heroic dose

n. a quantity of a medical drug sufficient to endanger a person; (hence) a quantity of a recreational drug sufficient to achieve the maximum possible psychedelic or psychotropic effects; an excess of any substance or behavior. Subjects: English, Drugs, Medical

Editorial Note: This is related to senses of heroic defined as “impressive in size or scope” and “showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort.”

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Citations: 1826 S. Jackson @ Northumberland, Penn. American Medical Recorder (Oct.) “Observations and Facts on the Use of Tobacco in Tetanus &tc;.” p. 315: An ounce in twenty-four hours, and a drachm at a dose, are heroic prescriptions, and not to be generally imitated.…In cases wherein the physician might be tempted to overstep nature with these heroic doses of opium, or tobacco, do not Dr. Physick’s tube and syringe, afford some hope of safety? 1930 Harold D. Lasswell Psychopathology and Politics p. 31 @ (June 15, 1986): The supposition that emotional aberrations are to be conquered by heroic doses of logical thinking is a mistake. 1935 Hartwin A. Schulze Scientific Monthly (May) “Some Old Bizarre Medical Remedies” vol. 40, no. 5, p. 437: One drop of it was fully as efficient as curiosity in killing a cat.…An early nineteenth century pharmacopoeia lists a tobacco enema. About the same time the surgeon and anatomist, Sir Ashley Cooper, recommended this in a heroic dose as a preliminary to reducing difficult hernias, because it caused such extreme languor that the patient had “not the power to exert any of the voluntary muscles of the body,” thus almost repeating the Royal Society’s classic experiment with the cat. 1988 Glen C. Craig U.S. Army Special Forces Medical Handbook (May) p. 176: Antibiotic therapy in the form of Penicillin, chloramphenicol, or tetracycline should be started promptly in heroic doses. 1991 M. Alice Ottoboni The Dose Makes the Poison (Jan. 15) p. 139 @ (May 1, 1997): Heroic doses, referred to as maximum tolerated doses, are the highest nonlethal doses the animals can tolerate for the duration of the experiment. 1992 Terence McKenna The Archaic Revival (May 8) p. 15: If you’re not taking so much that going into it you’re afraid you did too much, then you didn’t do enough. Not the way people will take it to go to the movies, go to the beach, this and that. No, I talk about what I call “heroic” doses and “committed” doses. And if you only do heroic doses, then every trip will count. 1992 [Rob Robertson] Usenet: alt.drugs (Aug. 25) “Re: LSD and some relatives”: At what Terence McKenna calls a “heroic dose’ (I love that phrase!) the focus is all outward, and the ego, that thin shell of self-delusion, is no more, and at this point the greater truths start rolling in like a bunch of insane bikers with PhD’s. 1994 Newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Summer) vol. 5, no. 1,: What may be an heroic dose for someone may be an “aesthetic” dose for another. 2005 Richard T. Kelly Sean Penn : His Life and Times (Jan. 9) p. 141: Rabe’s new hit concerned Eddie and Mickey, two pedal-to-the metal casting directors whose condo in the Hollywood hills is a kind of divorcees’ club, run on heroic doses of liquor and cocaine. 2005 Gordon Marino @ Northfield, Minn. Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Mass.) (Sept. 2) “Coach kids to their (reasonable) dreams”: Combine that dangerous level of commitment with the sense of invulnerabity common to young athletes and it is no wonder that you have many 18-year-olds taking what they actually refer to as “heroic doses” of supplements to try and make it to the next level.

Posted 13 Sep 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend