[Count Henri de Bonneval (1806-1882), practitioner of homeopathy, agronomist and philanthropist]. / Le comte Henri de Bonneval (1806 - 1882), médecin homéopathe bordelais, agronome et philanthrope.

Count Henri de Bonneval, was born in Bordeaux in 1806, in the line of descent of one of the most ancient French families of noble rank. He was assistant manager of the Strasbourg stud farm in 1830, when Louis-Philippe, an Orleanist, ascended to the throne of the Bourbon Charles X. As several other legitimists, Count Henri refused to take an oath to the new king and prefered to resign his position. Interested in medicine, he was deeply impressed by Hahnemann's Organon der Heilkunst and decided to leave France for KOthen, in Saxony, in order to learn homeopathy directly from its founder Back to France, he defended in Montpellier the first French medical thesis devoted to homeopathy and then opened a consulting room in Bordeaux. He rapidly gained a solid reputation and a large audience as a practitioner of homeopathy. At the same time, Henri acquired the Chateau de Latresne and the 500 acres surrounding land. He renovated and brought up to date the agricultural and wine-producing activities of the estate. The medical doctor soon proved to be an expert agronomist, extending his competence to the famous vineyard Chateau Canon of St. Emilion. Throughout his life, the Count showed notable qualities of philanthropy, materialized at Latresne by the construction of a church and, adjacent to the chapel, a boarding school, two classrooms and shelters for poor or sick old people. At the end of his life, Henri de Bonneval wrote a comprehensive book, that includes the presentation and discussions of the homeopathic methods, some philosophical reflections and personal memories.

The rules of drug taking: wine and poppy derivatives in the ancient world. I. General introduction.

Many believe that the public attitude toward psychotropic drugs is easy to change because it depends upon transient socioeconomic and cultural contingencies. This belief is here tested by analyzing literary sources on the use of wine and poppy derivatives in the Greek and Roman civilizations. As expected, the existence of elaborated myths about the discover of wine supports the view that wine drinking played an important social role in the ancient world. Contingencies in which drinking was considered illicit were carefully selected with the ultimate aim of maintaining sobriety. Rules of drinking were often enforced by law. This first part of the study lists drunkenness outcomes considered particularly harmful by the Ancients.

The rules of drug taking: wine and poppy derivatives in the Ancient World. IX. Conclusions.

Evidence of a ritual use of poppies becomes more and more rare during the late Roman age, until only the medical usage of poppies seems to survive. In the meantime, a complete lack of evidence of a hedonic use of opium persists. As a whole, this study shows a remarkable continuity in the modalities of wine and poppy derivative use from the Ancient World to the present, particularly in that the hedonic use of psychoactive drugs remained restricted to alcoholic beverages. This observation challenges the opinion that drug-taking behavior is under the control of transient cultural contingencies. In addition, it imputes that the attribution of any documented prehistoric or historical nonmedical use of psychotropic drugs for the aim of experimenting with their pleasant effects is a stereotype.