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 Uppers, Downers,
All Arounders
Physical and Mental Effects
of Psychoactive Drugs

Eighth Edition

Darryl S. Inaba, Pharm.D., CATC-V, CADC III

Director of Clinical and Behavioral Health Services, Addictions Recovery
Center, Medford, Oregon
Director of Research and Education, CNS Productions, Inc., Medford, Oregon
Associate Clinical Professor of Pharmacology, University of California
Medical Center, San Francisco
Consultant/Instructor, University of Utah, School on Alcoholism and
Other Drug Dependencies, Salt Lake City, Utah

William E. Cohen, CGAC I

CNS Productions, Inc.™

Medford, Oregon
 Sean Assariti, an advocate for legalizing marijuana, makes the frst
purchase at a dispensary in Colorado of an eighth of an ounce (about
$60.00). In 2012, the people of Colorado (and Washington State) voted to
allow sales of marijuana for recreational purposes. Another 20 states
allow marijuana for medical purposes with a physician-approved card or
license. The ramifcations of this action on the “War on Drugs” will be far
reaching in terms of less overcrowded jails flled with people arrested for
possession, driving under the influence, drug-free workplaces, tax
revenues, and a more benign attitude toward all drugs.
© 2014 Theo Strogmer/Getty Images

Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:

Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition

Psychoactive Drugs:
Classifcation and History
In This
Chapter
Disclaimer: Because drug ef-
fects depend on amount, fre-
quency, and duration of use as
well as the makeup of the
user, reactions to psychoac-
tive substances can vary radi-
cally from person to person
and even from dose to dose.
The information presented
herein about the actions of
drugs on the body should be
used only as general guide-
lines and not absolutes, and
in no way should be con-
strued as medical advice.
www.cnsproductions.com/e7vaa
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
1
The frst part of Chapter 1 classifes psychoactive drugs and behavioral addic-
tions by their general physical and mental effects and secondarily by their chemis-
try. The three main divisions are uppers, downers, and all arounders.
The second part of Chapter 1 examines the history of psychoactive drugs and
behavioral addictions, focusing on the impact these drugs and behaviors have had
on the social, economic, and governmental fabric of society.
Classifcation of Psychoactive Drugs
Defnition
“Apsychoactivedrugisanysubstancethatwheninjectedintoarat
givesrisetoascientifcpaper.”
Darryl Inaba, Pharm.D. Addictions Recovery Center, Medford, OR
A psychoactive drug is any substance that directly alters the normal functioning of
the central nervous system (CNS). As the understanding of addictive brain processes
increases, this defnition might be expanded to include compulsive behaviors (e.g.,
gambling or Internet game playing) that also alter the brain.
Drugs can be classifed in many ways, e.g., by their purpose of use, by their various
names, by their effects.
Classifcation by Purpose of Use
 In ancient Egypt the pharaoh Ramses paid his workers with beer to keep them build-
ing the pyramids.
 Spanish conquistadors provided coca leaves to Peruvian natives to keep them slav-
ing in the silver mines.
 Injections of morphine were given to wounded soldiers on both sides of the U.S.
Civil War to relieve pain and coincidentally to cause euphoria.
 Amphetamines were handed out like candy to World War II pilots to enable them to
stay awake on night bombing runs.
 Steroids were supplied to Russian weightlifters at the 1956 Olympics to boost their
confdence and strength.
1.1
1.2 CHAPTER 1 

A B C
Marijuana can be examined (A) as molecule, (B) as an exotic plant, or (C) as a source of fnancing for insurgencies.
Molecular graphic image produced using the MidasPlus® package from the Computer Graphics Laboratory, UCSF. Microphotograph of a marijuana bud courtesy of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration. Insurgent in Uzbekistan guarding marijuana feld © 1990 Alain Labrouse.

 Marijuana joints are smoked by AIDS patients to control Classifcation by Effects

nausea.
A more practical way to classify these substances is by their
 Video poker machines have been legalized in most U.S. overall effects: stimulation, depression, and psychedelic
states to supplement state budgets. reactions. There are other drugs that don’t fall neatly into
In recent years the popularity of new psychoactive drugs one of these categories, and those can be defned by their
has exploded due to new technologies, the Internet, and the purpose, such as delirium for inhalants, mental balance for
proliferation of street chemists and their customers. Drugs psychiatric medications, and enhanced performance for
such as bath salts (synthetic methamphetamine-like drugs) sports drugs.
and Spice (synthetic marijuana-like drugs) are continually
reformulated to induce a legal high and to stay one step Major Drugs
ahead of detection by drug tests. The media’s sensational re-
porting of outrageous acts committed by people under the
infuence of one of these “new” drugs creates the perception
that the effects of these drugs are unique and raise the profle
of obscure drugs such as Salvia divinorum and kratom. The
truth is that almost all psychoactive drugs are either an up-
per (stimulant), a downer (depressant), or an all arounder
(psychedelic).
There are also inhalants, sports drugs, and psychiatric med-
ications that have psychoactive effects and do cause depen-
dency but generally not as rapidly or as powerfully as stimu-
lants, depressants, and most psychedelics.

Classifcation by Chemical, Trade (®), Uppers (stimulants)

and Street Names (“ ”)
Psychoactive drugs have chemical names, trade names, and
street names.
 Chemical names are used to describe the molecular
structure of a psychoactive drug, e.g., C2H5OH for ethyl
alcohol; new synthetic substances such as methylene-
dioxypyrovalerone (MDPD), a “bath salt,” and naph-
thoylindoles (synthetic marijuana).
 Trade names are given by the pharmaceutical manufac-
turers, e.g. Xanax® is the trade name for the chemical
alprazolam, and OxyContin® is for oxycodone.
 Street names evolve almost daily among drug users.
Each commonly used and abused substance may have
20 or more informal names. Examples include: “chronic”
and “medibles” for marijuana; “oxidado,” and “crack”
for cocaine; super coke and cloud 9 for bath salts; and
“cheese” and “smack” for heroin.
Uppers (CNS stimulants) include:
 cocaine (hydrochloride, freebase, crack)
 amphetamines (Adderall,® “crystal” meth, speed)
 amphetamine congeners (Ritalin,® diet pills)
 plant stimulants (khat, betel nuts, ephedra, yohimbe),
look-alike stimulants
 caffeine (coffee, tea, colas, energy drinks, chocolate)
 nicotine (cigars, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco) and de-
signer stimulants (bath salts)
 psychostimulants (e.g., ecstasy and other phenylethyl-
amines which can have psychedelic effects in addition to
methamphetamine-like stimulatory ones (see Chapter 6)
Physical Effects
The usual effect of a small-to-moderate dose of uppers is
excess CNS stimulation that results in energized muscles,

Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:

Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition

increased alertness, insomnia, increased heart rate and blood
pressure, and decreased appetite.
Frequent use of the stronger stimulants (cocaine, metham-
phetamine, and bath salts) over a period of a few days will
deplete the body’s energy chemicals and exhaust the user.
If large amounts are used chronically or if the user is extra-
sensitive, heart, blood vessel, and seizure problems can oc-
cur. Although tobacco is a comparatively weak stimulant,
the long-term health effects of smoking can be perilous
(e.g., cancer, emphysema, and heart disease). The Surgeon
General states that, “tobacco is toxic to each and every organ
of the human body.”
Mental and Emotional Effects
A small-to-moderate dose of one of the stronger stimulants
can make someone feel more confdent, excited, outgoing,
and eager to perform. It can also cause a certain rush or
high, depending on the specifc drug and the physiology of
the user.
Larger doses can cause jitters, anxiety, anger, rapid speech,
and aggressiveness.
Prolonged use of the stronger stimulants can cause extreme
anxiety, paranoia, anhedonia (inability to experience plea-
sure), mental confusion, and an induced psychosis.
Downers (depressants)
There are four categories of downers, or CNS depressants:
 opiates and opioids: opium, heroin, oxycodone
(OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), buprenorphine
(Suboxone®), and methadone
 sedative-hypnotics: benzodiazepines including alpra-
zolam (Xanax®) and clonazepam (Klonopin®); barbitu-
rates such as butalbital; Z-hypnotics such as zolpidem
(Ambien®); and others, such as ramelteon (Rozerem®)
 alcohol: beer, wine, and hard liquors
 others: antihistamines, skeletal muscle relaxants, and
over-the-counter sedatives
Physical Effects
Small doses of downers depress the central nervous system,
which slows heart rate and respiration, relaxes muscles, de-
creases coordination, induces sleep, dulls the senses, and di-
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.3
minishes pain and controls diarrhea. Opiates and opioids can
cause nausea, constrict pupils, and induce constipation.
Excessive drinking and sedative-hypnotic, or opiate/opioid
use can disrupt physical coordination, slur speech, cause di-
gestive problems, induce sexual dysfunction, and create tis-
sue dependence.
Downers in large doses or in combination with other depres-
sants can cause dangerous respiratory depression, over-
dose, and coma.
Mental and Emotional Effects
Initially, small doses (particularly of alcohol) act like stimu-
lants because they lower inhibitions, which can lead to freer
and sometimes irresponsible behavior.
As more of the drug is taken, the overall depressant effects
dominate, relaxing and dulling the mind, diminishing anx-
iety, and controlling some neuroses. Certain downers can
also induce euphoria or a sense of well-being.
Long-term use of any depressant can cause psychological/
physical dependence and addiction.
All Arounders (psychedelics)
All arounders—hallucinogens or psychedelics—are sub-
stances that can distort perceptions and induce illusions, de-
lusions, or hallucinations. There are fve classifcations of
psychedelics:
 indoles: LSD and psilocybin mushrooms
 phenylalkylamines: peyote (mescaline), and psycho-
stimulants (phenethylamines), e.g., MDMA (ecstasy or
“Molly”)
 anticholinergics: belladonna, mandrake, etc.
 cannabinoids: marijuana, hashish, sinsemilla, and syn-
thetic marijuana (e.g., K2 and Silver Spice)
 others: ketamine, PCP, Salvia divinorum, nutmeg,
dextromethorphan, bromo-dragonFLY, lion’s tail, and
Amanita mushrooms.
Physical Effects
The physical effects from this class of substances are not as
dominant as the mental effects with the exception of PCP
1.4 
CHAPTER 1
and ketamine, which act as anesthetics. Most hallucino-
genic plants cause nausea (at higher doses) and dizziness.
Marijuana increases appetite and causes bloodshot eyes. LSD
raises the blood pressure and causes sweating. Ecstasy and
LSD act like stimulants.
Mental and Emotional Effects
Psychedelics distort sensory messages to and from the
brain stem—the mind’s sensory switchboard—so external
stimuli, particularly visual, tactile, and auditory ones, are in-
tensifed or altered (illusions). This process resembles syn-
esthesia, where the brain causes sounds to become visual
and sight to be perceived as sound. The brain can also trigger
imaginary sensory messages (hallucinations) along with dis-
torted thinking (delusions).
Other Drugs and Addictions
There are three other groups of drugs that can stimulate, de-
press, or confuse the user: inhalants, anabolic steroids and
other sports drugs, and psychiatric medications.
Inhalants (deliriants)
Inhalants are gaseous or liquid substances that are inhaled
and absorbed through the lungs. They include organic sol-
vents, such as glue, butane, gasoline, metallic paints, gaso-
line additives (STP®), and household sprays; volatile ni-
trites, such as amyl, butyl, or cyclohexyl nitrite (also called
“poppers”); and anesthetics, especially nitrous oxide
(“laughing gas”).
Physical Effects
Use results in CNS depression, causing dizziness, slurred
speech, unsteady gait, and drowsiness. Some inhalants lower
blood pressure, causing the user to faint or lose balance.
Because they are depressants, they can cause stupor, coma,
and asphyxiation. The organic solvents can be directly toxic
to cells in the lungs, brain, liver, kidney tissues, and blood.
Mental/Emotional Effects
Small amounts can produce impulsive behavior, excite-
ment, mental confusion, and irritability. Some inhalants
cause a rush through a variety of mechanisms. Larger
amounts can cause delirium and hallucinations.
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
Steroids and Other Sports Drugs
Anabolic-androgenic steroids are
the most common performance-
enhancing drugs (PEDs). Others
include stimulants (e.g., amphet-
amines, ephedrine, and caf-
feine), human growth hormone
(HGH), human chorionic gona-
dotropin (hCG), herbal and
nutritional supplements (e.g.,
creatine and androstenedione),
and some therapeutic drugs (e.g.,
painkillers, beta blockers, and diuretics).
Physical Effects
Anabolic steroids increase muscle mass and strength. Pro-
longed use can cause acne, high blood pressure, shrunken
testes in men, and masculinization in women.
Mental/Emotional Effects
Use of anabolic steroids often causes a stimulant-like high,
increased confdence, and increased aggression. Prolonged
large-dose use can be accompanied by outbursts of anger
known as “roid rage.”
Psychiatric Medications
Psychiatric medications are used to rebalance irregular brain
chemistry that has caused mental problems, drug addiction,
and other compulsive disorders. These are the most common:
 antidepressants: Celexa,® Prozac,® Luvox,® Zoloft,®
Paxil,® Cymbalta,® and Pristiq®
 antipsychotics: Seroquel,® Risperdal,® Abilify,® Haldol,®
and Zyprexa®
 antianxiety drugs: Xanax,® Buspar,® Lyrica® (off-label)
and panic disorder drugs (e.g., Inderal®)
The number of new drugs developed for the modifcation of
behavior and the alleviation of symptoms is an indication of
how fast the feld of psychopharmacology has grown and il-
lustrates the emphasis on medication as a treatment strat-
egy rather than psychotherapy. These drugs are prescribed
more and more frequently despite the fact that the national
incidence of psychiatric disorders has remained fairly con-
stant over the past 40 years.

Physical Effects
Psychiatric medications produce a wide variety of physical
side effects, particularly involving the heart, blood, and
musculoskeletal system. Side effects and other adverse or
toxic reactions from antipsychotic drugs (also called neuro-
leptic drugs) are especially severe.
Mental and Emotional Effects
 Antidepressants counteract depression by manipulating
the brain chemicals (e.g., serotonin) that elevate mood.
 Antipsychotics often manipulate dopamine to control
schizophrenic mood swings and hallucinations.
 Antianxiety drugs also manipulate brain chemicals, such
as GABA, to inhibit anxiety-producing thoughts.
Compulsive Behaviors
Behaviors like eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, and
binge-eating disorder), compulsive gambling, sexual com-
pulsion, Internet addiction, compulsive buying/shopping,
and codependency affect many of the same areas of the brain
that are affected by the compulsive use of psychoactive drugs
(e.g., norepinephrine, dopamine, and epinephrine).
Physical Effects
The major physical effects of compulsive behaviors are
generally confned to neurological and chemical changes in
the brain’s survival pathway, also called the reward/rein-
forcement pathway or the reward control pathway. Eating
disorders are the exception because excessive or very lim-
ited food intake can lead to cardiovascular problems, diabe-
tes, nutritional diseases, and obesity.
Mental and Emotional Effects
The development of tolerance, psychological dependence,
and withdrawal symptoms exists with compulsive behav-
iors. The compulsion to gamble or to overeat is every bit as
strong as drug-seeking behavior.
History of Psychoactive
Drugs
Introduction
“[Prohibitionis]agreatsocialandeconomic
experiment,nobleinmotiveandfar-reaching
inpurpose.”
Herbert C. Hoover in a letter to William E. Borah,
February 28, 1928
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.5
“Ibelievethisisagoodtime
forabeer.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
after the 1932 repeal
of Prohibition
“Onceyoucrossthatlinefromthestraightsociety
tothedrugsociety—marijuana,thenspeed,then
it’sLSD,thenit’sheroin,etcetera—thenyou’re
done.We’vegottotakeastrongstand.”
Richard Nixon meeting with Chicago mayor
Richard J. Daley, May 13, 1971
“Penaltiesagainstpossessionofadrugshould
notbemoredamagingtoanindividualthanthe
useofthedrugitself.Therefore,Isupport
legislationamendingfederallawtoeliminateall
federalcriminalpenaltiesforthepossession
ofuptooneounceofmarihuana.”
Jimmy Carter on U.S. marijuana laws, 1978
“We’vetakendownthesurrenderfagand
runupthebattlefag,andwe’regoingtowin
thewarondrugs.”
Ronald Reagan in a 1982 radio address to the nation
on federal drug policy
“Whenthatfrstcocainewassmuggledin
onaship,itmayaswellhavebeenadeadly
bacterium,somuchhasithurtthebody,
thesoulofourcountry.”
George H. W. Bush, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1989
“WhenIwasinEngland,Iexperimented
withmarijuanaatimeortwo,andIdidn’tlikeit,
andIdidn’tinhale,andInevertrieditagain.”
Bill Clinton in a reply to a question about
his drug use, 1992
“WhenIwasyoungandirresponsible,
Iwasyoungandirresponsible.”
George W. Bush in a reply to reporters
asking about his drug use, 2000
“Muchoftherootcauseforviolencethathasbeen
happeninghereinMexico,forwhichsomany
Mexicanshavesuffered,isthedemandforillegal
drugsintheUnitedStates,”
Barack Obama, during state trip to Mexico, May 3, 2013
Although presidential attitudes toward drugs and alcohol
in the twentieth and twenty-frst centuries vary widely, the
laws and the attitudes regarding substance use have as
much to do with the political climate at the time they were
1.6 CHAPTER 1 
formulated as they do with the actual effects of drugs on the
individual and society. The result: the budget for the U.S.
War on Drugs increased from $3.7 million in 1971 to $25.4
billion in the 2014 budget, with 58% aimed at reducing the
supply of drugs and 42% at reducing the demand through
prevention and treatment.1 This fgure does not include state
and local expenditures.
The rise in the use of psychoactive drugs since President
Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs in 1971 suggests
that attacking the supply side of drugs through law enforce-
ment and interdiction has proven to be an unsuccessful
strategy. Extensive research over the past 20 to 30 years on
how the brain reacts to drugs has resulted in deeper insights
into the roots of addiction as well as recognition that de-
mand reduction (drug-abuse treatment and prevention) as
a strategy is more effective than supply reduction (inter-
diction, laws, and incarceration).
In 2013 Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that
low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs
or large-scale drug organizations will no longer be charged
with offenses that impose severe mandatory sentences
(50% of all those in prison are there for drug offenses; often
the charge involves possession of small amounts of a drug).
“ToomanyAmericansgototoomanyprisonsforfar
toolongandfornotrulygoodlawenforcementreason.
Wecannotsimplyprosecuteorincarcerateourway
tobecomingasafernation.”
Eric Holder, attorney general, August 12, 2013
an increase in the creation and the abuse of psychoactive
drugs (and compulsive behaviors). The frst two themes are
inherent in human beings. The last three are rooted in the
makeup of the culture.

1 Human beings have a basic need to cope with their
environment and enhance their existence.
Early man lived in a dangerous and mysterious environment.
Brutal weather, carnivorous predators, life-threatening phys-
ical diseases, despotic rulers, and aggressive enemies could
wound, maim, or kill. Primitive and eventually civilized
human beings have always searched for ways to control or
tune out these dangers. Ancient peoples built the city of
Jericho 10,000 years ago so they could grow and control
their food supply and protect themselves from their enemies.
They worshipped their gods, praying for divine intervention
that would allow them to survive. They fasted, chanted,
meditated, danced, practiced self-hypnosis, inficted pain
on themselves, went without sleep, and used nondrug
methods to receive revelations from the gods.5,6 By chance
and by experimentation, they found that ingesting certain
plants could ease fear and anxiety, reduce pain, treat some
illnesses, give pleasure, and spiritually connect them to their
gods. Our modern world also creates fears, anxiety, pains,
illnesses, and painful boredom that can compel a person to
use psychoactive drugs to control their environment.

To fully appreciate the scope and the infuence that psycho-

active drugs and compulsive behaviors have had on society,
it is necessary to examine the history of these substances and
behaviors. This is the key to fnding ways to treat addiction
on both personal and societal levels.

Five Historical Themes of Drug Use

“LetusnotthensimplycensurethegiftofDionysus(GreekGod
ofFertilityandWine)asbadandunfttobereceivedintothe
Stateforwinehasmanyexcellences.Shallwebeginbyenacting
thatboysshallnottastewineatalluntiltheyareeighteenyears
ofage;wewilltellthemthatfremustnotbepoureduponfre,
whetherinthebodyorinthesoul.”
Athenian Stranger in The Laws by Plato, 360 B.C.

People throughout history have chosen to alter their per-

ception of reality with psychoactive substances whether
used to alter states of consciousness, reduce pain, forget
harsh surroundings, alter a mood, medicate a mental illness,
or enhance the senses. The kind of drug, method of use, con-
sequences, treatment, and efforts at prevention have varied
from culture to culture and from century to century.
Regardless of the ways the drugs were used or abused—be it A bushman in the Kalahari in South Africa smokes marijuana with a
6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (beer) or yesterday in New bone pipe.
York City (Lite® beer)—the authors have noticed certain © 2012 Universal Images Group. Permission by Getty Images
patterns that have transcended time and culture and led to

Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:

Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
 Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.7


2 Human brain chemistry can be affected by psychoac-
tive drugs, behavioral addictions, and mental illness in
ways that will induce an altered state of consciousness.
In fact, if psychoactive drugs and behavioral addictions did
not affect human brain chemistry in a desirable manner (at
least initially), they would not be used. The chemistry of
individual psychoactive drugs has counterparts within the
central nervous system.
Drugs affect the primitive, or “old,” part of the brain that
controls emotions, instincts, natural physiological functions
(e.g., breathing and heart rate), emotional memories,
sensory perception, and physical or emotional pain. They
also affect the reasoning and decision-making centers of
the “new” brain, called the neocortex. Because mental
illnesses are caused by unbalanced brain chemistry, psycho-
active drugs have been used to try to control illnesses such as
depression and schizophrenia. The brain’s neurochemicals,
neurons, and structures evolved over hundreds of millions of The New York City deputy police commissioner watches agents pour
years, starting in invertebrate creatures such as insects and liquor into a sewer following a raid during the height of Prohibition.
snails and growing in complexity in vertebrate creatures, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
especially Homo sapiens.

 taxing of medical marijuana enterprises to offset

governmental budget defcits
 prohibition or restriction of alcohol, tobacco, opium,
and every other psychoactive drug by every country at
one time or another
 legalization of gambling in most states to control the
activity and raise revenues

Discovery of the survival circuit (reward/reinforcement circuit), which
includes the VTA, lateral hypothalamus, amygdala, and especially the
nucleus accumbens, has helped researchers understand the roots of
addiction.
© 2012 CNS Productions, Inc.
3 Historically the ruling classes, governments, and in-
dustry, along with criminal organizations, have been
involved in growing, manufacturing, distributing, tax-
ing, and prohibiting drugs.
The intensity of the demand for substances that relieve pain
and induce pleasure is matched by the struggle to control the
supply:
 monopolization of coca leaf growing by the Spanish
conquistadors in Peru to increase tax revenues
 excise taxes levied on whiskey, hemp, and tobacco to
fnance the American Revolution
 sale of opium to China by Britain, France, Japan, and
other imperial powers to support their colonies
 drug trade by al Qaeda to fnance terrorist activities

4 Technological advances in refning, synthesizing, and
manufacturing drugs have increased the potency of
these substances.
Over the centuries cultures have learned how to:
 distill alcoholic beverages to higher potency (Arabia,
tenth century)
 refne morphine from opium (Germany, 1804)
 refne cocaine from coca leaves (Germany, 1859)
 use manufacturing innovations to increase production
(automatic cigarette rolling machine, United States,
1881)
 synthesize the stimulant amphetamine to create a re-
placement for ephedra (Germany, 1887)
 synthesize LSD (Switzerland, 1938)
 use the sinsemilla growing technique to increase delta-
9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active ingredi-
ent content of marijuana (United States, 1960–1980)
 create cocaine/methamphetamine-like substances that
avoid detection (United States, 2009)
These and other techniques enabled drug users to deliver
more of an active psychoactive ingredient into the body at
one time. For example, the percentage of cocaine found in
coca leaves is 0.5% to 2.0%; in street cocaine it is often 60%
to 70%. Today marijuana contains up to 14 times more THC

Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:

Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
1.8 CHAPTER 1
Hey, what’s in this brew? It makes everything I draw a masterpiece!
© 2011 Dave Granlund
than did the street marijuana of the 1970s.2 Research shows
that the more potent the psychoactive drug, the more rapid
the development of addiction.

