Jansen Beamer Mattison
J.B. Mattison was well known for his treatment of addiction to Opium, Chloral and Cocaine.
In 1891 he opened the Brooklyn Home for Habitués at 185 Brooklyn Ave., Brooklyn, NY., a center for the treatment of those suffering from either the opium, chloral, or cocaine addictions.
He was also a very outspoken user of cannabis in his medical practice.
He used cannabis as a treatment option to help with narcotic addictions, migraines, and female disorders, etc… In several reports he makes the point that cannabis has never caused a death and it is not a poison.
I have many articles and papers which give an overall picture of what cannabis was used for back in the 19th and early 20th centuries but do not go into any details except for a couple of doctors. Dr. Mattison is mentioned in multiple papers on narcotic addiction but not so much for his use of cannabis. I chose Dr. J.B. Mattison because he published many papers and liked cannabis. Dr. Mattison was very much for using cannabis as a medical treatment. There is one instance where you can sense the tension between some of the doctors about the use of cannabis.
This doctor does not have a Wiki page… had to do some digging for information on him which I was able to find a couple of books on doctors in the early 20th and late 19th century. (The links to these books are at the bottom)
MATTISON, Jansen Beemer (1845 - 1911) Physicians and Surgeons of America
Brooklyn, NY was born December 22 1845 at Augusta NJ.
He was graduated MD from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in February 1867.
Dr Mattison is a member of the American Medical Association of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriety, of the New York Academy of Medicine, of the Medico Legal Society of New York. of the Brooklyn Neurological Society, and of the Medical Society of the County of Kings. Dr Mattison's professional attention was early directed to the study and treatment of narcotic inebriety by a remarkable case of morphinism that came under his care a quarter century ago. For many years he has devoted himself exclusively to this subject making it his life work. He is the author of more than seventy papers on various phases of this disease and is medical director of the Brooklyn Home for Habitués of Opium Chloral and Cocaine.
Jansen Beemer Mattison MD Journal of the American Medical Association
Bellevue Hospital Medical College 1867
formerly a member of the Association for the Cure of Inebriety and the New York Academy of Medicine and medical director of the Brooklyn Home for Habitués of Opium, Chloral and Cocaine.
died September 26 1911
George Holman Snead MD, University of Virginia Charlottesville
This is a medical society he belonged to…..
http://www.morriscountymedicalsociety.org/About
“Dr. J.B. Mattison, America’s foremost 19th-century authority on narcotic addiction”
No mention of cannabis in this paper, all about Patent Medicines, but it mentions Dr. Mattison
http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/Patent-Medicine-and-Addiction-in-America.pdf
Citation: White, W. (2014). Patent Medicine and Addiction in America. Posted at www.williamwhitepaeprs.com.
“J.B. Mattison, the foremost American specialist”
This does mention Dr Mattison using cannabis in treatment of addiction to narcotics
Article is about opiate addiction
“THE ARISTOCRATIC VICE: The Medical Treatment of Drug Addiction at the Homewood Retreat, 1883-1900”
http://www.whitehern.ca/result.php?doc_id=Box%2015-007
https://ontariohistoricalsociety.ca/
http://www.whitehern.ca/index.php
“Medical experts J.R. Reynolds, J.B. Mattison, William Osler and Edward Constant Seguin all understood the medical benefits experienced from using cannabis to treat migraine headaches — each documenting his experience using medical cannabis to successfully treat migraine headaches. Now, this anecdotal evidence is supported by medical cannabis research.”
https://www.crescolabs.com/conditions/migraines/
“There was literature written in the 19th century by J.R. Reynolds, J.B. Mattison, Moreau de Tours, et al. that was forgotten and then compiled by Tod Mikuriya, ed. in 1973 called “Marijuana: Medical Papers”. These articles reported familiar uses such as spasms, seizures, migraines, rheumatism, neuralgia, inflammatory pain, asthma, opiate dependency, insomnia, depression and others.”
