Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-05-12
EFFECTS OF MEsCAL.
THE PECULIAR ACTION OF THE DRUG
UPON THE BRAIN.

II Produces an Orgy of Vision. With
RnvishinE Displays of Color, Re-
venlins an Optical Fnirylnnd to the
: Intoxicated Senses.
late the Imagination is not considered &
highly moral practice. These drugs
should be INDUCED in, If at all, only under
carefully prescribed conditions. But an
other drug which has come into notice
within the last few years, while producing
equally delightful visions, seems to be free
from some of the objections that may be
offered to the first two mentioned. In the
Judgment of those who have tried it it is
more strictly intellectual in it's appeal to
the senses; its immediate after effects are
not SO pernicious as those of better know
drugs.
The name ''mcscal" is associated in
the popular mind (and in the d%ictionaries)
with a distilled beverage obtained from
tho agave, whose fermented juice makes
another notable drink, Mcxico's favorite
pulque. But the same word has also been
used to designate an entirely different
preparation, derived from q certain species
of cactus, whose brown and bitter leaves
arc pressed into a solid button. For many
years the Kiowa Indians of this country
have been in the habit Of paying peculiar
homage to five or six related varieties of
cactus, no doubt because of their discov-
cry of this property possessed by n of
them. 4
On Saturday nights they arc accustom-
ed to combine in one performance the fea-
lures of u semireligious ceremony and II
mild debnuch. A number Of them having
seated themselves on the ground around a
campfire and within q large tent, they
swallow three or four mescal buttons
apiece and then solemnly await results.
Their reveries arc attended with singing
and the beating Of drums by assistants.
The Kiowas begin this strange rite with
prayer, and at intervals through the night
they swallow more buttons, until each
man has taken about q dozen.
Levin, a Berlin scientist, discovered in
1883 that this cactus, to which he gave the
name Anhalonium lewinii, contained a
poison that might be classed with strych-
nine, but he did not learn anything Of it's
vision exciting powers. James Mooney,
a representative of the United States bu-
reau Of ethnology, was apparently the first
white man to bring the subject to the at
tention of civilized folk. His studies Of
the habits of the Kiowas had made him
familiar with the drug, and he had tried
it himself while among the Indians of that
tribe. In 1891 he brought quantity Of
mescal to Washington, and some expert
ments were made with 1t there.
Subsequently DR.. Weir Mitchell tried !.
on himself. Later Havelock Ellis made
some tests with himself and several other
persons, either artists or poets, in London.
Neither Mr.. Ellis nor his friends ever took
more than three or four buttons. For a
beginner that seems to be the correct dose,
although for sensitive persons such an
amount may prove rather too powerful
and rapid in its action.
Although oil Of the senses are to some
extent stimulated by mescal, it was the
visual perceptions that were chiefly affect.
ed in the cases Of Mr.. Ellis and his friends.
Mr.. Ellis himself enjoyed ravishing dis.
plays of color-now q succession Of hue.
and then an infinite variety of the tints Of
one hue. For instance, at one moment he
scw In rapid progression scarlets. Grim.