5 The development of faster and more-effcient methods
of delivering drugs into the body has intensifed the
effects.
Technological and pragmatic discoveries have taught users to:
 mix alcohol and opium for stronger effects
(Sumer, 4000 B.C.)
 absorb more juice while chewing a coca leaf by mixing
it with charred oyster shell (Peru, 1450)
 inhale nitrous oxide to become giddy and high
(England, 1800)
 inject morphine directly into the bloodstream (England,
1855)
 snort cocaine to absorb the drug more quickly
(Europe, 1900)
 smoke crack cocaine to intensify the high
(United States, 1975–1985)
 crush and inject time-release medications, such as
the opiate pain reliever OxyContin® for a bigger rush
(United States, 2003)
 vaporize nicotine in electronic cigarettes
 vaporize alcohol and inhale the fumes
(worldwide, 2000s)
Societal and cultural changes play a role in new behavioral
addictions. Rapid-play poker machines, slot machines, and
online gambling have resulted in an increase in the number
of problem and pathological gamblers. Online games such as
Farmville,® World of Warcraft,® and a thousand other digital
activities have captured the imagination of the Internet gen-
eration and created yet another behavioral addiction.
A close examination of the evolution of substance use fnds
these fve themes appearing time and time again. By studying
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
Electronic cigarettes deliver vaporized nicotine without unwanted tars
and smoke particles. Some smokers are using them to help them quit.
© 2014 CNS Productions, Inc.
the recurrent yet progressive nature of drug use and abuse, it
is evident that solutions must change and adapt as society
changes and as science presents us with a clearer picture of
the reasons for craving and addiction.
Prehistory and the Neolithic Period
(8500–4000 B.C.)
Many of the drugs available today have antecedents in psy-
choactive plants that have been around for millions of years.
It is estimated that 4,000 plants yield psychoactive sub-
stances, although only about 60 are commonly used.
Opium poppies, marijuana tops, coca leaves, tea leaves, betel
nuts, khat leaves, coffee beans, tobacco leaves, and fruits or
other plants that ferment into alcohol have been the most
popular over the millennia.3
While there is some evidence that Neanderthals and early
man used plants such as ephedra (a stimulant) and alcohol
from naturally fermented fruits at least 50,000 years ago,
most of the evidence places serious use of psychoactive
drugs about 12,000 years ago at the start of the Neolithic
period.4 This era, considered the last part of the Stone Age,
was marked by settlement into permanent villages, the use of
agriculture to grow crops, the raising of domesticated ani-
mals, and the transition from stone to metal tools.
The need for substances to subdue pain, heal illness, and
deal with fears of real and imagined dangers in the environ-
ment also spurred the development of spirituality and ulti-
mately civilization. This need to deal with the physical world
led to the development of Shamanism, which holds beliefs in
an unseen world of external and internal demons, gods, and
ancestral spirits who listen only to the shaman. The shaman,
a combination priest–medicine man, was the key fgure in
these religions and functioned as a conduit to the super-
natural, using both naturally induced (e.g., fasting and
dancing) and drug-induced altered states of consciousness.
 Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.9

In his role as a healer, the shaman could perform the equiva-

lent of an exorcism or use some natural plant preparation to
expel what he perceived to be his patient’s inner demons. In
those days the “demon” might have been a mental illness
such as schizophrenia.
The use of psychoactive substances spread through tribal
migration. One assumption is that the earliest Native
Americans were Eurasians who migrated to the Americas
10,000 to 15,000 years ago over the frozen Aleutian Islands
chain, bringing with them their customs, religions, and psy-
choactive substances, like the hallucinogenic mescal bean
and sophora seed.5,6

Ancient Civilizations
(4000 B.C.–A.D. 400)

Great civilizations grew and thrived where the land was fer-
tile, usually next to rivers such as the Tigris and the Euphrates
in the Middle East (modern-day Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) and
the Nile in Egypt. The earliest crops were wheat and barley,
used to make bread and beer (beer was far more nutritious
in ancient times than it is today).8 Asian civilizations used
rice as a staple food and to make wine (sake). Some ancient
cultures cultivated the opium poppy and the hemp plant
(Cannabis) for medicinal purposes.
Alcohol
Throughout history alcohol has been the most popular
psychoactive substance. This food/medicine/drug has been
with us since prehistoric times. Perhaps hunger, thirst, or
curiosity made early humans eat or drink fermented fruits,
or perhaps they noticed the odd behavior of animals that ate
the spoiled fruit of the marula tree.9
The taste, the nutrition, and the psychoactive effects, par-
ticularly the drunken states that made them feel closer to
their gods, motivated humans to learn how to produce fer-
mented beverages themselves.10 They collected honey to fer-
ment into mead, an alcoholic beverage; they cultivated grains
to ferment starchy foods into beer; and they cultivated grapes
and other fruits to make wine. These agricultural experi-
ments are the earliest signs of organized efforts to guaran-
tee a steady supply of a desirable psychoactive substance.
In 2004 and 2005, in Jiahu, China, archaeologists uncovered
evidence of the use of alcoholic drinks 9,000 years ago.
Residue in ancient pottery vessels from this Stone Age village
in China’s Henan province indicated that a fermented bever-
age of rice, honey, and fruit was being made at approxi-
mately the same time that barley beer and grape wine were
being made in the Middle East.11
The frst written references to alcohol were found on
Sumerian clay tablets from 6,000 years ago (4000 B.C.)
that were discovered in ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq and
Iran). They contained recipes for using wine as a solvent for
medications such as opium.
Many ancient cultures considered alcohol, particularly
wine, a gift from the gods. According to ancient mythology,
The Egyptian hieroglyphic from 1500 B.C. advised moderation in
barley beer drinking as well as avoidance of other compulsive
behaviors. Written Egyptian references to alcohol that date back to
3500 B.C. have been unearthed.
Translation from Precepts of Ani, World Health Organization.
Osiris gave alcohol to the Egyptians, as did Dionysus to the
Greeks and Bacchus to the Romans.12 In ancient Egypt a bar-
ley beer called hek was a valued commodity and was given as
a reward to laborers building the great pyramids. Beer was
the drink of the workers, and wine was the privilege of the
pharaohs as evidenced by earthen jars in King Tut’s tomb,
which noted the vintage (year) of the wine and the location
of the vineyard.
Rice wine was the drink of the masses in ancient China and
later Japan, but grape wine was more highly prized. In about
180 B.C., a gift of grape wine served as a bribe to get a civil
service job.13 For centuries Judaism has used wine in reli-
gious and secular celebrations, including circumcisions,
weddings, and the Sabbath.
Because alcohol caused not only the desired effects but also
side effects capable of creating social and health problems,
most civilizations throughout history placed religious, so-
cial, and legal controls on the use of alcohol and other
drugs. Many of the 150 biblical references to alcohol include
a warning.
“Givestrongdrinktohimwhoisperishing,andwinetothose
inbitterdistress;letthemdrinkandforgettheirpoverty,and
remembertheirmiserynomore.”
Proverbs, 31:6–7

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1.10 
CHAPTER 1

One of the earliest attempts at temperance (limited drink-

ing) occurred in China around 2200 B.C., when the legend-
ary Emperor Yu levied a tax on wine to curtail consumption.
Centuries later, during the Chu Dynasty (1122–249 B.C.),
the penalties for drunkenness were severe for the lower
classes, while the upper classes were given a chance at recov-
ery, not unlike current realities.14
In ancient India religious hymns (Vedas) cited alcohol as the
cause of falsity, misery, and darkness while its favorable as-
pects were dismissed. And though many ancient Greek po-
ets, philosophers, and writers, including Plato, Homer, and
Aeschylus, drank wine all day, every day, warnings about ex-
cess use can be found throughout Greek literature. These
were reinforced with cautionary tales of battles lost due to
drunkenness.15 The temperance of later Greek society em-
bodied in Dionysus (god of wine and fertility) gave way to This statue of the Minoan Goddess of Opium was dated back to
orgiastic drinking in Roman society, encouraged by Bacchus, 1400-1100 B.C. when discovered on the island of Crete south of Italy
a more liberal incarnation of Dionysus. in the Mediterranean. Note the three opium poppies sculpted into her
crown, which are thought to mean she affects sleep or death.
By the fourth century A.D., heavy drinkers in Rome were led Irakliou Archeological Museum (Heraklion)
through town by a cord strung through their noses. Habitual
offenders were tied with the nose cord and left for ridicule in
the public square. The political and moral swings from heavy
consumption to temperance, to abstinence, and back con-
“[Helen]druggedthewinewithanherbthatbanishesallcare,
tinue to this day.
sorrow,andillhumour.Whoeverdrinkswinethusdruggedcan-
Opium notshedasingletearalltherestoftheday,noteventhough
hisfatherandmotherbothofthemdropdowndead,orhesees
The other psychoactive drug that appears early in history
abrotherorasonhewninpiecesbeforehisveryeyes.”
(10,000 to 12,000 B.C.) is opium. Ruins of ancient poppy
Homer, The Odyssey, IV, 221–226, 700 B.C.
plantations in what is now Spain, Greece, northeast Africa,
Egypt, and Iran (Mesopotamia) are evidence of the wide-
Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” recommended opi-
spread early use of the drug.18
um as a painkiller and as a treatment for female hysteria.
The process of extraction involved waiting until the milky Galen, the most prominent medical physician/researcher of
white fuid from the fresh opium poppy dried and turned Roman times and perhaps all of history, chronicled the many
amber; it was then boiled until it turned to a sticky gum, uses of opium.
which was then chewed. It was also burned and inhaled, or
mixed with fermented liquids and swallowed. Opium was “Resistspoisonandvenomousbites,cureschronicheadache,
used both for its medicinal properties of pain relief, cough vertigo,deafness,epilepsy,apoplexy,dimnessofsight,lossof
suppression, and diarrhea control and for its mental prop- voice,asthma,coughsofallkinds,spittingofblood,tightnessof
erties of sedation and euphoria.16 Because it was ingested breath,colic,thelilacpoison,jaundice,hardnessofthespleen
rather than smoked, its bitter taste and the moderate con- stone,urinarycomplaints,fever,dropsy[edema],leprosies,
centration of active ingredients limited the abuse potential.17 thetroubletowhichwomenaresubject,melancholy,andall
pestilences.”
Around 4000 B.C. the Sumerians in southern Mesopotamia
Galen of Pergamon, Antídotos, A.D. 129–217
cultivated the opium poppy along with barley and wheat,
their basic agricultural crops.18 They named it hul gil, “the
In Rome the drug was so desired in A.D. 312 that hundreds
plant of joy.” Early Egyptian medical texts referred to opium
of stores sold it and the excise tax on the drug provided
as both a medicine and a poison. Parents fed it to crying ba-
15% of the city’s revenue.18 The best opium was “thick and
bies to calm their discomfort and fears. In ancient times
heavy and soporifc to the smell, bitter to the taste, easily
healers at the Temple of Imhotep administered opium to
diluted in water, smooth, white, neither rough nor full of
mentally ill patients in an attempt to cure them by inducing
lumps.”19
visions, performing rituals, and facilitating prayer to the
gods. The close relationship between drugs and mental ill- Cannabis (marijuana)
ness is referenced, researched, and utilized in treatment
Historically, Cannabis was known in many countries and lan-
throughout history.
guages: kannabis (Greek), qunubu (Assyrian), qanneb
Other ancient civilizations also employed opium to alter (Hebrew), and qannob (Arabic).20 Cannabis was prized as a
mental states (to self-medicate). In The Odyssey Homer source of oil and fber, for its edible seeds, as a medicine,
spoke about an opium mixture, called nepenthe, given by and as a psychedelic. Archaeologists found traces of hemp
Helen of Troy to Telemachus to banish unwanted feelings. fbers in clothes, shoes, paper, and rope dating to 4000 B.C.

Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:

Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition

This saddhu (Hindu ascetic) is making a beverage from Cannabis
indica. He grinds the leaves into a paste, flters out the remains of the
plant by pouring water through cheesecloth, then drinks the resulting
infusion. He uses the drink as part of his religious belief system for
meditation and concentration. He is a follower of the Hindu god
Shiva. Shivites believe in the use of this intoxicant though many other
Hindus do not endorse the use of Cannabis.
© 2000 CNS Productions, Inc.
in Taiwan, although it had probably been cultivated since
the Neolithic era several millennia before.20,21 According to
legend, in 2737 B.C. the Chinese emperor Shen-Nung used
Cannabis (ma-fen) as a medicine and recorded the fndings of
his personal experiment. A medical herbal encyclopedia
called the Pen-Tsao, written in A.D. 100, refers to Shen-
Nung’s study of 364 drugs (including ephedra and ginseng)
and lists Cannabis as a medication as well as a substance
with stupefying and hallucinogenic properties.22
Over the centuries Cannabis has been recommended as a
medication for constipation, dysentery, rheumatism, ab-
sentmindedness, female disorders, malaria, beriberi, and a
dozen other maladies, including as a treatment for wasting
diseases. The Chinese physician Hua T’o in A.D. 200 recom-
mended Cannabis as an analgesic (painkiller) for surgery.23
India also held a benevolent view of the psychoactive prop-
erties of Cannabis. Almost 1,500 years before the birth of
Christ, the Atharva-Veda (sacred psalms) praised Cannabis
(bhang) as one of fve sacred plants that gave a long life, in-
duced visions (hallucinations), and freed the user from dis-
tress. Other texts from India listed dozens of medicinal uses
for Cannabis, including calming soldiers’ nerves in battle.24
Initially, use of Cannabis and its psychoactive resin was
reserved for the ruling classes and the military; the
lower classes were allowed to use it only at signifcant
religious festivals.
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.11
In about 500 B.C. the Scythians, whose territory ranged from
the Danube to the Volga in eastern Europe, threw Cannabis
on hot stones placed in small tents and inhaled the vapors.25
“TheScythiansthentaketheseedofthishempand,crawlingin
underthemats,throwitonthered-hotstones,whereitsmolders
andsendsforthsuchfumesthatnoGreekvaporbathcouldsur-
passit.TheScythians,transportedwiththevapor,shoutforjoy.”
Herodotus, The Histories, 4.75.1, 460 B.C.
Around A.D. 200 writings by the Greek physician Galen de-
scribed hosts offering hemp to guests to stimulate enjoyment
and promote hilarity.26 The hemp was probably mixed with
wine to increase its potency. In most ancient civilizations,
including Greece, Rome, and England, hemp was used pre-
dominantly as a fber.
Mescal Bean and San Pedro and
Peyote Cacti (mescaline) in Mesoamerica
The availability of dozens of hallucinatory plants in North
and South America provided cultures with natural materials
for complex ceremonies overseen by shamans, who held
the same positions of spiritual infuence as did those in
Neolithic times in Asia. The psychoactive mescal beans were
roasted and eaten during sacred rites, causing a sleepy
delirium that lasted for days. Half a bean, ground, chewed,
and swallowed, is suffcient to cause the delirium.3 Later,
cacti containing mescaline (San Pedro cactus) became
another ceremonial hallucinogen of choice. Stone carvings
and textiles depicting images of this plant were found at a
Chavin temple in the Peruvian highlands and date back to
1300 B.C. Other South American cultures, including the
Nazca and Chimu peoples, boiled the cacti for up to seven
hours and drank the potion to produce hallucinations and
communicate with the supernatural.27 Evidence found in
caves in what is now Texas implies ceremonial use of the
peyotl, or peyote cactus (which also contains mescaline),
3,000 years ago.3,22
Psychedelic Mushrooms in India, Siberia,
and Mesoamerica
Sacramental use of psychedelic mushrooms dates back
about 7,000 years. Cave drawings from the Neolithic era
discovered in Algeria show shamanic fgures enmeshed in
mushrooms (possibly Psilocybe mairei), suggesting early sac-
ramental use.28 In 1500 B.C. the Vedas of ancient India sang
of a holy inebriant that proved to be an extract of the Amanita
muscaria mushroom, also called the fy-agaric mushroom.
The active ingredients are ibotenic acid and the alkaloid
muscimole. The hallucinogen was called Soma, the name of
one of their most important gods. More than 100 holy hymns
from the Rig Veda are devoted to Soma.
“Itisdrunkbythesickmanasmedicineatsunrise;
partakingofitstrengthensthelimbs,preservesthelegs
frombreaking,wardsoffalldisease,andlengthenslife.
Thenneedandtroublevanishaway.” 29,30
1.12 CHAPTER 1 
These are a few of the 200 Psilocybe mushroom stone gods that
survived the concerted efforts of Catholic missionaries to wipe out the
culture that used psychedelic mushrooms in sacred ceremonies. Some
date back to A.D. 100.
© 2008 Paul Stamets
Though the Amanita muscaria also grows in North America,
it was the Psilocybe mushroom that was preferred by Aztec
and Mayan cultures in pre-Columbian Mexico.22 There are
more than 30,000 different identifed species of mushroom,
but only 80 produce psilocybin and psilocin, the main active
hallucinogenic ingredients. Of the many psychedelic mush-
rooms, Psilocybe cubensis is the most widely used.3,28
Tobacco and Coca Leaf in Mesoamerica
The genesis of the plants containing stimulant alkaloids
(e.g., tobacco [nicotine] and coca leaves [cocaine]) dates
back 65 million to 250 million years. The bitter alkaloids
were the plants’ defense against dinosaurs, other herbivores,
and insects.
“Somescientistsjokethatdinosaursbecameextinctbecause
themajorityofvegetationthattheyusedtosustainthemselves
becameinedibleduetothebitteralkaloidsandthattheystarved
todeath,showingforthefrsttimethatcocaineandcigarettes
willkillyou.”
It was not until approximately 5000 to 3000 B.C., in the
Peruvian/Ecuadorian Andes in South America, that humans
began using tobacco. Over the centuries they drank (in solu-
tion), chewed, snorted, and smoked tobacco for religious
ceremonies and for the simulative effects.31 It was also used
This Colombian carving
depicts a user’s cheeks stuffed
with cocada, coca leaf mixed
with powdered lime.
Courtesy of the Fitz Hugh Ludlow
Memorial Library.
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
as an enema and swallowed as a jelly. Smoking was the pre-
ferred method of use for rituals, and the tobacco was stronger
than today’s milder leaves, causing intoxication.32 Tobacco
was used socially and recreationally by both the common man
and the elite. It was grown and used only in the Americas un-
til Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492
and discovered its use and brought word back to Europe.
During the same time frame, tribes in South America
chewed the coca leaf for stimulation, for nutrition, and to
control their appetite when food was scarce.33 The coca leaf
also increased glucose, glycerol, lactate, and pyruvate levels,
enabling the chewers to survive at the high altitudes of the
Andes Mountains (7,000 to 10,000 feet).33A Burial sites un-
earthed on the north coast of Peru dating back to 2500 B.C.
contained bags that held coca leaves, fowers, and occasion-
ally a wad of coca leaves mixed with guano or ash and corn-
starch. These pouches are called a cocada, and were used for
chewing. The coca was interred with the deceased to facili-
tate the journey through the afterlife. Cocada chewing was
so common in ancient Peruvian culture that it became a
standard unit of time and of distance: one cocada equaled
the distance a person could walk before the effects of a single
wad wore off (about 45 minutes). Recent discoveries in the
Andes dating to 3000 B.C. have found evidence of complex
societies that chewed coca leaves for spiritual and medical
practices.34 The use of coca persists to the present day as
evidenced by the existence (since the third century B.C.) of
hundreds of stone and wood sculptures of heads with cheeks
bulging from a wad of coca leaves.
The Middle Ages
(400 –1400)
Psychedelic “Hexing Herbs”
“Double,double,toilandtrouble;
Fireburn,andcauldronbubble.
Filletofafennysnake,
Inthecauldronboilandbake;
Eyeofnewtandtoeoffrog,
Woolofbatandtongueofdog,
Adder’sforkandblind-worm’ssting,
Lizard’slegandhowlet’swing,
Foracharmofpowerfultrouble,
Likeahell-brothboilandbubble.”
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, 1606
Centuries before Shakespeare’s witches brewed their concoc-
tion of animal parts, a number of plants were used to induce
psychedelic effects. Members of the nightshade family
Solanaceae that contain the psychoactive chemicals atro-
pine and scopolamine were the drugs of choice. These sub-
stances date back to ancient civilizations and were feared
due to their poisonous nature and their ability to cause hal-
lucinations and delirium. In the Middle Ages, the nightshade
varietals were sometimes used by medicine men and women
who were later accused of witchcraft.3
 Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.13

 Datura (thornapple) was often made into a salve and ab-

sorbed through the skin.30
 Henbane was referred to as early as 1500 B.C. in Egyptian
medical texts. It was used as a painkiller and a poison. It
was also used to mimic insanity, produce hallucinations,
and generate prophecies.
 Belladonna—also known as witch’s berry, devil’s herb,
and deadly nightshade—dilates pupils, causes inebria-
tion, and can cause hallucinations and delirium. It has
also been used to treat a number of physical illnesses and
dysfunctional mental states.30
 Mandrake, or mandragora, is a root that often grows
in the shape of a human body and was used in ancient
Greece as well as in medieval times. Its properties are
similar to those of henbane and belladonna, causing
disorientation and delirium. Mandrake was consid-
ered an aphrodisiac in the 1400s in Italy, and a century
later Niccolò Machiavelli wrote a risqué comedy called
Mandragola about seduction and infdelity.

