What Are Some Highly Accessible and Known Drugs During the “Jack the Ripper ” Period?
Question by AltermaliceNero: what are some highly accessible and known drugs during the “jack the ripper ” period?
i kinda need to know a lot about this period because I’m writing a lyrical piece taking place in the same time period… I’d like to also know the role of “princes and princess” and how that played a role (if it did) maybe even have some sort of idea what people dressed and looked like during this period “or at least the higher classed” thank you! i hope you answer my question 🙂
Best answer:
Answer by Runs_on_Coffee
Look into Opium (or specifically Opium dens) and Laudenum (sp?)
Answer by Sybaris
Heroin, chloral, laudanum and opium were all accessible during that period.
Developments in medicine and science made drugs such as heroin, chloral, and laudanum available and widely prescribed. Often the result was addiction. In addition, the expansion of the British Empire and developments in trade relations brought other drugs and drug derivatives into Great Britain, in particular opium from Asia.
http://drugs.uta.edu/drugs.html
http://drugs.uta.edu/opium5.html
In what context do you mean “the role of princes and princess”? During the Victorian era, the princes and princesses were the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. They would have had a very wealthy and noble lifestyle, and the main target for the parents was to marry them off to other royalty. The Queen did so well in this that she is called the grandmother of Europe! There was a rumour that her grandson, Prince Albert Victor, was Jack the Ripper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_Victor,_Duke_of_Clarence_and_Avondale
Here is information, and pictures, of fashion in that era
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1880s_in_fashion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890s_in_fashion
Here are pictures of Queen Victoria’s children
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=queen+victoria%27s+children&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=