phenomena which had not been noted by previous observers, it may be worth while to record them in full, as fairly typical of those vision-producing properties which procured for this plant its divine honors.[1]
The experiment took place on Good Friday, 1897, when I was entirely alone in quiet chambers in the Temple, the most peaceful spot in central London. I made a double infusion or decoction of three mescal buttons (a single infusion is inert) and drank this, in three doses, at intervals of an hour, beginning at 2:30 p. m., two hours after a light lunch. I had not touched alcohol or smoked during the day. The following notes are reproduced, with trifling omissions, exactly as written, during the course of the experiment.
"The most noteworthy, almost immediate, result of the first dose was that a headache which for some hours had shown a tendency to aggravation was somewhat relieved. At 3 began to feel drowsy. At 3:30 took another third of the infusion. My headache was speedily still further lightened, and I now felt a certain consciousness of energy and intellectual power. No color or other visual phenomena appeared, however, even when eyes were closed for several minutes. No obvious increase of knee-jerk, though I seemed to be conscious of a certain heightening of muscular irritability as when one has been without sleep for an unusual time. Some gastric discomfort now made itself felt, but was relieved (at 4 o'clock) by eating a few biscuits. At this time, for the first time, there was a distinct lowering of pulse by some 6 or 8 beats. At 4:30 took the remaining portion of the infusion. At this period, except for a very slight frontal headache and a faint sensation of nausea, no abnormal phenomena had yet appeared, and I was feeling on the whole better than before I began the experiment. At 5 I felt slightly faint, so that it was difficult to concentrate my attention while reading and I lay down on a couch; the pulse was still lower (48) but no visual phenomena could be detected. At 5:45 while lying down reading I noticed (what Weir Mitchell noticed) that a pale violet shadow floated over the page around the point on which my eyes were fixed. Some little time earlier I had noticed that objects not in the direct line of vision, such as my hand holding the book, frequently tended to become obtrusive, and as it were heightened in color, monstrous and enlarged. At 6 the prevailing feeling was one of slight faintness with some muscular unsteadiness; there was no marked discomfort (except slight nausea); the headache had almost gone. No
- ↑ I published a somewhat briefer account of this experiment in 'Mescal: a New Artificial Paradise,' Contemporary Review, January, 1898. This paper also contains the interesting results of an experiment on an artist friend; further remarks were published in 'A Note on Mescal Intoxication,' Lancet, June 5, 1897. These papers attracted the attention of Dr. Walter Dixon, who made many experiments on himself and has published the results in an interesting article in the Journal of Physiology, September, 1899.