Psychedelic Mold—Ergot (Saint Anthony’s Fire)

Another psychedelic that has persisted through the ages is
found in ergot, the brownish purple fungus Claviceps
purpurea, which grows on infected rye and wheat plants.
The active ingredient in the fungus is ergotamine, which
contains lysergic acid diethylamide, the natural form of the
modern synthetic hallucinogen LSD. Ergot and its effects are
referred to in ancient Greek (Eleusinian Mysteries) and me-
dieval European literature. It was recognized as a poison and
a psychedelic as early as 600 B.C.
“Suddenlythisnewanddevastatingairofplaguedescended
downuponthewater,oritnestedinthefruitsof
thefeld…theentirebodywasreddenedbyburningsores,
aswhenthe‘sacredfre’[ignissacer]spreadoverthelimbs.
Throughouttheinsideofaperson,sothatitburned
allthewaydowntothebones;completelyconfused
conditionwithfearandmelancholia.
Roman Poet Lucretius (c. 94–55 B.C.) (6.1125, 1166 ff., 1183 ff)
Over the centuries there were numerous outbreaks of ergot
poisoning. The population of entire towns, particularly in
rye-consuming areas of eastern Europe, went seemingly
mad, occasionally with great loss of life. In A.D. 944 in
France, 40,000 people are estimated to have died from an
ergotism epidemic. There were outbreaks as recently as 1953
in France and Belgium. Hallucinations, convulsions, possi-
bly permanent insanity, a burning sensation in the feet and
the hands, and gangrene occasionally causing a loss of ex-
tremities—toes, feet, fngers, and nose—were common. Less
dramatic was the use of ergot in small doses as a medication
in the Middle Ages to induce childbirth.
One of the outbreaks in A.D. 1039 is responsible for naming
the affiction Saint Anthony’s fre. A wealthy Frenchman and
his son became afficted with ergot poisoning and prayed to
Saint Anthony, a fourth-century saint who protects believers
from fre, epilepsy, and infection. Both recovered, and the
father was so grateful that he built a hospital in Dauphiné,
This ffteenth-century painting by Matthias Grünewald shows Saint
Anthony being assaulted by visions of sexual licentiousness and
savage animals, visions similar to those caused by the ergot fungus,
found on spoiled rye or wheat cereal grasses. Ergotism was often fatal
because it led to gangrene and extreme delirium.
Courtesy of the Musée Unterlinden, Colmar, France. Reprinted by permission.
All rights reserved.
France (where Saint Anthony was buried), for the care of
sufferers of ergotism.
From Medicine to Psychoactive Drug to Poison
Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist, charac-
terized the plant datura as a medicine at a low dose, a psy-
choactive drug at a moderate dose, and a deadly poison at
a high dose.
“Oneadministersonedrachma[ofdatura],ifthepatient
mustonlybeanimatedandmadetothinkwellofhimself;
doublethat,ifhemustenterdeliriumandseehallucinations;
tripleit,ifhemustbecomepermanentlyderanged;givea
quadrupledoseifheistodie.”
Theophrastus, Inquiry into Plants, 323 B.C.
Datura, ergot, opium, and most other psychoactive drugs
follow this pattern. Opium sedates and suppresses pain at a
low dose, causes euphoria at a higher dose, and depresses
breathing to dangerous levels at a very high dose.
Healers and shamans were well aware of the dose-dependent
dangers of most drugs and would experiment with various

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Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
1.14 
CHAPTER 1
substances to fnd the correct dose to heal a patient or induce
a trance state. They lost quite a few patients in the process. A
similar danger exists in the relationship between the amount
and frequency of use vs. the liability for addiction. The more
powerful the psychoactive component itself, the quicker
addiction will develop.
Alcohol and Distillation
Even though techniques for distilling seawater and alcohol
had been around for thousands of years, it was not until the
eighth to fourteenth centuries that knowledge of the tech-
niques became widespread. The evaporation process was
used to raise the average alcohol content of a beverage from
14% to 40%.30 An Arabian alchemist known as Geber (Jabir
Ibn Hayyan, A.D. 721–815), called the “father of the sci-
ence of chemistry,” is credited with perfecting a wine dis-
tillation method that produced pure alcohol, which he de-
scribed as “of little use but of great importance to science.”
Further research was done by the Arabian physician Rhazes,
who described the process in his book Al-Asrar (The
Secrets). He called the substance al-koh.31 It took 300 years
for the process to become common in Europe, around the
time of the frst Crusades.
Technical advances in cultivation as well as in distillation
made a difference in consumption. In the early days,
Christians celebrated their faith at banquets featuring wine
and bread; but as alcohol use became more and more of a
problem, less and less wine was consumed until it was used
almost exclusively in rituals.
Limiting alcohol consumption became a moral cause. Saint
Paul condemned the relaxed behavior excessive drinking
caused because it led users away from God. Paganism and
the use of psychoactive substances to communicate with
the supernatural gave way to a demand that faith alone be
used to understand God.
Islamic Substitutes for Alcohol
In the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, few references are
made to wine and intoxicants. Wine is not used in any
Islamic sacraments and drinking is frowned upon. The
prophet Mohammed simply chastised a drunkard for not
performing his duties. Mohammed’s brother-in-law, Ali, set
the tone for alcohol in later Muslim societies.
“Hewhodrinksgetsdrunk,hewhoisdrunk,doesnonsensical
things,hewhoactsnonsensicallysayslies,
andhewholiesmustbepunished.”
Ali18
Muslims avoided alcohol, substituting alternative psychoac-
tive substances. Opium for the relief of pain, both physical
and mental, was seen as an acceptable substitute. It was used
in Arab society as a general tonic; it supposedly eased the
transition to old age. In later centuries tobacco, hashish
(concentrated Cannabis), and particularly coffee were em-
ployed as substitutes for alcohol to provide stimulation,
induce sedation, or alter consciousness. These substances
were also used medicinally.
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
Khat, a stimulant permitted by some Islamic cultures, was
originally cultivated in the southern Arabian Peninsula and
the Horn of Africa. It was used for long prayer ceremonies to
help the congregation stay awake (much like coffee). In A.D.
1238 the Arab physician Naguib ad-Din distributed khat to
soldiers to prevent hunger and fatigue; an Arab king, Sabr
ad-Din, gave it freely to subjects recently conquered to pla-
cate them and quell their revolutionary tendencies.35
Historically, for most religions, alcohol per se was not
shunned but rather what alcohol made a drinker do.
Through the centuries temperance gave way to prohibition,
and objections to the debilitating effects of alcohol and other
psychoactive drugs gave way to bans on any substance that
could make one forget religious and moral duties.
Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate (caffeine)
For centuries the coffee plant Coffea Arabica grew wild in
Ethiopia; by the fourteenth century, it was imported to
Arabia and widely cultivated. Initially, people simply chewed
the beans or drank bean-infused water. During the later
Middle Ages, people began to roast and grind the beans,
which made a tastier, more potent beverage. It was also used
medicinally as a diuretic, an asthma treatment, and for head-
ache relief. It was not until 1819 that caffeine, the active al-
kaloid in coffee and tea, was fnally identifed by the German
physician Friedlieb Runge.
Approximately 60 plants, including the beans of coffee
shrubs and the leaves of tea bushes, contain caffeine (e.g.,
the cacao, maté, kola, and yoco trees and the seeds of the
guarana plant).
Tea brewed from the leaves of the Thea sinensis (chinensis)
bush was supposedly used in China 4,700 years ago, in 2700
B.C., but the frst written evidence of it dates to approxi-
mately A.D. 350. The cultivation of tea in Japan and the de-
velopment of tea ceremonies occurred about A.D. 800. Today
tea remains at the heart of social and religious ceremonies in
Japan and in a number of other countries.36
Chocolate, refned from cocoa beans that grow on the cacao
tree, can be traced back to the Olmecs of Mexico (1500 to
400 B.C.). The Mayans (1000 B.C. to A.D. 900) were the
second people to cultivate cacao on plantations throughout
Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, followed by the Toltecs
and then the Aztecs. The beans were ground and used to
make a stimulating, highly desirable though bitter chocolate
drink (with foam). They were prized and used for barter: 4
beans would buy a squash; 8 to 10, a rabbit. The average
daily wage of a porter in central Mexico was 100 beans.37
The Renaissance and the
Age of Discovery (1400 –1700)
As exploration, trade, and colonization broadened in the 15th,
16th, and 17th centuries, Europeans encountered diverse
cultures and unfamiliar psychoactive plants which were
collected and brought home. Some of the most notable sub-
stances were coffee from Turkey and Arabia; tobacco, cocoa,
 Psychoactive Drugs: Classifcation and History 1.15

and coca from the New World; tea from China; and the kola
nut (chocolate) from Africa. To a lesser extent, these European
explorers, soldiers, traders, and missionaries in turn carried
their own culture’s drugs and drug-using customs to the rest
of the world; e.g., tobacco to China from Portuguese sailors.
Urbanization, wealth, personal freedom, and fewer religious
taboos also increased the use of these substances.

Alcohol
Laws passed during this period that limited the use of alco-
hol were the result of the effects of overuse, particularly of
high-potency beverages. Those in power wanted to limit
alcohol’s toxic effects and confront the moral consequences
of lowered inhibitions. Switzerland and England passed
closing-time laws in the thirteenth century. Scotland and
Germany limited sales on religious days in the ffteenth cen-
tury.15 These laws were aimed more at temperance than at
prohibition because controlled sales of distilled beverages
produced hefty tax revenues.
Europeans were not the only ones with well-established
drinking patterns. Many African cultures brewed wine from
palm trees or beer from maize and used it in rituals, as a
foodstuff, and for social interaction. When slavers ripped
Africans from their villages and sent them to America, start-
ing in the 1500s, the tribes of Whidah, Ebo, Congo, and
Mandingo brought many of their brewing techniques and
drinking rituals with them.38 Some rituals remained, but
more often the changed power structure disrupted those pat-
terns. Slave ships and ships transporting missionaries to Following a centuries-old tradition, this coca chewer carries his
non-Christian countries brought rum to cultures used to leaves in a pouch on his shoulder. The poporo gourd in his right hand
drinking only beer and wine. Rum’s higher alcohol content contains powdered lime that is mixed in his mouth with the coca to
often led to a disruption in the drinking patterns that had increase the absorption of cocaine.
evolved over centuries and had rarely led to alcohol abuse. Courtesy of the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library

Colonists in the New World found alcoholic beverages made

from maize (corn), cacti, tree bark, and pulque (maguey or
agave plant) and in turn facilitated the widespread use of
rum and whiskey, creating severe alcohol-induced health
problems for Native Americans.
Coca and the Conquistadors
The interaction between the Spanish conquistadors who
colonized Peru in the 1500s and the native tribes’ use of the
coca leaf is one example of how the economic and political
needs of a country transformed the way a substance was
used. When the explorers/invaders arrived, coca leaf was
used as a mild stimulant and as a reward; it was also consid-
ered a divine substance, a gift from the gods. Some people
chewed throughout the day, much the way Americans drink
coffee. The leaf was only 0.5% to 2% of the alkaloid cocaine
and not especially toxic. Coca use was restricted by the elite,
but under the conquistadors it became a commodity and its
production increased more than 50-fold, as did its addictive
liability.39,40
“Theycarrythem[cocaleaves]fromsomehighmountains,to
others,asmerchandisetobesold,andtheybarterandchange
themformantillas,andcattle,andsalt,andotherthings.”41
Monardes, 1577
The conquistadors supplied their subjugated labor force
with coca to keep them hard at work in the felds and in the
silver mines located high in the Andes. They controlled the
Incas’ coca plantations and planted new ones to ensure a
steady supply of leaves to keep the natives chewing—and
working—throughout the day. Production from so many
coca shrubs occasionally caused a glut in the market.42 As
coca chewing increased, so did revenue from the trade.
About 8% of the Spaniards living in Peru during the six-
teenth century were involved in the coca trade, and they had
their own lobby back in Spain.43
Although the tax revenues from coca helped fnance the
colony, many Spaniards opposed its use on moral grounds.44
Even the Catholic Church was conficted because although
the revenue was necessary to pay for missionary activities,
the Church was repulsed by the exploitation of the Incas and
questioned how chewing coca could convert anyone to
Christianity.45
Tobacco Crosses the Oceans
In 1492 Columbus crossed the Atlantic and reached the
islands of the West Indies, including San Salvador and Cuba.

Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:

Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
1.16 CHAPTER 1 
He noted the natives’ use of tobacco or, as he referred to it in
his journal, “certain dried leaves.” Natives chewed tobacco or
placed chopped leaves or powder on the gums. Eventually,
they learned how to smoke it in pipes, cigars, and ciga-
rettes.46 In North America straight pipes (war pipes, peace
pipes, and pleasure pipes later called calumets) were common.
The Quiche Mayans and the Cuban natives preferred cigars.
Tobacco was widely used in rituals for planting, fertility, fsh-
ing, consulting the spirits, and preparing magical cures.
Shamans in South America used the toxicity of tobacco to
induce trancelike states to awe their tribesmen.47 Tobacco
was also used as a medicine for a wide variety of ailments,
including headache, toothache, snakebite, skin diseases, and
stomach and heart pains.
“Thepeopletookcertainherbstotaketheirsmokes.Theylit
thematoneendandattheothercheworsuckortakeitinwith
theirbreaththatsmokewhichdullstheirfeshandasitwere
intoxicatesandsotheysaythattheydonotfeelweariness.”
Bartolome de Las Casas, editor of the journal of Columbus’s travels in 151448
The Spaniards and the British exported tobacco from their
North American colonies to Europe, where it was received
enthusiastically, originally as a medicine and later as a
stimulant, mild relaxant, and mild euphoriant. Sir Walter
Raleigh introduced “tobacco smoking for recreation” to the
court of Queen Elizabeth I.47 In France tobacco was called
nicotiana after Jean Nicot, who described its medicinal prop-
erties. Portuguese sailors introduced tobacco to Japan,
where its cultivation began in about 1605. The Portuguese
also introduced tobacco to China, where it was highly re-
garded as a medicine. It was carried throughout China by
soldiers, then banned, and then taxed. It was in vogue at the
Uppers, Downers, All Arounders:
Physical and Mental Effects of Psychoactive Drugs, 8th Edition
emperor’s court, then among the people, and then actively
propagated throughout Asia. Rulers, governments, and
churches believed tobacco to be harmful to society and
mounted sporadic attempts at prohibition, but its use spread.
“Theuseoftobaccoisgrowinggreaterandconquersmenwith
acertainsecretpleasure,sothatthosewhohaveoncebecome
accustomedtheretocanlaterhardlyberestrainedtherefrom.”
Sir Francis Bacon, 1620
The danger of fre, large gatherings in tobacco houses dis-
cussing radical political ideas, and the abuse of tobacco by
the clergy led to vigorous attacks by various authorities in
Europe, including King James I of England.
“[Smokingis]acustomelothsometotheeye,hatefultothe
Nose,harmefulltothebraine,dangeroustotheLungs,and
theblackestinkingfumethereof,neerestresemblingthehorrible
Stigiansmokeofthepitthatisbottomless.”
James I, 1604
The king’s crusade against tobacco had as much to do with
his contempt for the indigenous peoples of the New World
as it did with the immorality of smoking. He regarded smok-
ers as no better than Devil-worshipping savages.31 He did,
however, understand addiction: “As no man likes strong
heady drink the frst day…but by custom is piece by piece
allured.”
Pope Urban VIII forbade Catholics from smoking under the
threat of excommunication; the use of tobacco was, at one
time, also forbidden in Turkey under pain of torture and
death; and it was banned by Czars Michael and Alexis in
Russia with equally dire penalties.47 Widespread covert use
The use of tobacco in a
number of forms predated
the 1492 arrival of
Columbus in the Americas.
This drawing of reclining
Aztec smokers who seem to
be getting high from their
cigars was done by Ariel
Baynes based on the
originals reproduced in
Lord Kingsborough’s
Antiquities of Mexico
(1843–1848).
Courtesy of the Arents Collection,
New York Public Library
Another random document with
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permanently ductile, by mechanical treatment while in the heated
state. In this process pure tungsten powder is pressed into rods and
then made coherent by heating. While still hot it is hammered, and
finally drawn out into fine wires through diamond dies. The wire is no
thicker than a fine hair, and it varies in size from about 0·012 mm. to
about 0·375 mm., according to the amount of current it is intended to
take. It is mounted by winding it continuously zigzag shape round a
glass carrier, which has at the top and the bottom a number of metal
supports arranged in the form of a star, and insulated by a central
rod of glass. One star is made of strong, stiff material, and the other
consists of fine wires of some refractory metal, molybdenum being
used in the Osram lamps. These supports act as springs, and keep
the wire securely in its original shape, no matter in what position the
lamp is used. The whole is placed in a glass bulb, which is
exhausted of air and sealed up.
For some purposes lamps with specially small bulbs are
required, and in these the tungsten wire is made in the shape of fine
spirals, instead of in straight pieces, so that it takes up much less
room. In the “Axial” lamp the spiral is mounted in such a position that
most of the light is sent out in one particular direction.
The latest development in electric incandescent lamps is the
“half-watt” lamp. The watt is the standard of electrical energy, and it
is the rate of work represented by a current of one ampere at a
pressure of 1 volt. With continuous currents the watts are found very
simply by multiplying together the volts and the amperes. For
instance, a dynamo giving a current of 20 amperes at a pressure of
50 volts would be called a 1000-watt dynamo. With alternating
currents the calculation is more complicated, but the final result is
the same. The ordinary form of tungsten lamp gives about one
candle-power for every watt, and is known as a one-watt lamp. As its
name suggests, the half-watt lamp requires only half this amount of
energy to give the same candle-power, so that it is very much more
economical in current. In this lamp the tungsten filament is wound in
a spiral, but instead of being placed in the usual exhausted bulb, it is
sealed into a bulb containing nitrogen gas. The increased efficiency
is obtained by running the filament at a temperature from 400° to
600° C. higher than that at which the filament in the ordinary lamp is
used.
In spite of the great advances in artificial lighting made during
recent years, no one has yet succeeded in producing light without
heat. This heat is not wanted, and it represents so much waste
energy. It has often been said that the glow-worm is the most expert
of all illuminating engineers, for it has the power of producing at will a
light which is absolutely without heat. Perhaps the nearest approach
to light without heat is the so-called “cold light” invented by M.
Dussaud, a French scientist. His device consists of a revolving ring
of exactly similar tungsten lamps. Each of these lamps has current
passed through it in turn, and the duration of the current in each is so
short, being only a fraction of a second, that the lamp has not
sufficient time to develop any appreciable amount of heat. The light
from the ring of lamps is brought to a focus, and passed through a
lens to wherever it is required. Electric incandescent lamps are made
in a variety of sizes, each one being intended for a certain definite
voltage. If a lamp designed for, say, 8 volts, is used on a circuit of 32
volts, its candle-power is greatly increased, while the amount of
current consumed is not increased in proportion. In this way the lamp
becomes a more efficient source of light, but the “over-running,” as it
is called, has a destructive effect on the filament, so that the life of
the lamp is greatly shortened. In the Dussaud system however the
time during which each lamp has current passing through it is so
short, followed by a period of rest, that the destructive effect of over-
running is reduced to the minimum; so that by using very high
voltages an extremely brilliant light is safely obtained with a
comparatively small consumption of current. It might be thought that
the constant interchange of lamps would result in an unsteady effect,
but the substitution of one lamp for another is carried out so rapidly
that the eye gets the impression of perfect steadiness. The Dussaud
system is of little use for ordinary lighting purposes, but for
lighthouse illumination, photographic studio work, and the projection
of lantern slides and cinematograph films, it appears to be of
considerable value.
 Electric light has many advantages over all other illuminants. It
gives off very little heat, and does not use up the oxygen in the air of
a room as gas does; while by means of flexible wires the lamps can
be put practically anywhere, so that the light may be had just where
it is wanted. Another great advantage is that the light may be
switched on without any trouble about matches, and there is none of
the danger from fire which always exists with a flame.
The current for electric lamps is generally taken from the public
mains, but in isolated country houses a dynamo has to be installed
on the premises. This is usually driven by a small engine running on
petrol or paraffin. In order to avoid having to run the engine and
dynamo continually, the current is not taken directly from the
dynamo, but from a battery of accumulators. During the day the
dynamo is used to charge the accumulators, and these supply the
current at night without requiring any attention.
Electric lighting from primary cells is out of the question if a good
light is wanted continuously for long periods, for the process is far
too costly and troublesome. If a light of small candle-power is
required for periods of from a few minutes to about an hour, with
fairly long intervals of rest, primary cells may be made a success.
Large dry cells are useful for this purpose, but probably the most
satisfactory cell is the sack Leclanché. This is similar in working to
the ordinary Leclanché cell used for bells, but the carbon mixture is
placed in a canvas bag or sack, instead of in a porous pot, and the
zinc rod is replaced by a sheet of zinc surrounding the sack. These
cells give about 1½ volt each, so that four, connected in series, are
required to light a 6-volt lamp. The lamps must take only a very small
current, or the cells will fail quickly. Small metal filament lamps taking
from a third to half an ampere are made specially for this purpose,
and these always should be used. A battery of sack Leclanché cells
with a miniature lamp of this kind forms a convenient outfit for use as
a night-light, or for lighting a dark cupboard, passage or staircase.
Lamps with ruby glass, or with a ruby cap to slip over the bulb, may
be obtained for photographic purposes. If the outfit is wanted for use
as a reading-lamp it is better to have two separate batteries, and to
use them alternately for short periods. With this arrangement each
battery has a short spell of work followed by a rest, and the light may
be kept on for longer periods without overworking the cells.
 CHAPTER XIII
ELECTRIC HEATING

