Happy Birthday, LSD!

[pynchonoid]

<http://www.flashback.se/archive/my_problem_child/>

"[...] In 1935, these studies were temporarily
concluded. Looking for a new field of research, I
asked Professor Stoll to let me continue the
investigations on the alkaloids of ergot, which he had
begun in 1917 and which had led directly to the
isolation of ergotamine in 1918. [...] I thought it
was high time that Sandoz resumed chemical research on
ergot alkaloids, unless we wanted to risk losing our
leading role in a field of medicinal research, which
was already becoming so important. 

Professor Stoll granted my request, with some
misgivings: "I must warn you of the difficulties you
face in working with ergot alkaloids. These
are-exceedingly sensitive, easily decomposed
substances, less stable than any of the compounds you
have investigated in the cardiac glycoside field. But
you are welcome to try." 

And so the switches were thrown, and I found myself
engaged in a field of study that would become the main
theme of my professional career. I have never
forgotten the creative joy, the eager anticipation I
felt in embarking on the study of ergot alkaloids, at
that time a relatively uncharted field of research. 

[...]  Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to
interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of
the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a
remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight
dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not
unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized
by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike
state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be
unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted
stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes
with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some
two hours this condition faded away. [...]"

-Doug, wondering which pointsman threw the switches
that led Hoffman to LSD

"Jamf at the time was working for a Swiss outfit
called Psychochemie AG, originaly known as the Grossli
Chemical Corporation, a spinoff from Sandoz (where, as
every schoolchild knows, the legendary Dr. Hoffman
made his important discovery)"
-Gravity's Rainbow, p. 250


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