Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/67

Rh observations extend. There are, however, very wide individual variations in the effects of the drug, as have been made clear by subsequent experiments which I have made on other persons. It may, therefore, be of interest to present another experiment for the sake of comparison. In this case the subject was not under my own immediate observation; I should not myself, indeed, have given him mescal at all, knowing that in such a case the experience would certainly not be altogether pleasant. The subject was an art-student, 26 years of age and 6 feet in height, a Highlander on the father's side, and a Lowlander on the mother's, presenting the type of the red-haired, beak-nosed Highlander. Though never ill, he is never in good condition, muscles flabby, skin clammy, pulse liable to be weak and intermittent, without reserve of mental or physical energy. He had severe rheumatism ten years previously. He is lazy and drinks and smokes to excess. He gives the impression of a man of splendid physical race, who has somehow not reached the perfection of his type. Altogether, so far as mescal is concerned, I should regard him as an unlikely subject for what the Indian would call a 'beautiful intoxication.' But the experiment which I give in the words of the very good observer who conducted it is not on that account the less interesting.

"The first dose was administered, after a fair meal, at 4:30 No nausea was at any time experienced. Pulse 96.

"5:00 The pulse was 86.

"5:30 The pulse was 62, flaccid and compressible, with a perceptible second beat, and rather intermittent. The subject had been lying in the veranda of the bungalow since 4:30  The second dose was now given.

"5:45 The pulse was 60, and remained at 60, except during exertion, for the next twenty hours. The pulsations were now occurring in a strongly staccato fashion. There was no perceptible second beat, and the pulse was not so compressible.

"6:00 The pulse was no longer staccato, but distinctly intermittent. It was, however, stronger, and but little affected by holding the wrist above the head.

"6:30 The third dose was given at 6:30, and the subject came indoors, and was wrapped up in a chair facing the open door, and looking out to sea. A deep sudden breath now caused a marked acceleration in the heart's action, and rising from a lying to a sitting posture sent up the pulse from 60 to 80, for a space of ten seconds or so.

"6:45 A feeling, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, of general lassitude and indifference, and a slight sensation of rigidity in the backs of the fingers when extended. The same feeling was present in a less degree all over the body, giving the subject the impression that the motor nerves were becoming partially paralyzed. Otherwise the subject was perfectly comfortable, though somewhat weak and lethargic.