The light of the electric incandescent lamp is produced by the

heating to incandescence of a thin filament of metal or carbon, and
the heat itself is produced by the electric current forcing its way
through the great resistance opposed to it by the filament. In such
lamps the amount of heat produced is too small to be of much
practical use, but by applying the same principle on a larger scale we
get an effective electric heater.
The most familiar and the most attractive of all electric heaters is
the luminous radiator. This consists of two or more large
incandescent lamps, having filaments of carbon. The lamps are
made in the form of long cylinders, the glass being frosted, and they
are set, generally in a vertical position, in an ornamental case or
frame of metal. This case is open at the front, and has a metal
reflector behind. The carbon filaments are raised to an orange-red
heat by the passage of the current, and they then radiate heat rays
which warm the bulbs and any other objects in their path. The air in
contact with these heated bodies is warmed, and gradually fills the
room. This form of heater, with its bright glowing lamps, gives a room
a very cheerful appearance.
In the non-luminous heaters, or “convectors” as they are called,
the heating elements consist of strips of metal or wires having a very
high resistance. These are placed in a frame and made red-hot by
the current. Cold air enters at the bottom of the frame, becomes
warm by passing over the heating elements, and rises out at top and
into the room. More cold air enters the frame and is heated in the
same way, and in a very short time the whole of the air of the room
becomes warmed. The full power of the heater is used in the
preliminary warming of the room, but afterwards the temperature
may be kept up with a much smaller consumption of current, and
special regulating switches are provided to give different degrees of
heat. Although these heaters are more powerful than the luminous
radiators, they are not cheerful looking; but in some forms the
appearance is improved by an incandescent lamp with a ruby glass
bulb, which shines through the perforated front of the frame.
The Bastian, or red glow heater, has thin wires wound in a spiral
and enclosed in tubes made of quartz. These tubes are transparent
both to light and heat, and so the pleasant glow of the red-hot wire is
visible. A different type of heater, the hot oil radiator, is very suitable
for large rooms. This has a wire of high resistance immersed in oil,
which becomes hot and maintains a steady temperature.
Electric cooking appliances, like the heaters just described,
depend upon the heating of resistance wires or strips of metal. The
familiar electric kettle has a double bottom, and in the cavity thus
formed is placed the resistance material, protected by strips of mica,
a mineral substance very largely used in electrical appliances of all
kinds on account of its splendid insulating qualities. Electric irons are
constructed in much the same way as kettles, and sometimes they
are used with stands which cut off the current automatically when the
iron is laid down upon them, so that waste and overheating are
prevented. There are also a great many varieties of electric ovens,
grillers, hot-plates, water-heaters, glue-pots, and foot and bed
warmers. These of course differ greatly in construction, but as they
all work on the same principle there is no need to describe them.
Electric hot-plates are used in an interesting way in Glasgow, to
enable the police on night duty to have a hot supper. The plates are
fitted to street telephone signal boxes situated at points where a
number of beats join. By switching on current from the public mains
the policemen are able to warm their food and tea, and a supper
interval of twenty minutes is allowed. Even policemen are sometimes
absent-minded, and to avoid the waste of current and overheating of
the plate that would result if a “bobby” forgot to switch off, an
arrangement is provided which automatically switches off the current
when the plate is not in use.
 We must turn now to electric
heating on a much larger scale, in
the electric furnaces used for
industrial purposes. The dazzling
brilliance of the light from the electric
arc lamp is due to the intense heat of
the stream of vaporized carbon
particles between the carbon rods,
the temperature of this stream being
roughly about 5400° F. This great
heat is made use of in various
industries in the electric arc furnace.
Fig. 23 is a diagram of a simple
furnace of this kind. A is a vertical
carbon rod which can be raised or Fig. 23.—Diagram to illustrate
lowered, and B is a bed of carbon, principle of Electric Furnace.
forming the bottom of the furnace,
and acting as a second rod. A is lowered until it touches B, the
current, either continuous or alternating, is switched on, and A is
then raised. The arc is thus struck between A and B, and the
material contained in the furnace is subjected to intense heat. When
the proper stage is reached the contents of the furnace are drawn off
at C, and fresh material is fed in from above, so that if desired the
process may be kept going continuously. Besides the electric arc
furnace there are also resistance furnaces, in which the heat is
produced by the resistance of a conductor to a current passing
through it. This conductor may be the actual substance to be heated,
or some other resisting material placed close to it.
It will be of interest to mention now one or two of the uses of
electric furnaces. The well-known substance calcium carbide, so
much used for producing acetylene gas for lighting purposes, is a
compound of calcium and carbon; it is made by raising a mixture of
lime and coke to an intense heat in an electric furnace. The
manufacture of calcium carbide is carried on on a very large scale at
Niagara, with electric power obtained from the Falls, and at Odda in
Norway, where the power is supplied by the river Tysse.
Carborundum, a substance almost as hard as the diamond, is largely
used for grinding and polishing purposes. It is manufactured by
sending a strong current through a furnace containing a core of coke
surrounded by a mixture of sand, sawdust, and carbon. The core
becomes incandescent, and the heating is continued until the carbon
combines with the sand, the process taking about a day. Graphite, a
kind of carbon, occurs naturally in the form of plumbago, which is
used for making black lead pencils. It is obtained by mining, but
many of the mines are already worked out, and others will be
exhausted before long. By means of the electric furnace, graphite
can now be made artificially, by heating anthracite coal, and at
Niagara a quantity running into thousands of tons is produced every
year. Electric furnaces are now largely employed, particularly in
France, in the production of the various alloys of iron which are used
in making special kinds of steel; and they are used also to a
considerable extent in the manufacture of quartz glass.
For many years past a great deal of time and money has been
spent in the attempt to make artificial diamonds. Quite apart from its
use in articles of jewellery, the diamond has many very important
industrial applications, its value lying in its extreme hardness, which
is not equalled by any other substance. The very high price of
diamonds however is at present a serious obstacle to their general
use. If they could be made artificially on a commercial scale they
would become much cheaper, and this would be of the greatest
importance to many industries, in which various more or less
unsatisfactory substitutes are now used on account of their much
smaller cost. Recent experiments seem to show that electricity will
solve the problem of diamond making. Small diamonds, one-tenth of
an inch long, have been made in Paris by means of the electric arc
furnace. The furnace contains calcium carbide, surrounded by a
mixture of carbon and lime, and the arc, maintained by a very
powerful current, is kept in operation for several hours. A black
substance, something like coke, is formed round the negative
carbon, and in this are found tiny diamonds. The diamonds continue
to increase slowly in size during the time that the arc is at work, and
it is estimated that they grow at the rate of about one-hundredth of
an inch per hour. So far only small diamonds have been made, but
there seems to be no reason why large ones should not be
produced, by continuing the process for three or four days.
A chapter on electric heating would not be complete without
some mention of electric welding. Welding is the process of uniting
two pieces of metal by means of a combination of heat and pressure,
so that a strong and permanent joint is produced. The chief difficulty
in welding is that of securing and keeping up the proper temperature,
and some metals are much more troublesome than others in this
respect. Platinum, iron, and steel are fairly easy to weld, but most of
the other metals, and alloys of different metals, require very exact
regulation of temperature. It is almost impossible to obtain this exact
regulation by ordinary methods of heating, but the electric current
makes it a comparatively easy matter. The principle of ordinary
electric welding is very simple. The ends of the two pieces of metal
are placed together, and a powerful current is passed through them.
This current meets with a high resistance at the point of contact of
the two pieces, and so heat is produced. When the proper welding
temperature is reached, and the metal is in a sort of pasty condition,
the two pieces are pressed strongly together, and the current is
switched off. The pieces are now firmly united together. The process
may be carried out by hand, the welding smith switching the current
on and off, and applying pressure at the right moment by means of
hydraulic power. There are also automatic welders, which perform
the same operations without requiring any manual control.
Alternating current is used, of low voltage but very high amperage.
Steel castings are sometimes found to have small defects, such
as cracks or blow-holes. These are not discarded as useless, but are
made quite sound by welding additional metal into the defective
places by means of the electric arc. The arc is formed between the
casting and a carbon rod, and the tremendous heat reduces the
surface of the metal to a molten condition. Small pieces or rods of
metal are then welded in where required.
 CHAPTER XIV
ELECTRIC BELLS AND ALARMS

The most familiar of all electrically worked appliances is probably the

electric bell, which in some form or other is in use practically all over
the world. Electric bells are operated by means of a current of
electricity sent through the coils of an electro-magnet, and one of the
very simplest forms is that known as the single-stroke bell. In this
bell an armature or piece of soft iron is placed across, but at a little
distance from, the poles of an electro-magnet, and to this piece of
iron is fixed a lever terminating in a sort of knob which lies close to a
bell or gong. When a current is sent round the electro-magnet the
armature is attracted, so that the lever moves forward and strikes a
sharp blow upon the gong. Before the gong can be sounded a
second time the current must be interrupted in order to make the
magnet release the armature, so that the lever may fall back to its
original position. Thus the bell gives only one ring each time the
circuit is closed. Bells of this kind may be used for signalling in
exactly the same way as the Morse sounder, and sometimes they
are made with two gongs of different tones, which are arranged so
as to be sounded alternately.
For most purposes however another form called the trembler bell
is much more convenient. Fig. 24 is a rough diagram of the usual
arrangement of the essential parts of a trembler bell. When the
circuit is closed by pressing the bell-push, a current flows from the
battery to the electro-magnet EE, by way of terminal T. The electro-
magnet then attracts the soft iron armature A, thus causing the
hammer H to strike the gong. But immediately the armature is pulled
away from the terminal T¹ the circuit is broken and the magnet loses
its attraction for the armature, which is moved back again into
 contact
with T¹
by the
spring
S. The
circuit
Fig. 25.—Diagram showing principle
of Bell-push. is thus
again
closed,
the armature is again attracted, and the
hammer strikes the gong a second time.
This process goes on over and over
again at a great speed as long as the
bell-push is kept pressed down, resulting
in an extremely rapid succession of
strokes upon the gong. It will be noticed
that the working of this bell is very similar
to that of the automatic contact-breaker
used for induction coils (Chapter VIII.). Fig. 24.—Mechanism of
For household purposes this form of bell Electric Bell.
has completely driven out the once
popular wire-pulled bell. Bell-pushes are made in a number of
shapes and forms, and Fig. 25 will make clear the working principle
of the familiar form which greets us from almost every doorway with
the invitation, “Press.” In private offices and elsewhere the rather
aggressive sound of an ordinary trembler bell is apt to become a
nuisance, and in such cases a modified form which gives a quiet
buzzing sound is often employed.
It is frequently necessary to have an electric bell which, when
once started, will continue ringing until it is stopped. Such bells are
used for fire and burglar alarms and for many other similar purposes,
and they are called continuous-ringing bells as distinguished from
the ordinary trembler bells. In one common form of continuous-
ringing bell two separate batteries are used, one to start the bell and
the other to keep it ringing. When a momentary current from the first
battery is sent over the bell lines the armature is attracted by the
electro-magnet, and its movement allows a lever to fall upon a metal
contact piece. This closes the circuit of the second battery, which
keeps the bell ringing until the lever is replaced by pulling a cord or
pressing a knob. Continuous-ringing bells are often fitted to alarm
clocks. The alarm is set in the usual way, and at the appointed hour
the bell begins to ring, and goes on ringing until its owner, able to
stand the noise no longer, gets out of bed to stop it.
There is another form of electric bell which has been devised to
do away with the annoyance of bells suddenly ceasing to work on
account of the failure of the battery. In this form the battery is entirely
dispensed with, and the current for ringing the bell is taken from a
very small dynamo fitted with a permanent steel horse-shoe magnet.
The armature is connected to a little handle, and current is
generated by twisting the handle rapidly to and fro between the
thumb and finger. A special form of bell is required for this
arrangement, which is not in general use.
In the days of wire-pulled bells it was necessary to have quite a
battery of bells of different tones for different rooms, but a single
electric bell can be rung from bell-pushes placed in any part of a
house or hotel. An indicator is used to show which push has been
pressed, and, this like the bell itself, depends upon the attraction of
an armature by an electro-magnet. Before reaching the bell the wire
from each bell-push passes round a separate small electro-magnet,
which is thus magnetized by the current at the same time that the
bell is rung. In the simplest form of indicator the attraction of the
magnet causes a little flag to swing backwards and forwards over its
number. Another form is the drop indicator, in which the movement of
the armature when attracted by the magnet allows a little flag to
drop, thus exposing the number of the room from which the bell was
rung. The dropped flag has to be replaced, either by means of a
knob fixed to a rod which pushes the flag up again, or by pressing a
push which sends the current through another little electro-magnet
so arranged as to re-set the flag.
The electric current is used to operate an almost endless variety
of automatic alarms for special purposes. Houses may be thoroughly
protected from undesired nocturnal visitors by means of a carefully
arranged system of burglar alarms. Doors and windows are fitted
with spring contacts so that the slightest opening of them closes a
battery circuit and causes an alarm to sound, and even if the burglar
succeeds in getting inside without moving a door or window, say by
cutting out a pane of glass, his troubles are not by any means at an
end. Other contacts are concealed under the doormats, and under
the carpets in passages and stairways, so that the burglar is
practically certain to tread on one or other of them and so rouse the
house. A window may be further guarded by a blind contact. The
blind is left down, and is secured at the bottom to a hook, and the
slightest pressure upon it, such as would be given by a burglar trying
to get through the window, sets off the alarm. Safes also may be
protected in similar ways, and a camera and flashlight apparatus
may be provided, so that when the burglar closes the circuit by
tampering with the safe he takes his own photograph.
The modern professional burglar is a bit of a scientist in his way,
and he is wily enough to find and cut the wires leading to the
contacts, so that he can open a door or window at his leisure without
setting off the alarm. In order to circumvent this little game, burglar
alarms are often arranged on the closed-circuit principle, so that the
alarm is sounded by the breaking of the circuit. A burglar who deftly
cut the wires of an alarm worked on this principle would not be
particularly pleased with the results of his handiwork. The bells of
burglar alarms may be arranged to ring in a bedroom or in the street,
and in the United States, where burglar and in fact all electric alarms
are in more general use than in England, large houses are
sometimes connected to a police station, so that the alarm is given
there by bell or otherwise.
 PLATE X.

