BACK COVER #
In an age when chemistry has begun invading the deepest recesses of man's soul and "Miltown" has become a household word to millions, Dr. de Ropp's famous book offers us the first overall view of a world still largely unknown to the general public--the world of ancient herbs and modern drugs, the unspeakable joys and mental tortures they produce.Man's age-old longing to lessen the pain of living and to find artificial euphoria is the background to the story Dr. de Ropp tells with verve and meticulous attention to scientific fact.. It is a story which holds the reader from the first to the last, beginning with the China of 2737 B.C., where hashish was used extensively, and ending with the recent dramatic advances in chemopsychiatry which profoundly changed the outlook for the treatment of mental ills. Along the way, we learn of the Aztecs who worshipped peyotl (mescaline) as the "flesh of the gods," of numerous, as yet unexplored plants used by tribes in remote areas of the glove, of the rauwolfia root used in India for 2,500 years and finally discovered by Western researchers as the first of the tranquilizers. From the hashish salons of Beirut, the "Tea-Pads" of New York, to the more commonly known forms of drugs such as coffee, tea, cocoa, tobacco, and alcohol--Dr. de Robb conducts the reader on a journey of discovery into the chemistry of the brain and the emotions.
BLURBS #
"Filled with a wealth of information and scientific facts, it remains fascinating from cover to cover. This is due not only to the literary skill of the author. The book abounds with interesting historical data, case reports and quotations of self-observations of famous writers such as Baudelaire, Theophile Gautier, Havelock Ellis, Aldous Huxley, who used such drugs on themselves."-- N.Y. Times book Review