This one is funny because it mentions replacing cannabis with morphine in one section, then in another mentions using it for treatment….
https://medihuanna.com/medicinal-cannabis-history/ - good reference to other authors….
Dr. Mattison, mentioned in treatment of migraines, but it also highlights the fact of the use of “marijuana” in a negative way in old articles.
The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs
by Edward M. Brecher and the Editors of Consumer Reports Magazine, 1972
http://cifas.us/marijuana-in-the-new-world/
Articles, Reports, and Commentaries/
Defending Cannabis Usage
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Oct 10 1891 Mattison J B on Cannabis Indica
Three causes have led to its present disuse
First a fear of its toxic effect This is groundless Hemp is not a poison There is no death on record Peculiar effects sometimes seen often peculiar the patient may alarm a novice but alarming symptoms are not always dangerous symptoms I have known a half ounce of the fluid extract taken at once with no effect other than relief of pain and a desire to sing My experience com passing more than a decade many cases and hundreds of doses ranging from twenty to sixty minims of the fluid extract has brought any anxiety along toxic lines
A second cause of limited use is feeble or inert products and I fancy this has been the largest factor. Hemp is notoriously uncertain but once a good specimen it is often of great value It never be called worthless till a full trial with a good extract proves it
A third cause is too timid dosing with failure and consequent disuse. I am convinced that the dose of the books is often too small. For instance Wood in his latest edition advises one minim of the fluid extract at a dose, Surely few morbid conditions save in very impressible subjects would give way to such dosing. The only true plan is a good extract and then push it to full effect doses have been large as stated to men and women alike. They are over and unneeded for the non narcotic case but they prove hemp harmless and the opinion of most neurologists is that once a drug of this kind is demanded it is better to give one large dose than several small.
The authors preference is for McKesson and Robbins solid extract, Squibb s fluid of extract and Parke Davis & Co’s, normal liquid, N Y Med Four Oct 10 1891
The Epitome of Medicine: A Monthly Retrospect of Progress in All Divisions of Medico-chirurgical Practice
1892
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books (1892)
Issue with the Editors of the Lancet
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Pg 503, Deaths from Cannabis Indica
There is not on record any well attested case of death from cannabis indica. Potter says; “ Death has never been produced”, Hare asserts: ”No case of death from its use in man is on record”, Bartholow affirms; ”Cases of acute poisoning have never been reported”, Stillé states; “We are not acquainted with any instance of death”, Wood declares; “Hemp is not a dangerous drug even the largest doses do not compromise life”. No acute fatal poisoning has been reported. A prolonged personal experience compassing the history of many cases --men and women-- and hundreds of doses, ranging from thirty to sixty minims of the fluid extract has never brought any anxiety along toxic lines. Med Era
Pg. 559, Cannabis Indica
Brooklyn October 8 1892 Editors Lancet Clinic
DEAR SIRs,
The selection from my paper Cannabis Indica as an Anodyne and Hypnotic in your journal of today citing the fact that there is yet to be reported a death from this drug and that a large and long experience with it has never brought any anxiety along toxic lines prompts me to say that this fear with many has led very largely to its limited use It is quite unfounded. Indian hemp is not a poison. In various morbid neurotic conditions it is of value. Shall be glad to comply with any request for a reprint of my paper.
Respectfully, J.B. Mattison Medical Director of the Brooklyn Brooklyn Ave Home for Habitués
The Cincinnati Lancet-clinic, Volume 29
J.C. Culbertson, 1892
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Cannabis Usage Report….