By permission of Vickers Limited.

WHERE ELECTRICAL MACHINERY IS MADE.

When an outbreak of fire is discovered it is of the utmost

importance that the nearest fire-station should be notified instantly,
for fire spreads with such rapidity that a delay of even a few minutes
in getting the fire-engines to the spot may result in the total
destruction of a building which otherwise might have been saved. In
almost all large towns some system of public fire alarms is now in
use. The signal boxes are placed in conspicuous positions in the
streets, and sometimes also in very large buildings. The alarm is
generally given by the starting of a clockwork mechanism which
automatically makes and breaks a circuit a certain number of times.
When this occurs an alarm bell rings at the fire-station, and the
number of strokes on the bell, which depends upon the number of
times the alarm mechanism makes and breaks the circuit, tells the
attendant from which box the alarm has been given. One well-known
form of call box has a glass front, and the breaking of the glass
automatically closes the circuit. In other forms turning a handle or
pulling a knob serves the same purpose.
It is often required to maintain a room at one particular
temperature, and electricity may be employed to give an alarm
whenever the temperature rises above or falls below a certain point.
One arrangement for this purpose consists of an ordinary
thermometer having the top of the mercury tube fitted with an air-
tight stopper, through which a wire is passed down into the tube as
far as the mark indicating the temperature at which the alarm is
desired to sound. Another wire is connected with the mercury in the
bulb, and the free ends of both wires are taken to a suitable battery,
a continuous-ringing bell being inserted in the circuit at some
convenient point. If a rise in temperature takes place the mercury
expands and moves up the tube, and at the critical temperature it
touches the wire, thus completing the circuit and sounding the alarm.
This arrangement only announces a rise in temperature, but by
making the thermometer tube in the shape of a letter U an alarm
may be given also when the temperature falls below a certain
degree. A device known as a “thermostat” is also used for the same
purpose. This consists of two thin strips of unlike metals, such as
brass and steel, riveted together and suspended between two
contact pieces. The two metals expand and contract at different
rates, so that an increase in temperature makes the compound strip
bend in one direction, and a decrease in temperature makes it bend
in the opposite direction. When the temperature rises or falls beyond
a certain limit the strip bends so far as to touch one or other of the
contact pieces, and the alarm is then given. Either of the preceding
arrangements can be used also as an automatic fire alarm, or if
desired matters may be arranged so that the closing of the circuit,
instead of ringing a bell, turns on or off a lamp, or adjusts a stove,
and in this way automatically keeps the room at a constant
temperature.
Electric alarms operated by ball floats are used to some extent
for announcing the rise or fall beyond a pre-arranged limit of water or
other liquids, and there is a very ingenious electrical device by which
the level of the water in a tank or reservoir can be ascertained at any
time by indicators placed in convenient positions any distance away.
In factories and other large buildings a watchman is frequently
employed to make a certain number of rounds every night. Being
human, a night-watchman would much rather sit and snooze over his
fire than tramp round a dark and silent factory on a cold winter night;
and in order to make sure that he pays regular visits to every point
electricity is called in to keep an eye on him. A good eight-day clock
is fitted with a second dial which is rotated by the clockwork
mechanism, and a sheet of paper, which can be renewed when
required, is placed over this dial. On the paper are marked divisions
representing hours and minutes, and other divisions representing the
various places the watchman is required to visit. A press-button is
fixed at each point to be visited, and connected by wires with the
clock and with a battery. As the watchman reaches each point on his
rounds he presses the button, which is usually locked up so that no
one else can interfere with it, and the current passes round an
electro-magnet inside the clock case. The magnet then attracts an
armature which operates a sort of fine-pointed hammer, and a
perforation is made in the paper, thus recording the exact time at
which the watchman visited that particular place.
The current for ordinary electric bells is generally supplied by
Leclanché cells, which require little attention, and keep in good
working order for a very long time. As we saw in Chapter IV., these
bells soon polarize if used continuously, but as in bell work they are
required to give current for short periods only, with fairly long
intervals of rest, no trouble is caused on this account. These cells
cannot be used for burglar or other alarms worked on the closed-
circuit principle, and in such cases some form of Daniell cell is
usually employed.
 CHAPTER XV
ELECTRIC CLOCKS

Amongst the many little worries of domestic life is the keeping in

order of the various clocks. It ought to be a very simple matter to
remember to wind up a clock, but curiously enough almost
everybody forgets to do so now and then. We gaze meditatively at
the solemn-looking machine ticking away on the mantelpiece,
wondering whether we wound it up last week or not; and we wish the
wretched thing would go without winding, instead of causing us all
this mental effort.
There is usually a way of getting rid of little troubles of this kind,
and in this case the remedy is to be found in an electrically-driven
clock. The peculiar feature about clocks driven by electricity is that
they reverse the order of things in key-wound clocks, the pendulum
being made to drive the clockwork instead of the clockwork driving
the pendulum. No driving spring is required, and the motive power is
supplied by a small electro-magnet.
The actual mechanism varies considerably in different makes of
clock. In one of the simplest arrangements there is a pendulum with
an armature of soft iron fixed to the extremity of its bob. Below the
pendulum is an electro-magnet, and this is supplied with current from
a small battery of dry cells. A short piece of metal, called a “pallet,” is
attached to the rod of the pendulum by means of a pivot; and as the
pendulum swings it trails this pallet backwards and forwards along a
horizontal spring. In this spring are cut two small notches, one on
each side of the centre of the swing. As long as the pendulum is
swinging sufficiently vigorously, the pallet slides over these notches;
but when the swing has diminished to a certain point the pallet
catches in one or other of the notches. This has the effect of
pressing down the spring so that it touches a contact piece just
below, and the battery circuit is then completed. The electro-magnet
now comes into action and attracts the armature, thus giving the
pendulum a pull which sets it swinging vigorously again. The spring
is then freed from the pressure of the pallet, and it rises to its original
position, so that the circuit is broken. This puts out of action the
electro-magnet, and the latter does no further work until the
pendulum requires another pull. The movement of the pendulum
drives the wheelwork, which is similar to that of an ordinary clock,
and the wheelwork moves the hands in the usual way. A clock of this
kind will run without attention for several months, and then the
battery requires to be renewed. As time-keepers, electrically-driven
clocks are quite as good as, and often very much better than key-
wound clocks.
Everybody must have noticed that the numerous public clocks in
a large town do not often agree exactly with one another, the
differences sometimes being quite large; while even in one building,
such as a large hotel, the different clocks vary more or less. This
state of things is very unsatisfactory, for it is difficult to know which of
the clocks is exactly right. Although large clocks are made with the
utmost care by skilled workmen, they cannot possibly be made to
maintain anything like the accuracy of a high-class chronometer,
such as is used by navigators; and the only way to keep a number of
such clocks in perfect agreement is to control their movements from
one central or master clock. This can be done quite satisfactorily by
electricity. The master-clock and the various sub-clocks are
connected electrically, so that a current can be sent from the master-
clock to all the others. Each sub-clock is fitted with an electro-
magnet placed behind the figure XII at the top of the dial. At the
instant when the master-clock reaches the hour, the circuit is closed
automatically, and the current energizes these magnets. The minute
hands of all the sub-clocks are gripped by the action of the magnets,
and pulled exactly to the hour; the pulling being backward or forward
according to whether the clocks are fast or slow. In this way all the
clocks in the system are in exact agreement at each hour. The same
result may be attained by adjusting all the sub-clocks so that they
gain a little, say a few seconds in the hour. In this case the circuit is
closed about half a minute before the hour. As each sub-clock
reaches the hour, its electro-magnet comes into action, and holds
the hands so that they cannot proceed. When the master-clock
arrives at the hour the circuit is broken, the magnets release their
captives, and all the clocks move forward together.
It is possible to control sub-clocks so that their pendulums
actually beat exactly with the pendulum of the master-clock; but only
a small number of clocks can be controlled in this way, and they
must be of the best quality. The method is similar to that used for
hourly corrections, the main difference being that the circuit is closed
by the pendulum of the master-clock at each end of its swing, so that
the pendulums of the sub-clocks are accelerated or held back as
may be required.
In the correcting systems already described the sub-clocks are
complete in themselves, so that they work quite independently,
except at the instant of correction. For hotels, schools, and other
large buildings requiring clocks at a number of different points, a
simpler arrangement is adopted. Only one complete clock is used,
this being the master-clock, which may be wound either electrically
or by key. The sub-clocks are dummies, having only a dial with its
hands, and an electro-magnetic arrangement behind the dial for
moving the hands. The sub-clocks are electrically connected with the
master-clock, and the mechanism of this clock is arranged to close
the circuit automatically every half-minute. Each time this occurs the
magnet of each sub-clock moves forward the hands half a minute,
and in this way the dummy clocks are made to travel on together by
half-minute steps, exactly in unison with the master-clock.
 CHAPTER XVI
THE TELEGRAPH

We come now to one of the most important inventions of the

nineteenth century, the electric telegraph. From very early times men
have felt the necessity for some means of rapidly communicating
between two distant points. The first really practical method of
signalling was that of lighting beacon fires on the tops of hills, to
spread some important tidings, such as the approach of an enemy.
From this simple beginning arose more complicated systems of
signalling by semaphore, flags, or flashing lights. All these methods
proved incapable of dealing with the rapidly growing requirements of
commerce, for they were far too slow in action, and in foggy weather
they were of no use at all. We are so accustomed to walking into a
telegraph office, filling up a form, and paying our sixpence or more,
that it is very difficult for us to realize the immense importance of the
electric telegraph; and probably the best way of doing this is to try to
imagine the state of things which would result if the world’s
telegraphic instruments were put out of action for a week or two.
The earliest attempts at the construction of an electric telegraph
date back to a time long before the discovery of the electric current.
As early as 1727 it was known that an electric discharge could be
transmitted to a considerable distance through a conducting
substance such as a moistened thread or a wire, and this fact
suggested the possibility of a method of electric signalling. In 1753 a
writer in Scott’s Magazine brought forward an ingenious scheme
based upon the attraction between an electrified body and any light
substance. His telegraph was worked by an electric machine, and it
consisted of twenty-six separate parallel wires, every wire having a
metal ball suspended from it at each end. Close to each ball was