244

abstruse topics in a clarity of language that enables the non-professional to

appreciate and evaluate some of his unorthodox views.
Dr. Weil is above all an insatiable traveller. He is never satisfied about a
cultural peculiarity until he has personally studied or experienced it. His
travels - on which most of this volume is based - include tropical America,
Africa and many parts of the United States.
We may not agree with all points of Weil’s belief that alteration of
consciousness provides avenues for more efficient use of the central nervous
system. Yet no one can deny that the nineteen essays that make up The
Marriage of the Sun and Moon are thought-provoking in the extreme and,
though written in the simplest and most direct of prose, do amass an
unparalleled store of observations, facts and thought that cannot fail to
stimulate enquiry and research.
Many of the nineteen essays consider psychoactive plants, their use
and symbolism amongst pre-literate peoples, their presumed value in native
magico-religious and medical ceremonies, and their potentialities when
studied in modern Western cultures in the hands of qualified researchers.
A glossary of technical terms and a list of twenty-eight books for
supplementary reading, arranged in thirteen distinct categories, add to the
novelty and utility of the book.
The Marriage of the Sun and Moon will fascinate readers for many years.
It combines the outlook of a medically trained scientist and the touch of the
philosopher and may stimulate exploration of some of the most hidden by-
paths in man’s mental processes: the two sides of consciousness.

Richard Evans Schultes

LSD - Mein Sorgenkind

by Albert Hofmann (German original); published by Klett-Cotta,
Stuttgart, 1979.
LSD -My problem child
English translation by Jonathan Ott,; published by McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1980.

Finally, it has appeared - what we all have waited for - the true story
of the discovery of LSD. All the semi-scientific, more or less controversial
and unreliable stories in magazines, on radio and television can now be
totally forgotten. Now the man behind LSD has himself written a very
fascinating book on the subject which covers a time period of almost four
decades: from the first synthesis of LSD in 1938 to some correspondence in
the mid-seventies.
As a motto for the first chapter Hofmann has chosen Louis Pasteur’s
famous sentence: “Dans le champs de l’observation, le hasard ne favorise que
les esprits pr6par6s.” These words certainly applied to Hofmann’s research
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work in the Sandoz laboratories, Basle, where he was active from 1929 until
his retirement.
In the middle of the 1930’s Hofmann started his well-known studies on
ergot alkaloids. The common component of these alkaloids, lysergic acid,
was isolated and characterized, and Hofmann synthesized a series of lysergic
acid derivatives. One of these was lysergic acid diethylamide (with the code
number LSD-25) designed after the model of nicotinic acid diethylamide,
the well-known analeptic Coramin.
The Sandoz pharmacologist, Professor Rothlin, found that LSD-25 had
70 per cent of the oxytocic activity of ergonovine and the animals were
restless during anesthesia. Thus, the substance was considered of no interest
for further investigations by the pharmacologists.
This shows clearly the dilemma of pharmacological tests. LSD-25 would
certainly have been forgotten if five years later Dr. Hofmann had not had the
mysterious intuition that this substance might have other effects than at first
found. During the recrystallization of LSD tartrate Hofmann was contami-
nated with the solution and he made the first quite unexpected observations
of the hallucinogenic effect. This was on the 16th of April, 1943, and three
days later he made the first Selbstuersuch with 0.25 mg (= 250 pg) of LSD
t&rate. The effects started after 40 minutes and then he made the world-
famous bicycle tour with his laboratory assistant to his house.
In the following chapters, Hofmann describes the effects of LSD in
animal experiments and the first systematic investigation in humans per-
formed in the Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich by Dr. W. A. Stall (son of Prof.
Arthur Stoll) and the clinical use of the preparation Delysid.
The second phase is the abuse of LSD by lay-people, which made
Sandoz stop the production of the substance; this, however did not stop the
availability of the drug on the black market. The role of the well-known Dr.
Timothy Lear-y (the “hippie prophet”) in the use of LSD by laymen is also
described.
To broaden his story Hofmann describes two Mexican hallucinogens:
the mushroom teonanacatl and the seeds ololiuqui. The first contains the
indole alkaloids psilocybine and psilocine, whereas the second contains ergot
alkaloid derivatives similar to LSD (but not LSD itself) as psychoactive
substances.
I remember clearly when Dr. Hofmann described his results on ololiuqui
at the IUPAC congress in Australia in 1960 that the audience was very
sceptical towards his results and could not believe that seeds from a plant of
the Convolvulaceae family contained the same alkaloids as the ergot fungus.
Of course, Hofmann was right: his findings were later verified in several
laboratories.
The expedition to Mexico together with the well-known ethnomycolo-
gist Gordon Wasson to discover the identity of the drug Ska Maria Pastora is
a stimulating chapter.
What gives this book a special interest for non-phytochemists and non-
pharmacologists is the literary, artistic and philosophical aspects on the
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hallucinogenic drugs. This is illustrated in an excellent way through

Hofmann’s correspondence with the authors Ernst Jiinger, Aldous Huxley
and Walter Vogt. Finally, Hofmann presents his own ideas on the LSD
experience and its relation to reality, mysticism and religious experiences.
This is a fascinating book, easy to read in German or English. It should
be read right through under quiet conditions, giving the reader time to think
of consciousness, the possibility of revealing ,the unconscious and its relation
to mysticism and religious feelings.
I read it during a stay on Mount Athos, Greece, walking from monastery
to monastery, and this book was part of my spiritual food.

Finn Sandberg