-------------Forwarded Message-----------------

From:	dr

	



howdy,
here is more strange news from the net.


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Why we seem so happy down in the library.  (Could some one tell the light
to stop barking?)
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HEADLINE: COULD IT BE THAT OLD BOOKS ARE REALLY, UH,
MIND-ALTERING? 



BODY: 
   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," said 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 this 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, former
director of Oak Park's library, 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. 

Brey, who suffers from allergies, said she has noticed minor increases in
her coughing, runny nose and sneezing. But, she said
nobody has reported any hallucinogenic effects. 

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. 

The effects and mechanics of hallucinogens are still not fully understood. 

"There's all kinds of symptoms," said Rossol. "People smelling things that
aren't there. Hearing sounds that aren't there. And,
you see paranoia too. Seeing little green men is only a step away from
these things." 

Other symptoms she lists: irritability and "inappropriate anger." 

"I only have appropriate anger!" joked Carol Whitehouse, a book and paper
conservator at Chicago's Newberry Library. 

The primary effects she has observed from working around old books
have been allergies and difficulty breathing--not
hallucinations. 

Clearly, book fungi are not producing the dramatic symptoms that led to the
Salem witch trials, which probably explains why
little is known about the problem. 

"We don't go around culturing old textbooks," said William Janda, associate
director of clinical microbiology at the University
of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. 

"Molds can grow on rubber tires. They're everywhere, and a lot of them
are species of molds that haven't even been described
yet." 

But are they growing in the Library of Congress? 

"I've seen inappropriate anger, but I wouldn't attribute it to the books," said
Tom Albro, acting conservation officer at the
Library of Congress. 

He, nonetheless, is familiar with the potential for mold-related mayhem. 

Albro attended a library conference in Sicily where experts showed
"grotesque pictures of various mold spores" removed from
books. 

"The Europeans," he concluded, "seem to be fascinated by mold . . . and
mildew." 


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