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CANNABIS INDICA AS AN ANODYNE AND HYPNOTIC
Pg 252
The Western Medical Reporter, Volume 12
John Erasmus Harper, 1890
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Pg, 714
Brooklyn Medical Journal, Volume 5
Medical Society of Company of Kings, 1891
Harvard University
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 333
New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, Volume 44, Issue 5
J.B. Mattison, Louisiana State Medical Society, 1891
the University of Virginia
https://books.google.com/books
Pg. 31
Massachusetts Medical Journal: Devoted to Medicine & General Science, Volume 14
1893
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Pg. 405, CANNABIS INDICA
International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics, Volume 54
Frank Pierce Foster, MD Publications, 1891
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Women's Issues
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Pg 323, CANNABIS INDICA IN THE PAINFUL DISEASES OF WOMEN
DR JB MATTISON of Brooklyn praises cannabis highly as an anodyne and hypnotic. It is not a poison, there is no fatal case on record. It must be given in full doses; Small doses are stimulating and exciting large ones sedative. It is equally useful in dysmenorrhoea especially of the spasmodic variety and in painful chronic metritis. In many cases of uterine cancer it allays or prevents pain. It acts well in megrim in the neuralgias and headaches so common in anaemic women. It is a safe and excellent hypnotic in insomnia. The tincture must be given in doses of twenty to sixty minims and of the solid extract one half to two grains. Farlow recommends the following suppository in dysmenorrhoea to be introduced every night beginning five days before the time of the period. Med and Surg Reporter
Massachusetts Medical Journal: Devoted to Medicine & General Science, Volume 15
1895
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 298, Cannabis Indica for Women
Use every night for five nights previous to anticipated period in dysmenorrhea. Full doses of cannabis indica must be given and will insure relief in pains of cancer and spasmodic dysmenorrhea. In neuralgias megrim and headache of anæmic women it has served a useful purpose Dr JB Mattison in Birmingham Medical Review
Annals of Gynaecology and Pediatry, Volume 6
1892
Cornell University
https://books.google.com/books
Narcotic Addiction
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Pg 173,
Dr Mattison recently spent several weeks in Bermuda and the Bri filed journal in reporting a meeting of the British Med Association held in the Town Hall at Hamilton says, By request of the Society Dr B Mattison of Brooklyn gave an address on the subject of narcotic inebriety. Attention was called to the extensive use of opium, chloral, and cocaine notably in France, Germany, and America. The genesis of the disease was a physical necessity in many cases. The speaker said in proper cases his plan an original one was to secure an entire narcotic disuse by regular reduction in ten days meantime bringing the nervous system under the sedative influence of bromide of sodium in initial doses of thirty grains at twelve hour intervals increasing the dose ten grains daily and reaching if required a maximum of one hundred and twenty grains at the end of the withdrawal period. The resultant reflex irritation was treated by hot baths, cannabis indica, hyoscyamus, coca and electricity with a subsequent tonic regime. The prognosis was good as to recovery but in most cases sooner or later there was a return to the narcotic due to a renewal of the original cause or to other conditions beyond control. A vote of thanks to Dr Mattison closed the meeting. Dr Mattison is translating Erlenmeyer's Die Morphiumsucht und ihre Behandlung the Morphia Disease and its Treatment third and last German edition the latest and largest work on the subject which with notes and comments by the translator will be brought out the coming autumn.
Brooklyn Medical Journal, Volumes 1-2
Medical Society of Company of Kings, 1888
The Ohio State University
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 158, A New METHOD or TREATMENT IN OPIUM INEBRIETY
Dr. J.B. Mattison
In a paper read before the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates and published in the Journal of Inebriety, submits what he terms a New Method of Treatment in Opium Inebriety. It is based on the power of certain therapeutical resources to control abnormal reflex sensibility and accomplishes largely two cardinal objects minimum duration of treatment and maximum freedom from pain. It consists in producing a certain degree of nervous sedation and consequent control of general and reflex sensibility by means of the bromide of potassium ammonium sodium or lithium though reference is made especially to the bromide of sodium and to its employment in continued doses by which is meant its administration three times in twenty four hours at regular intervals so as to keep the blood constantly charged with the drug Dr Mattison lays particular stress on this method of administration The salt should be given largely diluted with water a drachm of water to a grain of the salt Granted a suitable case for treatment the plan may be summarized as follows. Opiate reduced at once to one half or two thirds usual quantity. Subsequent gradual decrease and withdrawal in seven or eight days. Mercurial cathartic first night followed by daily laxative enemas or Hunyadi water Bromide of sodium 60 grain doses increased 30 grains daily ter in die in six or eight ounces of water on empty stomach continued five to seven days. Restlessness following opium abandonment met by hot baths 100 to 110 ten to thirty minutes each often as required. Bromide eliminated by diuretics digitalis and nitre and diaphoretics hot and steam baths Insomnia relieved by chloral combined if need be with Indian hemp or hyoscyamus. Diet exclusively milk and lime water first three days of opium abstinence. Full dict resumed as soon as possible. Debility removed by generous living general faradization strychnine iron quinine etc with outdoor exercise and varied social enjoyment.
Michigan Medical News, Volume 2
1879
Michigan State University
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 29, The Treatment of Opium Addiction
“For the relief of this cannabis indica or chloral with bromide in full doses serves our purpose.”
The Treatment of Opium Addiction
Jansen Beemer Mattison, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1885
https://books.google.com/books
Cannabis used to treat opium addiction…
Pg. 58, Cannabis Indica in the Opium Habit
Dr JB Mattison recommends the fluid extract of cannabis indica in the treatment of the opium habit where the characteristic restlessness or insomnia is manifested after the withdrawal of the opium. Full doses are given and repeated every hour second hour or less often as may be required. Squibb's fluid extract is used and sixty minims given at a dose no unpleasant symptoms having ever been noticed and Dr Mattison considers that the small doses recommended in the books are useless.
Canada Medical Record Jan 1885
The Practitioner, Volume 35
John Brigg, 1885
Pennsylvania State University
https://books.google.com/books
Physician and Surgeon: A Professional Medical Journal, Volume 7
J. W. Keating., 1885
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 352, TREATMENT OF INEBRIETY
Inebriety; Or, Narcomania; Its Etiology, Pathology, Treatment, and Jurisprudence
Norman Shanks Kerr, Lewis, 1894
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 320, Preparations of Cannabis Indica in Morphine Chloral and Cocaine Abuse
During the course of a ten year practice Dr JB Mattison of Brooklyn has often had reason to satisfy himself of the analgesic and hypnotic properties of Indian Hemp. With persons who had abused morphine chloral and cocaine the remedy proved of unquestionable value. As a rule sleep ensues two hours after the administration of the remedy and is calm and sound. The author never observed secondary dangerous phenomena but on the other hand he did notice some cases of intoxication and one of catalepsy. Dr Mattison says that the best preparations are the fluid extract of Parke Davis & Co and the Cannabin tannate and Cannabinon of Merck. The doses are Tincture 20 to 40 drops fluid extract 5 to 20 drops common extract 0.03 to 0.12 Cannabin tannate 0.3 0.9 Cannabinon 0.03 0.09 If necessary the dose is increased or repeated until the effect is obtained. Cannabinon is said to act twice as powerfully upon women as upon men. In periodic and inveterate cephalalgia Indian Hemp is the best remedy 0.03 0.12 Extract Cannabis every 1-2 hours until the pains disappear then 2 drops daily for a little time. This medication does not injure the stomach.
The Medical Age, Volume 10
E. G. Swift, 1892
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 256, CLINICAL NOTES ON OPIUM ADDICTION
Cannabis indica in some respects is an efficient substitute for opium It relieves pain and brings sleep though often causing a mild harmless intoxication. After a trial of various preparations foreign and domestic we prefer the fluid extract made by Squibb. It must be given in large doses the ordinary dose of the books being of no avail whatever.
The Proceedings of the Medical Society of the County of Kings, Volume 7
Medical Society of the County of Kings, Brooklyn, 1882
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Pg, 517, JB MATTISON MD in a paper read before the County of Kings Medical Society makes a strong plea for the more general use of cannabis indica, a drug that has rather fallen into disuse.
