Anhalonium Lewinii

The plant from which the mescal buttons are obtained grows in barren and

rocky soil in the valley of the Rio Grande. It is used by some Indian tribes in their religious

ceremonies. It has been recently tested scientifically, a notable proving having been made by Dr.

• ▸Wier Mitchell.
• ▸Dr.
• ▸E.
• ▸M.
• ▸Hale has collected the facts about the drug in an article published in the

Hahnemannian Monthly. The chief feature of the drug's action is the production of coloured

visions of most over-powering brilliancy, associated with moving shapes of fantastic design, the

motion being regulated somewhat in time by music. In the Indian ceremonies the constant

beating of tom-toms is an essential feature. Other symptoms are loss of conception of time,

occipital headache, tired feeling in head, nausea. Tremor of muscles, increased knee-jerk, and

loss of power of co-ordination. One prover, Havelock Ellis, noted distinct slowing of the pulse,

slight faintness and shallow breathing; but there were none of the terrible heart symptoms of the

other Cacti. The most prominent condition is < on closing eyes. The nausea and faintness were <

on movement. There is great disinclination to move. > Lying down.

• ▸Loss of conception of time.
• ▸Difficult enunciation.
• ▸Distrust and resentment.
• ▸Lazy contentment.

Reverie.—Time seems long; intervals between words and sentences seem inordinately

long.—Cannot find the right word, with difficulty of enunciation—Seems to have a double

personality.—Distrust and resentment; thinks companions are laughing at him; wants to do them

violence.—Consciousness of unusual energy and intellectual power (which, when tested, was

found not to actually exist).—Sense of superiority and well-being.—Sense of depression and

inferiority.

Motor inco-ordination.—Extreme muscular depression; don't want to stir;

• ▸whole body feels relaxed.
• ▸—Lazy contentment; "a land where it is always after noon.
• ▸".
• ▸—Fine

tremor in lower extremities preluding the visions; unable to walk without assistance; can with

difficulty sit up.

• ▸Aches, with disturbed vision.
• ▸Fantastic, brilliant, moving colored objects.
• ▸Affected by beating time.
• ▸Pupils dilated, vertigo, brain tired.
• ▸Polychrome spectra.
• ▸Exaggerated reverberation of ordinary sounds.

Frontal (1.) headache with visual zigzags.—Occipital headache, with disturbed

vision.—Persistent ache and tired feeling in occipital region (lasting several days and making

work impossible).—(It rapidly removed headache in one prover.)

Visions in all colours, moving, fantastic, of surpassing brilliance, in designs

(sometimes grotesque), moving scenes, dances; affected by beating time; dissipated or modified

by opening the eyes; partly under control by an effort of thought.—Natural objects seem more

brilliant, shadows deepened, flickering of lights greatly exaggerated.—Pupils

dilated Accommodation impaired.—Ptosis.

Impressions of sound and visions heightened by any marked stimulation of

skin.—Exaggerated reverberation of ordinary sounds.

The air seemed filled with vague perfume.—Smell blunted; could not tell whether or

not tincture of asafcetida was a perfume.

Disinclined to make the slightest movement; eyelids droop; they scarcely move the lips

and jaws in articulating.

Great difficulty in talking, partly from paralysis of the tongue, partly from slowness

of thought.

• ▸Brain-fag.
• ▸Delirium.
• ▸Headache.
• ▸Hallucinations.
• ▸Megrim.
• ▸Mental weakness.

• ▸Neurasthenia.
• ▸Paraplegia.
• ▸Senses, disordered.
• ▸Visions, disordered, of; coloured.

• ▸Compare: Can.
• ▸ind.
• ▸(time sense disordered; fantastic visions); Gelsem.
• ▸(paralysis of

• ▸accommodation); Bell.
• ▸, Stram.
• ▸, Op.
• ▸, Pic.
• ▸ac.
• ▸, Piper methyst.
• ▸, Coffea, Coca; Plat.
• ▸(objects seem

small and distant); Pso. (> lying down).

Compare Agave. The intoxication of Anhalonium is similar to that of Cannabis Indica and Oenanthe.

Tincture.