LSD

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

LSD
¹A crystalline compound, C₂₀H₂₅N₃O, derived from lysergic acid and used as a powerful hallucinogenic drug. Also called acid, lysergic acid diethylamide.

²LSD is a potent "antagonist" of the chemical substance serotinin that has just been found to exist in the human brain (Hofmann, 1943). English biochemist John Gaddum shows that while serotinin makes muscles contract, LSD blocks its ability to stimulate the contraction of certain muscles.

Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann of Sandoz A.G. discovers by accident the hallucinogenic properties of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) when he is "seized by a peculiar sensation of vertigo and restlessness. . . . With my eyes closed, fantastic pictures of extraordinary plasticity and intensive color seemed to surge toward me. After two hours this state gradually wore off." Hofmann has swallowed a derivative of ergot, he has spectacular hallucinations when he ingests a quarter milligram of the compound, and his findings will spur research in psychopharmacology.

Source:
¹The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
²The People's Chronology by James Trager
File last modified: March 02, 2009
URI: http://deoxy.org/def/lsd.htm

— index—