Whilst an indescribable sensation of happiness takes possession of the individual, and the joy and exultation are felt to be almost too much to be borne, the mind seems totally at a loss to account for it, or to explain from what particular source it springs. There is a positive sensation of universal contentment, but it is vain to attempt to explain the nature of the enjoyment. The peculiar motion appears to be wholly inexplicable. A sense of something unusual pervades every fibre, but all attempts to analyze or describe it are declared to be in vain. After a certain period of time the system appears to be no longer capable of further happiness, the sensibility seems thoroughly exhausted, a gentle sense of lassitude, physical and moral, gradually succeeds—an apathy, a carelessness, an absolute calm, from which no exterior object can arouse the torpid frame. These are the great characteristics of this stage. The most alarming or afflicting intelligence is listened to without exciting any emotion. The mind is thoroughly absorbed, the perception seems blunted, the senses scarcely convey any impression to the brain. A re-action has taken place, yet the collapse is unattended with any disagreeable feeling. The energies are all prostrate, yet there are none of those depressing symptoms which attend the last stages of ordinary intoxication. All that is described is an ineffable tranquillity of soul, during which it is perfectly inaccessible to sorrow or pain. “The haschisch eater is happy,” continues Dr. Moreau, “not like the gourmand, or the famished man when satisfying his appetite, or the voluptuary in the gratification of his amative desires; but like him who hears tidings which fill him with joy, or like the miser counting his treasures, the gambler who is successful at play, or the ambitious man who is intoxicated with success.” All those who have tried the experiment do not speak in such glowing terms of the results. M. de Saulcey, who tried it at Jerusalem, says:——“The experiment, to which we had recourse for passing our time, turned out so utterly disagreeable that I may safely say, not one of us will ever be tempted to try it again. The haschisch is an abominable poison which the dregs of the population alone drink and smoke in the East, and which we were silly enough to take, in too large a dose, on the eve of New Year’s-day. We fancied we were going to have an evening of enjoyment, but we nearly died through our imprudence. As I had taken a larger dose of this pernicious drug than my companions, I remained almost insensible for more than twenty-four hours, after which I found myself completely broken down with nervous spasms, and incoherent dreams.” It is not uncommon for illusions and hallucinations to occur during the early stage, when the senses have lost their power of communicating faithfully to the brain the impressions they receive.