The Seven Sisters of Sleep

by Mordecai Cubitt Cooke

This groundbreaking survey, written in 1860, is a radically open-minded look at the use of drugs across the world and throughout the ages.

Early users of tobacco in Russia would have their noses cut off and repeat offenders their heads. Pope Innocent XII excommunicated any who used it in St. Peters. Marijuana users in 14th century Egypt would have their teeth extracted for the crime. Yet use of these and other forbidden substances continued to grow. If only as a record of the perennial failure of harsh punishments to deter drug use Victorian naturalist Mordecai Cooke's work The Seven Sisters of Sleep would remain significant. But Cooke's natural humor and keen insights have ensured this work's reputation as possibly the best early book from what has grown into an enormous body of literature on mind- and mood-altering substances. Written at a time, similar to our own, when drug use was being reconsidered, The Seven Sisters of Sleep is a thought-provoking and open-minded look at the use of drugs across the world and throughout the ages. 

Quite popular in its day and a major influence on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, this is an important book for anyone interested in an unbiased account of humanity's long involvement with psychoactive, hallucinogenic, and stimulant plants. 

Genres: History

374 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1860

About the author

Mordecai Cubitt Cooke was an English botanist and mycologist.

Reviews

[Dom]

Interesting!

Glad to finish it though…..

Interesting drug history, made lots of Notes and hundreds of new words for drugs and info….

I read this mainly for opium sections…. The rest of the book is cool but some bits repeat and repeat! Skim skim…. Interesting info but mostly outdated to learn anything…. Interesting druggie book…

[Kate]

"Take away his pipe--you might as well take away his nose."

"O dreams of day and night!
O monstrous forms! O effigies of pain!
O spectres busy in a cold, cold gloom!
O land-eared Phantoms of black-weeded pools!"

The eye wears an expression of cunning and merriment which can scarcely be mistaken.