----------------------------Original message----------------------------
This may explain some things :).

Marcia


> "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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Marcia Leah Adamy
Catalog/Reference Librarian
Decker Library
Maryland Institute College of Art
1401 Mount Royal Avenue
**Mailing Address:
1300 Mount Royal Avenue
Baltimore MD 21217
Phone: (410) 225-2248
Fax:   (410) 225-2316
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