it would make sense that Stevenson might be temporarily helped by the stimulatory effects of cocaine. The trouble is, and this was and is the danger for any patient using cocaine, it would also serve to more quickly wear out a heart that was already under great stress.
It would also have been very dangerous to mix cocaine with opium - overdose deaths are more likely to occur when a stimulant like cocaine is mixed with an opioid. A TB patient would use opium, not just for pain management, but to suppress that terrible hacking cough which is so exhausting and could exacerbate hemorrhaging. Stevenson, like all TB patients in that era, lived on a constant knife edge between life and death. No wonder so many of his works feel like nightmares. I speed read 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' in adolescence, but that was enough to engrave all the gruesome scenes into my horrified brain and I have never read it again.
Yes, and before they realized it was highly addictive and stopped using it for that reason. It actually is a very effective anaesthetic, but its use as a stimulant was probably less than helpful.
Stevenson left behind an enormous amount of writing in his short life, but this tightly written and genuinely frightening work of horror is among his best.
Great post - I was not aware of Stevenson's cocaine use, but it makes sense. One of my all-time favorite Gothic short stories is his "The Bottle Imp". What seems like a boon soon turns into a dreadful curse!
Great post. The cocaine connection is plausible and even makes thematic sense. When I first read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as an adult, about thirty years after reading the Illustrated Classics version and having forgotten a lot of it, It was hard not to see Hyde as addiction personified.
Thank you for a fascinating post. I recall in great detail how struck I was reading this book long, long ago. Think of the energy packed into those words! Makes me pine for the old days—but only momentarily.
This was a really cool read! I read this story so long ago; I remember it was pretty gruesome as a teen, but I think I’ll revisit it (against my better judgment ha)
Cocaine is a stimulant, and before the age of antibiotics, it was used medically to help those fighting deadly infections. TB is a bacterial infection, so it would make sense that Stevenson might be temporarily helped by the stimulatory effects of cocaine. The trouble is, and this was and is the danger for any patient using cocaine, it would also serve to more quickly wear out a heart that was already under great stress.
It would also have been very dangerous to mix cocaine with opium - overdose deaths are more likely to occur when a stimulant like cocaine is mixed with an opioid. A TB patient would use opium, not just for pain management, but to suppress that terrible hacking cough which is so exhausting and could exacerbate hemorrhaging. Stevenson, like all TB patients in that era, lived on a constant knife edge between life and death. No wonder so many of his works feel like nightmares. I speed read 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' in adolescence, but that was enough to engrave all the gruesome scenes into my horrified brain and I have never read it again.
This was during the weird period where doctors, including Sigmund Freud, thought of cocaine as a miracle drug that could cure (nearly) all ills.
Yes, and before they realized it was highly addictive and stopped using it for that reason. It actually is a very effective anaesthetic, but its use as a stimulant was probably less than helpful.
Very cool. Also anything with John Singer Sargent paintings is going to be worthwhile.
Agreed!
I didn’t know this story under the story about Jekyll and Hyde. Very interesting!
So has anyone solved that strange case?
Interesting. I also remember Bugs Bunny. So funny.
The old movie with Spencer Tracy playing both characters does it a fair amount of justice.
Stevenson left behind an enormous amount of writing in his short life, but this tightly written and genuinely frightening work of horror is among his best.
Thanks for the inside skinny on Hyde, I mean Jekyll, I mean Hyde, wait... Jekll... Ah. I need some cocaine.
Great post - I was not aware of Stevenson's cocaine use, but it makes sense. One of my all-time favorite Gothic short stories is his "The Bottle Imp". What seems like a boon soon turns into a dreadful curse!
Thanks! I’ve not read that one.
Here you go:
https://americanliterature.com/author/robert-louis-stevenson/short-story/the-bottle-imp/
That’s great. Thanks!
Great post. The cocaine connection is plausible and even makes thematic sense. When I first read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as an adult, about thirty years after reading the Illustrated Classics version and having forgotten a lot of it, It was hard not to see Hyde as addiction personified.
I think that’s a pretty good interpretation, all things considered—all the way down to Jekyll’s inability to keep Hyde at bay.
Thank you for a fascinating post. I recall in great detail how struck I was reading this book long, long ago. Think of the energy packed into those words! Makes me pine for the old days—but only momentarily.
It had its blessings and its curses.
This was a really cool read! I read this story so long ago; I remember it was pretty gruesome as a teen, but I think I’ll revisit it (against my better judgment ha)