d many are astounded at the ease with
which they can express their thoughts, and at the acuteness of
their judgment in matters which, when they are perfectly sober,
with difficulty reach their minds; and then afterwards they are
ashamed at their mistakes."

The action of opium in small doses is also to some extent
aphrodisiacal; it slightly stimulates both the brain and the
spinal cord, and has sensory effects on the skin like alcohol;
these effects are favored by the state of agreeable dreaminess it
produces. In the seventeenth century Venette (_La Generation de
l'Homme_, Part II, Chapter V) strongly recommended small doses of
opium, then little known, for this purpose; he had himself, he
says, in illness experienced its joys, "a shadow of those of
heaven." In India opium (as well as cannabis indica) has long
been a not uncommon aphrodisiac; it is specially used to diminish
local sensibility, delaying the orgasm and thus prolonging the
sexual act. (W.D. Sutherland, "De Impotentia," _Indian Medical
Gazette_, January, 1900). Its more direct and stimulating
influence on the sexual emotions seems indicated by the statement
that prostitutes are found standing outside the opium-smoking
dens of Bombay, but not outside the neighboring liquor shops.
(G.C. Lucas, _Lancet_, February 2, 1884.) Like alcohol, opium
seems to have a marked aphrodisiacal effect on women. The case is
recorded of a mentally deranged girl, with no nymphomania though
she masturbated, who on taking small doses of opium at once
showed signs of nymphomania, following men about, etc. (_American
Journal Obstetrics_, May, 1901, p. 74.) It may well be believed
that opium acts beneficially in men when the ejaculatory centers
are weak but irritable; but its actions are too widespread over
the organism to make it in any degree a valuable aphrodisiac.
Various other drugs have more or less reputation as aphrodisiacs;
thus bromide of gold, a nervous and glandular stimulant, is said
to have as one of its effects a heightening of sexual feeling.
Yohimbin, an alkaloid derived from the West African Yohimbehe
tree, has obtained considerable repute during recent years in the
treatment of impotence; in some cases (see, e.g., Toff's results,
summarized in _British Medical Journal_, February 18, 1905) it
has produced good results,