Fly Agaric and Hashish in Die narkotischen Genussmittel

Archive translation from selected German passages in the public-domain 1855 edition; verify against the PDF for formal quotation.

Fly Agaric. Amanita muscaria

It seems that the fly agaric stands in a relation similar to the hemp plant: in some places certain constituents are more fully developed than in others. Our fly agaric certainly has strong poisonous properties, but the intoxicating effects produced by the Siberian one seem to be lacking in it, although by botanical characters it is not distinct from the fly agaric that grows everywhere in our forests.

The question remains, however, whether experiments have been made here with the fly agaric in quite the same way as among those peoples who use it as a narcotic, since most experiments made here in this respect have had more of a toxicological direction.

The fly agaric has a fiery red cap, two to seven inches wide, sometimes yellowish, with white scales. The edge is usually finely grooved, the stem white and hollow within, and the bulb scaly.

The use of this poisonous mushroom as a narcotic is customary among the Tungus, Yukaghir, Yakut, Ostyak, and Kamchadal peoples. It is supplied to some of these peoples under the name muchumor, while in Kamchatka it often grows wild.

The mushroom is gathered in hot months and hung up to dry; sometimes it is also left to dry where it stands and then brought home already dry. In this latter way it is said to show itself more powerful than when dried artificially.

It is consumed in several ways, sometimes fresh in soup or sauces, though there it has less intoxicating effect; more often dried and in pill form, in which case it is swallowed whole because, when dried, it is said to attack the stomach too strongly. The favorite method is as a drink, by placing it in the expressed juice of the wild-growing bog bilberry, Vaccinium uliginosum, or drinking it mixed with that of narrow-leaved willowherb, Epilobium angustifolium.

To produce a pleasant intoxication lasting an entire day, one large mushroom is enough; if one drinks water afterward, the effect becomes stronger. The imagination is stimulated by fly agaric much as it is by opium and hashish. The effect, however, usually begins only after one or two hours. Then the drinkers lie on their backs, sing, and rave of happiness and love, wealth and honor; and, as it is said, they imagine themselves well-fed and fat, which appears to be a desired condition among those peoples.

The shamans are said at times to place themselves completely in the state of seers. In some individuals the drink produces a very particular liveliness; others become sluggish and dull. In general, fly agaric, just like spirituous drinks, seems to act differently on different personalities, which is not quite so much the case with opium and similar substances.

At such gatherings the wildest things sometimes occur. Those with musical talents sing without stopping; others chatter, laugh, and tell the whole world their secrets; still others are affected in a way similar to hashish. The concept of space disappears, and they make mighty leaps in order to get over a straw or some other small object.

Muscular strength, too, is often increased in a very particular way. Langsdorff, among other examples, reports that a man intoxicated by fly agaric carried a sack weighing 120 pounds for fifteen versts.

Finally, however, and especially with an excessively large dose, the face swells; dizziness, headache, and not rarely complete unconsciousness set in. With longer and continued use there follows trembling in the limbs and similar phenomena to those known in delirium tremens, and in advanced age complete imbecility follows.

But our spirits do not have another very peculiar property of the fly agaric: the urine of an individual who has consumed fly agaric also becomes intoxicating, indeed even more so than the drink in the first instance, and, as those people say, extremely pleasant to the taste. For this reason servants often drink the urine of their masters. Since this transmission through the urine lasts a long time, it often happens that an intoxicated person drinks a glass of his own urine in the morning, relieves himself in this way of the hangover, and falls anew into the most splendid dreams of love, happiness, and stoutness.

In this way a small company of good friends can make a pleasure for themselves very cheaply, even if according to our concepts not especially decently. Travelers claim that this often occurs.

Hashish. Cannabis indica

Hashish, of which we will speak in what follows, is prepared from Indian hemp, Cannabis indica.

It is unnecessary to describe our hemp plant, since everyone knows it. Indian hemp can be characterized by saying that it is exactly like the European one, only entirely different. That is to say, the botanical and scientific characters of the two plants are exactly the same: leaf form, the position and attachment of the leaves, the stalks, the flowers, everything must be described in both in exactly the same way. With the best will in the world one could not make a new species; for this reason, it seems to me, the name Cannabis indica cannot properly be taken as a scientific designation, but merely as a kind of stopgap.

But the Indian hemp plant is larger than the one grown in Europe and has entirely different properties, namely chemical ones. Substances appear in it that, among us in colder climates, would not come to maturity, or would develop only in the smallest quantity.

The best time for preparing or collecting hashish is when the seeds have only just begun to form. A resin then sweats out of the leaves, which is collected and called churrus. There are many different names for the various preparations produced from hemp, while hashish seems to be the general collective name for all of them.

Churrus is very commonly consumed in Nepal and Hindustan; the variety from Herat is regarded as the best. The dried flowers, incipient fruits, and smaller leaves are also used, by drying them, rubbing them into powder, and then smoking them; for hashish, like opium, is both eaten and smoked. The Moors of the Sahara, and likewise the inhabitants of Barbary, almost all smoke these dry tips passionately, calling them keef.

Another way to use hashish is as a fatty extract. For this purpose the leaves, flowers, and incipient fruits are boiled with water to which some butter has been added, and then evaporated to the consistency of syrup. The butter obtained in this way has taken up the active principle. In its fresh state it has a repulsive odor, which is why rose oil or jasmine oil is added.

This fatty extract is further mixed with sweets, for example with almonds, pistachios, and sugar, and probably in other forms with various confections. This is called dawamesk, and up to thirty grams of it are taken, either with coffee, with water, or by itself.

The nepenthe of the ancients was probably some hemp preparation; and Herodotus tells of the Scythians that they scattered hemp on glowing stones and, through the rising vapor, put themselves into a state of rapture. Galen also mentions hemp as a means of producing cheerfulness and good spirits.

These half-historical, half-mythical notes about the age of the practice of taking hashish bring us to the physiological effect that it produces on the organism.

Apart from the strength of the very different preparations and the size of the dose in which it is taken, the action of hashish, like that of opium, is without doubt highly variable, depending on the individuality of the consumer. This already appears among individual persons of one and the same people; still more do these differences become visible through differences of race.