A Beautiful Purplish Hue
In May 1884 the New York physician Frank Dudley Beane described, in the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, what happened when he dosed himself with cannabis and ergot. The Public Domain Review retells it. I read his article in the Internet Archive's scan and checked the retelling against it.
His day
The dose, in modern units
Beane gives "seven and a half (7½) minims" of fluid cannabis and "twenty-two and one-half (22½) minims" of fluid ergot. The PDR's 0.46 and 1.39 ml match the US minim (1/480 of a US fluid ounce). That is right for a New York doctor using Parke, Davis & Co. products.
Retelling and original
Seven articles, five works
The PDR says the National Library of Medicine lists seven journal articles in Beane's name. PubMed does return seven records for "Beane FD", 1882 to 1884. Three of them are "Histology of the Nerves", printed in two parts in the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal and again in the American Journal of Dental Science. So there are five distinct pieces, and the cannabis one is the fourth.
What stands on what
| Text | Source |
|---|---|
| Beane, "An Experience with Cannabis Indica" | Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, May 1884, pp. 445–451, Internet Archive item buffalomedicalsu2318unse (College of Physicians of Philadelphia), read in its OCR text |
| The retelling | The Public Domain Review, "‘A Beautiful Purplish Hue’: Frank Dudley Beane's Experience with Ergot and Cannabis Indica (1884)" |
| Seven records | PubMed E-utilities search for "Beane FD"[Author], run today |
| Minim sizes | US minim = 1/480 US fl oz = 0.061612 ml; imperial minim = 0.059194 ml (standard definitions; my arithmetic) |