Opium and Oral History Berridge

 

Opium and Oral History Berridge

Virginia Berridge, ‘Opium and Oral History’, Oral History Society, 7.2, (1979), pp.48-58.

Passed as illegal in the 1920 Dangerous Drugs Act.

Opium was viewed as a drug that could ‘cure all’ it was supplied massively by chemists and used by all classes. In ancoats ‘sometimes a half-emptied bottle of cordial would be brought, in order that more laudanum might be put into it.’

‘going for opium was a child’s errand, just like any other normal family purchase.’

Manchester druggist: some use raw opium instead. They either chew it, or make it into pills and swallow it. The country people use laudanum as a stimulant, as well as the town people. On market days they come in from Lymm and Warrington, and buy the pure drug for themselves, and ‘Godfrey’ or ‘Quietness’ for the children.’ P.4

The role of oral history can correct statistics and provide insight into how opium was viewed in daily life.

Preparation of Opium

Wholesale chemists in Liverpool Lofthouse and Saltmer. Small pieces were cut from a chunk of opium and put into small pill boxes.

Sale and Use

Mostly the working-class bought laudanum

Attitudes Towards Addiction

By the 1900s the opium habit or opium eating had become classified as a disease, a medical matter requiring treatment and control.

Gustav Dore, Opium Smoking in Lascar's Room, engraving, Victorian Web, 1872, [accessed 14 June 2022].