How we cite our quotes: Collins doesn't use traditional chapters in The Moonstone, so the citations are a little trickier than in other Victorian novels. Citations follow this format: (Period.Narrative.Chapter.Paragraph).
Quote #7
'Betteredge was perfectly right, Mr Blake. When smoking is a habit, a man must have no common constitution who can leave it off suddenly without some temporary damage to his nervous system.' (2.3.10.25)
Addiction was a relatively new idea when The Moonstone was written (in 1868). Before, many people didn't recognize it as a medical condition at all. So Ezra Jennings's remark that it's difficult to quit smoking cold turkey wasn't quite as obvious as it sounds to us.
Quote #8
'The common error about opium, Mr Blake! I am, at this moment, exerting my intelligence (such as it is) in your service, under the influence of a dose of laudanum, some ten times larger than the dose Mr Candy administered to you. But don't trust my authority—even on a question which comes within my own personal experience. I anticipated the object you have just made: and I have again provided myself with independent testimony, which will carry its due weight with it in your own mind, and in the minds of your friends.' (2.3.10.93)
Ezra Jennings has to take laudanum (a mixture of opium with alcohol) to treat the pain of his disease. But he's used to taking it, so his tolerance is higher. Franklin Blake, on the other hand, never takes it, so when he took a tiny amount on the night of Rachel's birthday party, it had a dramatic effect on him.
Quote #9
'At the passage which I have marked, you will find that when De Quincey had committed what he calls "a debauch of opium", he either went to the gallery at the Opera to enjoy the music, or he wandered about the London markets on Saturday night, and interested himself in observing all the little shifts and bargainings of the poor in providing their Sunday's dinner. So much for the capacity of a man to occupy himself actively, and to move about from place to place under the influence of opium.' (2.3.10.95)
Ezra Jennings uses Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, a famous, mostly autobiographical account of opium use and addiction, as evidence of how opium can affect a person.