author
H. H. (Harry Hubbell) Kane
1854–1906
A New York physician writing in the late 19th century, he explored opium, morphine, chloral, and hashish at a time when addiction was only beginning to be studied in public. His books mix medical warning, social observation, and a strong sense of the anxieties of his era.
1 Audiobook
Drugs that enslave : The opium, morphine, chloral and hashisch habits
by H. H. (Harry Hubbell) Kane
About the author
Best known as H. H. Kane, M.D., Harry Hubbell Kane was an American physician born in 1854 and active in New York. He wrote about narcotics and addiction in the early 1880s, when these subjects were still poorly understood and rarely discussed in a systematic way.
His best-known works include Drugs That Enslave (1881) and Opium-Smoking in America and China (1882). In them, he examined the use of opium, morphine, chloral, and hashish, combining medical description with wider social commentary. He also wrote the Harper's piece A Hashish-House in New York, which helped bring these hidden worlds to a broader readership.
Kane's writing is very much of its time, but it remains interesting as an early attempt to document addiction, drug culture, and public fears around them. For modern listeners, his work offers both a period medical perspective and a vivid glimpse of late 19th-century urban life.