Because peyote produces what has been described as a “mescal psychosis,” it has been suggested that it might be a useful approach for the psychiatrist in the study of schizophrenia. The production of “horrible depressions” in a subject of Prentiss and Morgan and “fear that his life was leaving him,” as well as the unaccountable hilarity of Wertham and Bleuler’s subject, suggests a similar value, if any, in the study of manic-depressive psychoses too. No doubt psychoses may be exteriorized with increased facility in peyote intoxication, but this strikes one as a crude method and subject to the introduction of extraneous factors over which there is no control.[38] Hutchings used pellotine as a hypnotic on psychotic patients in the St. Lawrence State Hospital. Pilcz likewise reports this use of peyote as a sedative for the insane, but Warburg states that these experiments have met with little success, on account of the by-effects of the alkaloids. Dr. Goodall of the Carmarthen Asylum, according to Havelock Ellis, tried peyote on melancholic and stuporous patients, but “beyond dilation of pupils and rapidity [!] of heart action, the results were nil.” Martindale and Westcott report that formerly peyote was used in neurasthenia, hysteria and asthma; it is hard to see in some cases where the cure is any superior to the disease, however. Briau employed peyote in “anxiety states,” but the extremely variable emotional states under peyote intoxication make even tentative conclusions precarious.[39] Indeed, peyote would be calculated to aggravate asthma and anxiety states under some circumstances! Bensheim found different mescal reactions in cycloids and schizoids, but Wertham and Bleuler somewhat surprisingly discovered both reactions in a single person, and argued for the inconstancy of the formal structure of the “personality.” Probably, however, peyote had no definitive importance in either case though the former used only mescaline and the latter pan-peyotl. Zucker induced mescaline intoxication in the hallucinated insane, but far too many variables appear to be involved here. Zador conducted experiments on the blind and patients with disordered vision, using mescaline, the chief hallucination-producing alkaloid of peyote. Klüver discussed color predominance in reported visions (red-green in the initial phases, blue-yellow later). This suggests selective action of the alkaloids on various regions of the retina, evidence bearing on the Ladd-Franklin phylogenetic theory of color vision. Possibly, too, colors predominant in peyote-symbolisms of natives may have a physiological meaning. Klüver’s “form-constants” in peyote-intoxication may have similar significance, but he dealt largely with White visions only.[40] PEYOTE AS A DRUG