This richly illustrated historical study traces the remarkable rise of laudanum, morphine and patent medicines from celebrated medical remedies to substances associated with addiction and social decline. The book is divided into thematic chapters covering the evolution of opium in Western medicine, the widespread popularity of laudanum, the discovery and medical application of morphine, the emergence of heroin and the commercial success of nineteenth-century patent medicines. Barbara Hodgson explains how these substances were promoted as treatments for pain, insomnia, coughs, diarrhoea and numerous everyday ailments before their addictive properties became widely recognised. Literary figures including Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Louisa May Alcott and the Brontë sisters are discussed in relation to their documented experiences with opiates. The publication is extensively illustrated with historical advertisements, pharmaceutical labels, engravings, posters, early photographs and film stills, and concludes with notes, bibliography and index, making it both an accessible cultural history and a well-documented reference work. (AI-generated content description)