64 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



V. 



It may be seen from the two experiments which I have described in 

 some fullness that, in general character, the physical and psychic mani- 

 festations of mescal somewhat recall those produced by haschisch, the 

 most famous and typical of the 'artificial Paradises' which man has 

 found for himself. No other drug, indeed, can be said to approach so 

 nearly to haschisch in its effects. They are alike in the variability of 

 their effects on different individuals and in the difficulty of obtaining 

 a reliable preparation.* They both slow the heart, tending in some 

 cases to produce intermittence, and both affect the respiration. They 

 both produce muscular weakness and incoordination, exaggerate the 

 knee-jerk and dilate the pupils. They both, moreover, possess the same 

 vision-producing properties. I cannot speak from personal experience 

 on this point, but one of my subjects, a poet who has paid much atten- 

 tion to the methods of generating visions, assures me that in his 

 experience the virtues of the two drugs are about equal and that he has 

 no preference for haschisch over mescal. 



While there are thus marked and fundamental resemblances between 

 mescal and haschisch, there also appear to be numerous points of differ- 

 ence. On the whole it may be said that mescal has a more restricted, a 

 less generalized action than haschisch. In some of the early accounts 

 of haschisch, which may now almost be said to be classic, great stress 

 was laid on its exuberant motor manifestations, the uncontrollable 

 antics, and the loss of all sense of time. These manifestations are much 

 less conspicuous, and often do not appear at all, in the later accounts 

 cf haschisch, so that they are evidently not essential. 



Under mescal, so far as I have been able to observe, they seldom 

 appear. Mescal may at one stage produce a sense of well-being, vigor 

 and intellectual lucidity, but there is no actual motor exhilaration, or 

 loss of self-control, usually no mental failure at any point, except that 

 when the influence is strongest attention may be impaired, so that one 

 realizes when under mescal how much attention is a matter of muscular 

 coordination. The action of mescal on the motor system is to depress, 

 so that there is a tendency to tremulousness of the muscles which feel 

 weak, and it seems to the subject that he must exert more than usual care 



* Haschisch is said to vary in accordance with season, as well as with the 

 district in which the hemp is obtained. The Indians believe that mescal is 

 only active at one season of the year. I found one supply that reached me to 

 be almost or quite inert, and it is possible that it was gathered out of season. 



f The resemblances between haschisch and mescal come out most clearly in 

 the latest and most reliable investigations, see, e. g., W. E. Dixon, ' The 

 Pharmacology of Cannabis Indica,' British Medical Journal, November 11, 1899, 

 and E. B. Delabarre, ' Report on the Effects of Cannabis Indica,' Psychological 

 Revieiv, March, 1899. The latter is only a brief summary, but Professor Dela- 

 barre informs me that he hopes to publish a full account of his investigations. 



