546 MESCAL: A NEW ARTIFICIAL PARADISE. 



effects are much more difficult to obtain. The other enjoys admirable 

 health, and under the influence of mescal he experienced scarcely the 

 slightest unpleasant reaction, but, on the contrary, a very marked state 

 of well being and beatitude. He took somewhat less than three but- 

 tons, so that the results were rather less marked than in my case, but 

 they were perfectly definite. He writes: "I have never seen a succes- 

 sion of absolutely pictorial visions with such precision and such unac- 

 couutability. It seemed as if a series of dissolving views were carried 

 swiftly before me, all going from right to left, none corresponding with 

 any seen reality. For instance, I saw the most delightful dragons, 

 puffing out their breath straight in front of them like rigid lines of 

 steam, and balancing white balls at the end of their breath! When I 

 tried to fix ray mind on real things, I could generally call them up, but 

 always with some inexplicable change. Thus, I called up a particular 

 monument in Westminster Abbey, but in front of it, to the left, knelt a 

 figure in Florentine costume, like someone out of a picture of Botticelli; 

 and I could not see the tomb without also seeing this figure. Late in 

 the evening I went out «n the Embankment and was absolutely fasci- 

 nated by ao advertisement of 'Bovril,' which went and came in letters 

 of light on the other side of the river. I can not tell you the intense 

 pleasure this moving light gave me and how dazzling it seemed 

 to me. Two girls and a man passed me, laughing loudly, and lolling 

 about as they walked. I realized, intellectually, their coarseness, but 

 visually I saw them, as they came under a tree, fall into the lines of a 

 delicate picture; it might have been an Albert Moore. After coming 

 in I played the piano with closed eyes and got waves and lines of pure 

 color, almost always without form, though I saw one or two appear- 

 ances which might have been shields or breastplates — pure gold, 

 studded with small jewels in intricate patterns. All the time I had no 

 unpleasant feelings whatever, except a very slight headache, which 

 came and went. I slept soundly and without dreams." 



The results of music in the case just quoted — together with the 

 habit of the Indians to combine the drum with mescal rites, and my 

 own observation that very slight jarring or stimulation of the scalp 

 would affect the visions — suggested to me to test the influence of music 

 on myself. I therefore once more put myself under the influence of 

 mescal (taking a somewhat smaller dose than on the first occasion), 

 and lay for some hours on a couch with my head more or less in con- 

 tact with the piano, and with closed eyes directed toward a subdued 

 light, while a friend played, making various tests, of his own devising, 

 which were not explained to me until afterwards. I was to watch the 

 visions in a purely passive manner, without seeking to direct them, 

 nor was I to think about the music, which, so far as possible, was 

 unknown to me. The music stimulated the visions and added greatly 

 to my enjoyment of them. It seemed to harmonize with them, and, as 

 it were, support and bear them up. A certain persistence and monotony 

 of character in the music was required in order to affect the visions, 



