ABSTRACT
This chapter centres on the abundance of eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century medical treatises and case histories that trace the development of medical opinion on addiction. A chronological reading of these works can be seen, starkly, as a journey from a generous interrelationship of ideas to a more specific, unforgiving and mechanistic understanding. But, despite the functionality of much of the argument, as the debate flourished the condition was increasingly embellished with symbolism. It became full of meaning for the drug users and those around them, clouding a purely scientific and empirical explanation despite the proclaimed faith of some contributors in the possibility of impartial clarification and their desire to provide it.
