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When The Marriage Guide; or, Natural History of Generation: A Private Instructor for Married Persons and Those about to Marry, both Male and Female was published in 1851, written by a quack doctor called Frederick C. Hollick of Philadelphia, it advised readers to write in for the author’s patent aphrodisiac. It contained hashish and, with the book which was republished in nearly two hundred subsequent editions, made Hollick’s fortune. This was not the only time cannabis was recommended to those in wedlock. Some women’s temperance societies advocated it in place of alcohol: their reasoning was that drunks hit their wives, but cannabis users did not. At the American Centennial Exposition of 1876, in Hollick’s home town of Philadelphia, there was a Turkish hashish stand at which passers-by could try it out: pharmacists throughout the town stocked up in anticipation of an increase in demand.
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