The New York physician Frank Dudley Beane (1851–94) was not the most prolific writer. The National Library of Medicine lists only seven journal articles in his name. One of these, however — “An Experience with Cannabis Indica”, published in the Buffalo Medical Surgical Journal in May 1884 — has assured Beane a rightful place in history, not so much as a figure of medical respectability but for his vertiginous account of intoxication. The article offers a rich first-person testimony that recalls Humphry Davy’s experiments with nitrous oxide in 1799 and Albert Hoffman’s account of taking LSD in 1943, as well as contemporary “trip reports” on Erowid and PsychonautWiki.

Suffering from “general neurasthenia for a couple of weeks”, and hoping to avoid “opium or morphia” and their side effects, Beane turned to a more experimental painkiller: tinctures of cannabis and ergot (a naturally occurring fungus found on rye, used in the synthesis of LSD), samples of which had recently arrived by post from the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company.

At 10:15, having administered 0.46 ml and 1.39 ml, respectively, of the cannabis and ergot tinctures, his come up begins: he notes the experience of “momentary dizziness” and “peculiar lightness”, before sinking back into his sofa, affected by “a peculiar and indescribable dread, and “general muscle weakness”. He then descends to his dining room, downs half a glass of port wine, and ascends — “with great difficulty” — two floors to his bedroom.

On lying down and experiencing a “horrible feeling of impending death”, Beane asks his attendant wife for a bottle of brandy. He observes “increasing muscular heaviness”, “rapid action of the heart”, and cold waves passing through his body. Another physician is summoned who finds Beane’s pulse “quick and feeble” and advises a dose of the drug atropine to steady his heart. Beane’s experiences, however, were only just beginning.

After a shock of “motor and sensory paralysis”, Beane experiences three sensations simultaneously: “speeding along like the wind in the utter darkness of a broad, interminable tunnel”, an out-of-body experience where he views his corpse from above, and a continual awareness of his wife and doctor’s conversation. The darkness of the tunnel eventually gives way to “a phosphorescent light, quickly succeeded by the most beautiful and soft lilac shade of misty brightness, lasting sufficiently long for me to exclaim: ‘Oh! What a beautiful purplish hue!’”

In time, Beane’s physical sensations alter and he feels that his “body seemed to be fashioned from wood”. He awakes from his trance at 4:30 p.m. into a state of “the most hilarious exhilation”: his tongue “running upon much nonsense and every imaginable topic”. He is conscious of his behaviour but with “no ability to exert self-control”. Thinking that only fifteen minutes had passed, when he had in fact been in bed for several hours, Beane also recounts that “my wife says I cried most piteously for a-while”, although “I do not recollect [this]”. ※

Beane ends his trip report with something akin to commercial endorsement, declaring “Parke Davis & Co’s preparation of haschisch as an exhilirant cannot be questioned”. This is not the only mention of Parke Davis & Co. — at the time, the fastest growing pharmaceutical company in the United States. Scholars have argued that Beane was in the pay of Parke Davis, a company known for its commercial endorsements: in 1885, a young Sigmund Freud was paid $24 ($800 or so in today’s money) to promote the medical virtues of their pharmaceutical cocaine. While Beane’s text has been justifiably hailed as a prime example of drug literature, it may also qualify as a piece of pharmaceutical trade literature too.

Parke Davis’ work on ergot was an early stage in the research process that eventually led to LSD being manufactured from lysergic acid, a compound found in ergot. Were Beane’s experiences as much a proto-LSD trip as they were a cannabis high? It certainly seems likely.