His experience has been mainly with opium habitués in the treatment of whom he has found cannabis indica most admirable. He says, My experience with hemp covers more than a detespiration cade many cases and several pounds of fluid exlonging tract. It is proper to state that these cases have been solely habitués or ex habitués of opium chloral of cocaine. In these often it has proved an efficient substitute for the poppy. Its powers in this regard has sometimes surprised me. Both sexes took it and with some no other drug anodyne was used. One of these a naval surgeon nine years a 10 grain daily subcutaneous morphiné taker recovered with less than a dozen doses. My oldest female patient sixtyfour found its service complete. Its action has varied as some cases respond more fully. This durmedicine cranial kind and it has calmed mental pain and unteachings in the early abstinence time. Later it has done good in the post poppy neuralgia especially the rest well. Grailly Hewitt says that in many cases of In some diseases common to women hemp works uterine cancer it allays or prevents pain Ringer asheart serts it sometimes signally useful in dysmenorrhoea, West commends it here Potter states that its anoaccidental dyne power is marked in chronic metritis and dysmenorrhea and Hare thinks it of great value in chronic uterine irritation and nervous spasmodic dysHISTORY menorrhea Donavan and Fuller claim it of value in migraine and chronic rheumatism and Mackenzie in hay fever and hay asthma In genito urinary disorder it often acts kindlyPrepuce the renal pain of Bright's disease in vesical spasm retention of urine and chordee and it calms the pain of clap equal to sandal or copaiva and is less unpleasant The distress of gastric ulcer and gasauthor trodynia are eased by it and in other and varied neuralgias it serves one well In some cases of adpains vanced phthisis and other cureless disease it will bring euthanasia by allaying pain and unrest Another cause of failure is too timid giving I am convinced that the dose of books is often too small The only true way is once a good extract push it to full effect My doses have been large 40 to 60 minims of the fluid extract overlarge for the noninjury narcotic habitué but as we years ago asserted habitual poppy taking begets a peculiar tolerance of other nervines and they must be more robustly given. Both sexes have taken thein women frequently with no other effect than quiet and sleep I think for many small doses are stimulant and exciting large ones sedative and quieting. They are the come of an experience with smaller doses that of effect desired. They prove hemp harmless, they add proof to the opinion of most that once a nervine needed it is often better to one full dose than several small I close this paper by again asking attention to need of giving hemp in migraine. Were its limited to this alone its worth direct and indirect would be greater than most imagine in mind the bane of American women is ache Recollect that hemp eases pain without disturbing stomach and secretions so often as opium and that competent men think it not only but curative. Above all remember the close relation of migraine relieved by opium to a that spares neither sex state nor condition.
The Medical Times and Register, Volume 23
James Howell Hutchinson, Frank Woodbury, William Francis Waugh, Frank Sears Parsons, Horatio C. Wood (Jr.)
Medical Publishing Company, 1891
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
Treatment of Migraines
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Pg A-45, Cannabis Indica - Migraines
This drug is according to JB Mattison the best drug for the treatment of migraine in which it not only acts as a calmative but also as a curative agent. The writer however insists that it should be given in sufficiently large doses In the case of an opium eater he gave as high as 10 grains 0.65 gramme and even 12 grains 0.78 gramme of the extract at a dose with no other result than a drowsy feeling The drug has been found of value by CW Suckling Jalisia not only as a hypnotic but also in the treatment of melancholia and mania and especially in chorea when arsenic has completely failed In migraine it has rendered decided benefit in doses of 1 grain 0.016 gramme of the extract Similarly the writer has obtained good results from the medicament in cases of gastric ulcer and gastrodynia and has seen it increase the efficacy of nitrate of silver when given in combination with this drug SLD describes a curious series of symptoms produced on himself by a 1 grain 0.032 gramme dose of the extract of Indian hemp The symptoms were characterized by mental confusion absolute forgetfulness of speech thought or act of the previous moment The symptoms would come in paroxysms lasting for a few moments and then disappear suddenly There was no unpleasant feeling in the head or any exaltation of spirits the conversation and behavior were quite natural the mind was kept perfectly clear and even three weeks later he could remember all that occurred when under the influence of the drug The effects passed off without the aid of any remedies Cantharides Wolfert publishes some interesting facts in 6
Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences and Analytical Index: A Yearly Report of the Progress of the General Sanitary Sciences Throughout the World, Volume 5
F. A. Davis Company, 1892
University of Chicago
https://books.google.com/books
The Mattison Method in Morphinism: A Humane Treatment of the Morphin Disease
J. B. Mattison, E. B. Treat, 1902
Harvard University
https://books.google.com/books
A System of Medicine, Volume 2, Issue 1
Thomas Clifford Allbutt, Macmillan and Company, 1908
the University of California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Allbutt
the University of California
https://books.google.com/books
Hemp, Cannabis, Hasheesh poisoning pg. 965, Allbutt
Marihuana and Health, Volume 5
United States. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976
the University of Michigan
https://books.google.com/books
MATTISON, J B Opium intoxication, Medical and Surgical Reporter, 874, 31, 3
MATTISON, J B Successful management of an opium habit, morphia hypodermically, of nearly seven years' duration, Medical Records, 1875, 10, 249
MATTISON, J B Opium inebriety, Medical Records, 1876, 11, 793
MATTISON, J B Clinical notes on opium habituation, Medical Records, 1878, 14, 66
MATTISON, J B A new method of treatment in opium inebriety, Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, 1879, 3, 147
MATTISON, J B Avena sativa in the treatment of opium addiction A therapeutical fraud, a delusion and a snare, Medical Bulletin, 1883, 7, 308
MATTISON, J B The curability of opium addiction, Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, 1883, 5, 252
MATTISON, J B Therapeutics of opium addiction, Canada Lancet, 1883, 15, 261
MATTISON, J B A case of double narcotic addiction - opium and alcohol - Imbecility - Recovery, Canada Lancet, 1884, 17, 101
MATTISON, J B The treatment of opium addiction, St Louis Courier of Medicine, 1884, 12, 489
MATTISON, J B A case of opium smoking, Philadelphia Medical Times, 1885, 16, 197
MATTISON, J B The treatment of opium addiction, Quarterly Journal of Inebriety, 1885, 7, 1, 77, 144
MATTISON, J B "Opium antidotes", and their vendors, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1886, 7, 568
MATTISON, J B The modern and humane treatment of the morphine disease, Medical Records, 1893, 44, 804, New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, 1894, 21, 531
MATTISON, J B The post-active treatment of narcotic habitues, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1895, 25, 1119
MATTISON, J B The Mattison method in morphinism, New York, 1902
MATTISON, J B The treatment of the morphine disease, Medical News, 1902, 81, 760
This one has several references to the doctors papers
https://potheadbooks.com/pages/the-history-of-cannabis-in-canada-br-page-12-studies-and-use-of-medical-cannabis-expand-1
Google search - J.B. Mattison
Google search - Jansen Beemer Mattison
Recent article…. I read and found these articles after I started on this write up but it actually relates to this a little bit…. Things are not new ideas...
https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/cannabis-as-a-reverse-gateway-drug-new-study
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236243#abstract0
References
Pg 291, Life
Physicians and Surgeons of America: (Illustrated). A Collection of Biographical Sketches of the Regular Medical Profession
Irving Allison Watson, Republican Press Association, 1896
The Ohio State University
https://books.google.com/books
This book references other books to find doctors information
American Medical Biography, James Thacher 1828
American Medical Biography, Stephen W Williams 1845
Lives of Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons, Samuel D Gross 1861
The Physicians and Surgeons of the United States, Wm B Atkinson 1878
Biography of Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons, R French Stone 1894
Physicians and Surgeons of America, Irving Allison Watson, 1896
American Medical Biographies, Howard Atwood Kelly, Walter Lincoln Burrage, 1920
Pg 1552, Death
Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 57
American Medical Association., 1911
University of Iowa
https://books.google.com/books
Pg 466, THE BROOKLYN HOME FOR HABITUES
Brooklyn Medical Journal, Volume 5
Medical Society of Company of Kings, 1891
Harvard University
https://books.google.com/books
https://books.google.com/books (hemp)
https://books.google.com/books (cannabis)
R.A. Grim, Hemp History
