Dead medium: Fungal Hallucinogens in Decaying Archives

From:  bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling)

Sources:  Ellen Warren in Chicago Tribune (no date given);
reprinted in Arizona Republic, October 6, 1996, Houston
Chronicle October 6, 1996, and in "Rare Books Newsletter"
of the National Library of Scotland pages 59-62 (Autumn
1996)
see also:  "Sick Library Syndrome" by Dr. R. J. Hay in
"The Lancet" 346, December 16, 1995, pages 1573-1574.

(((bruces remarks:  this colorful medical tale of the
hazards of decaying media has all the qualities of a Jan
Harold Brunvand urban legend.  Improbable, yes, but what a
bar story.)))


"Book Fungus Can Get You High"

by Ellen Warren, Chicago Tribune

      "CHICAGO == Getting high on great literature is
taking on a whole new meaning.  It turns out that, if you
spend enough time around old books and decaying
manuscripts in dank archives, you can start to
hallucinate. Really.

      "We're not talking psychedelia, 'Lucy in the Sky
With Diamonds' stuff, here. But maybe only a step or two
away from that.

      "Experts on the various fungi that feed on the pages
and on the covers of books are increasingly convinced that
you can get high == or at least a little wacky == by
sniffing old books. Fungus on books, they say, is a likely
source of hallucinogenic spores.

      "The story of The Strangeness in the Stacks first
started making its way through the usually staid
antiquarian books community late last year with the
publication of a paper in the British medical journal, The
Lancet.

      "There, Dr. R.J. Hay wrote of the possibility that
'fungal hallucinogens' in old books could lead to
'enhancement of enlightenment.'

       "'The source of inspiration for many great literary
figures may have been nothing more than a quick sniff of
the bouquet of mouldy books,' wrote Hay, one of England's
leading mycologists (fungus experts) and dean of
dermatology at Guy's Hospital in London.

       "Well, said an American expert on such matters, it
may not be that easy.

     "'I agree with his premise == but not his dose. It
would take more than a brief sniff,' aid Monona Rossol, an
authority on the health effects of materials used in the
arts world.

      "For all the parents out there, these revelations
would seem ideal for persuading youngsters to spend some
quality time in the archives.

      "But attention kids: You can't get high walking
through the rare books section of the library.

      "Rossol said it would take a fairly concentrated
exposure over a considerable period of time for someone to
breathe in enough of the spores of hallucinogenic fungus
to seriously affect behavior. There are no studies to tell
how much or how long before strange behavior takes hold.

     "Still, this much seems apparent == if you want to
find mold, the only place that may rival a refrigerator is
a library.

     "Just last week the Las Cruces, N.M., Public Library
was closed indefinitely, prompted by health concerns after
a fungus outbreak in the reference section. Library
director Carol Brey said the fungus promptly spread to old
history books and onward to the literature section.

      "The town's Mold Eradication Team, she said,
shuttered the library as a precaution. 'We didn't want to
take any chances,' she said. A mold removal company will
address the problem, which is believed to have originated
in the air conditioning system.

      "Psychedelic mushrooms, the classic hallucinogenic
fungus, derive their mind-altering properties from the
psilocybin and psilocin they produce naturally.

     "One historic example of this phenomenon, scientists
now believe, is the madness that prevailed in the late
1600s in Salem, Mass., where ergot, a hallucinogenic
fungus, infected the rye crops that went into rye bread.
Ergot contains lysergic acid, a key compound of the
hallucinogenic drug LSD. This tiny fungus and its wild
effects on the rye-bread-eating women may have led to the
Salem witch trials.

    "Rossol, a New York chemist and consultant to
Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History who publishes
the newsletter Acts Facts, the journal of Arts, Crafts and
Theater Safety, said that there have not been scientific
studies on the hallucinogenic effects of old books.

     "But, relying on accounts from newsletter readers who
report their own strange symptoms == ranging from
dizziness to violent nausea == she says there is no doubt
that moldy old volumes harbor hallucinogens."

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