New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-04-02
A VISION-PRODUCING DRUG.
BETTER THAN OPIUM OR HAsHEEsH IN
SOME RESPECTS
RAv1su1NG DISPLAYS OF COLOR AMI FORM
HOW THE KIOwAs MIX PIETY AND
INTOXICATION.

The use OF opium and hasheesh to stimulate
the imagination is not considered highly moral
practice. These drugs should he INDUCED H. II
at all only under carefully prescribed conditions
But another 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. the new intoxicant Is
more strictly intellectual in its appeal to the
senses. Moreover its immediate after effects
are not so pernicous as those of better known
drugs.
The name "mescal" is associated in the popu-
lar mind (and in the dctonares) with dis
titled beverage obtained from the agave. whose
fermented juice makes another notable drink.
Mexicos favOrite pulque But the same word
has also been used to designate an entirely
different preparation. derived from certain
species Of cactus whose brown and bitter leaves
are 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
81 their discovery OF this property possessed by
one Of them.
on Saturday nights they are accustomed to
combine in one performance the features or
semi-r religious ceremony and mild debauch.
number of them having seated themselves on
the ground around a campfire and within
large tent they swallow three or four mescal
buttons apiece, and then sOemnly await results.
Their reveries are attended with singing and the
beating Of drums by assistants. The kiowas
begin this strange rite with prayer and at in
teryals through the night they swallow more
buttons until each man has taken about n
dozen. tribe of Mexican Indians who show
similar reverence to the mescal producing plant
use an extract from II at great festivals, ana
assist the celebration with rasping OF sticks
and picturesque dance in which both men and
women indulge.
LEwINs DISCOVERY.
Levin. a Berlin scientist, discovered in 1888
that this cactus, to which he gave the name
"Anhalonium lewinii" contained a poison that
might be classed with strychnine. but he did
not learn anything Of its vision-exciting powers.
James Mooney, a representative Of the United
States Bureau Of Ethnology, was apparently
the first white man to bring the subject to the
attention Of civilized folk. His studies OF the
habits OF the Kiowas had made him familiar
with the drug and he had tried II himself while
among the Indians of that tribe In 1881 he
brought quantity OF mescal to Washington,
and some experiments were made with 1t there
Subsequently DR.. Weir Mitchell tried it on
himself Later Havelock Ellis made some tests
with himself and several other persons, either
artists or poets in London. and described his
experience in The Contemporary Review" The
Smithsonian Institution esteemed Mr.. Enis's
paper so highly that it reprinted it in its report
for 1897 issued from the press only week ago
Neither Mr. Ellis nor his friends ever took more
than three or four buttons. For beginner that
seems TO be the correct dose. although for sensi-
tive persons such an amount may prove rather
TOO powerful and rapid in its action
SEEING RAINBOws INSTEAD OF STARS
Although all Of the senses are to some extent
stimulated by mescal. IT was the visual per-
ceptions that were chiefly affected in the cases
Of Mr. Ellis and his friends. Mr.. Ellis himself
enioyed ravishing displays OF color-now sue
cession of hues and then an infinite variety or
the tnts of one hue. For instance at one
moment he saw in rapid progression scarlets,
crimsons and pinks; at another there was
distinct predominance Of golden color. The first
effect Of the drug, however. was the tendency of
a printed page at which he was gazing to as
sumo blue or violet border; and at frequent in
tervals thereafter he was conscious of an ex-
reptional abundance OF this hue. Almost the only
after effect which ne records was a heightened
appreciation of blue and violet
Again there were great alterations in the |
brightness Of the show Sometimes the colors
were sombre and sometimes exceedingly vivid. |
Indeed there were moments when he seemed TO
he gazing upon a most dazzling assortment OF
Jewels.
Form was less conspicuous phase OF the dis
play, yet it was not excluded therefrom There