From: Daniel Hopsicker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The details of the elephant story seem to have become cloudy with time. Herewith the tale as related to me directly by some of the individuals involved. Jolly (Louis Jolyon) West, MD, former director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute was the experimenter / principal investigator in question. Originally at the University of Oklahoma, he played some part in the MK-Ultra program on behalf of the CIA beginning in the 1950's. Jolly is a huge man, quite resembling a bull elephant in his own person. This may have affected his choice of experimental animal. A pleasant man nonetheless, in the 1980's he came under fire from the Scientologists for his good work against cults. Jolly was also a close friend and colleague at one point of John C. Lilly, MD, though they later had a falling out over the use of psychedelics. In the elephant experiment, the dosage of LSD administered to the elephant had been calculated on the basis of body mass rather than brain mass, so it was too high. The elephant got pretty excited and started thrashing around. I have heard the term "rampaging" applied, but I do not know if that is an accurate term as applied in this case. Maybe the elephant suddenly became aware of his cage and simply wanted out. Maybe he got aroused. I do not believe anyone knows. In any case, to calm the elephant down, Jolly reportedly injected the pachyderm with a similarly huge dose of Thorazine (chlorpromazine), calculated on the basis of body mass. As for most major tranquilizers, a well known side-effect of thorazine is orthostatic hypotension. This represents the body's inability to mount a sufficient blood pressure when standing upright to adequately perfuse the brain, and possibly even the heart. When this happens, the blood pressure drops precipitously and the person or animal may experience a syncopal episode (sudden loss of consciousness accompanied by a fall to the ground), and a cardiac tachyarrhythmia (rapid heart beat). In any case there occurs what is termed "hemodynamic compromise." In this instance, after receiving a (more than) mammoth dose of thorazine, the elephant's blood pressure dropped, and it fell down dead. It died of either a hypotensive stroke, or an arrhythmia-induced MI (heart attack), probably due to the thorazine, but also possibly due to fright. That, at least, is how the story was told to me and a number of colleagues by Denny Cantwell. The late, but dearly loved Dennis P. Cantwell, MD was for 20 years the director of fellowship training at UCLA-NPI MRCP, the Mental Retardation and Child Psychiatry division of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, for the same period during which Jolly directed the NPI. Denny, for any who were fortunate enough to make his acquaintance, was quite the raconteur, with a finely honed sense of humor. He was also was blessed with a keen compass for the truth in any medical or scientific matter. Denny would regularly tell this story with great gusto to classes of fellows at UCLA, completely unbidden, as a means of puncturing a popular "scientific myth." I have little doubt of its authenticity. -- Daniel Hopsicker The Drug Money Times http://www.MadCowProd.com "All the news that's ripped from print!" Scandal in contemporary U.S. life is an institutionalized sociological phenomenon. It is not due primarily to psychopathological variables, but is due to the institutionalization of elite wrongdoing which has occcurred since 1963." "Many of the scandals that have occurred in the U.S. since 1963 are fundamentally interrelated: that is, the same people and institutions have been involved." --Prof.David Simon, "Elite Deviance 6th edition ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MAXIMIZE YOUR CARD, MINIMIZE YOUR RATE! Get a NextCard Visa, in 30 seconds! Get rates as low as 0.0% Intro or 9.9% Fixed APR and no hidden fees. Apply NOW! http://click.egroups.com/1/2122/3/_/475667/_/953708809/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------
