The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-29


 grew and changed without any refer enee to the characteristics of those real objects of which they vaguely reminded me, and when l tried to influence their course 1t was with very little success.
 Weir Mitchell found that he could only see the visions with closed eyes and in a perfectly dark room could see them in the dark with almost equal facility, though they were not of equal brillancy, when my eyes were wide open saw them best, however, when my eyes were closed in room lighted only by flickering fire-light. This evil dently accords with the experience of the Indians, who keep a fire burning brightly throughout their mescal rites.
 The visions continued with undimin- ished brilliance for many hours, and, as I felt somewhat faint and muscularly weak, went to bed, as I undressed be- ing greatly impressed by the red, scaly. bronzed and augmented appearance of my limbs whenever l was not directly gazing at them. I had not the faintest desire to sleep; there was general hyperaethesia of all the senses as well as muscular irritability, and every slightest sound seemed magnified to startling dimensions. I may also have been kept awake by a vague alarm at the novelty of my condition and the possibility of further developments.
 THE PHENOMENA CHANGED BY
 LIGHT.
 After watching the visions In the dark for some hours I became little tired of them and turned on the gas. Then found that was able to study a new series ofvisual phenomena, to which previous observers had made no reference. The gas jet Gan ordinary fiickering burner) semed to burn with great brilliance, sending out waves of light, which expanded and contacted Tn an enormously exaggerated manner l was even more impressed by the shad- ows, which were in all directions heightened by flushes of red, green. and especially violet. The white ceiling, thus became vivid and beautiful. I wished to ascertain how the subdued and steady electric light would influ- ence vision, and passed into the next | room; but here the shadows were litle | marked, although walls and floor seemed tremulous and unsubstantial, and the texture of everything was Insight aned and enriched
 | About 80 a. m. felt that the pheno- nena were distinctly diminishing | though the visions, now chiefly of hu- man figures, fantastic and Chinese in character, still continued-and l was able to settle myself to sleep, which | proved peaceful and dreamless. awoke at the usual hour and exper1- l enced no sense of fatigue nor other ul- pleasant reminiscence of the experl- ence I had undergone. Only my eyes seemed unusually sensitive to color, especially to blue and violet; l can, in | deed, say that ever since this experi- | ence I have been more aesthetically sensitive than was before to the more delicate phenomena of light and shade and color.
 It poured to me that it would be inter- esting to have the experiences of an ar tist under the influence of mescal, and I induced an artist friend to make a similar experiment.. Unfortunately no affects whatever were produced at the first atempt, owing, as I have since discovered, to the fact that the buttons had only been simply infused and their virtues not extracted. To make sure of success the experiment was repeated | with four buttons, which proved to be an excessive and unpleasant dose
 There were paroxysmal attacks of pair at the heart and sense of imminent death, which naturally alarmed tht subject, while so great was the drea6 of light and dilatation of the pupils
 that the eyelids had to be kept more ol
 less closed, though it was evident tha
 a certain amount of vision was stil | ooy of11y
 suddenly, and when I arrived the,
 were already at their height. The ex
 periences of this subject were in many
 respects very unlike mine.
 MESCAIl DOES NOT CAUSE OBLIV
 ION.
 I next made experiments on twt
 poets, whose names are both wei
 known One is interested in mystica } matters, an excellent subject for wis
 ions, and very familiar with vision
 producing drugs and processes. Hi
 heart, however is not very strong While he obtained the visions, h.
 founds the effects of mescal on hi
 breathing somewhat unpleasant; h much prefers hashish, though recognfz ing that it's effects are much more diff
 ficult to obtain. The other enjoys ad
 miral health and under the intiuenc of mescal he experienced scarcely tn slightest unpleasant reaction, but, ol the contrary, a very marked state o well-being and beautitude. He tool somewhat less than three buttons, S that the results were rather les marked than in m case, but they wer perfectly definite.
 It would be out of place here to dis cuss the obscure question as to the un derlying mechanism by which mesca exerts it's magic powers. It is clea from the foregoing descriptions tha , mescal intoxicaton may be describe as chiefly a saturnalia of the specifi
 senses, and, above all, an orgy of wis ion. It reveals an optical fairylant : where all the senses now and again joi the play, but the mind itself remains self-possessed spectator. Mescal intoS } cation thus differs from the other arti ficial paradises which drugs procure l The mescal thinker remains calm an ? collected amid the sensory turmo around him; his judgment is as clear a t in the normal state; he fals into no Ori !, ental condition of vague and voluptu . ous reverie. The reason why mescal 5 of all this class of dugs the most purel ;, intellectual in it's appeal is evidentl g because it affects mainly the most 1T tellectual of the senses. Further ur