Walking Yourself to Death.

Otago Witness, Issue 2356, 20 April 1899, Page 63

Walking Yourself to Death.

Of the two queerest drugs in the world, the one called " ezcal " is the one most to be avoided. It is a South American product, -and is -made by the tropical Indians there. A grain of it will make you feel the need of violent exertion, and one© you begin there is no stopping. ' You walk till you die. Moreover, you do not walk straight ahead, but in a little Tjircle of two or three yards diameter. You tramp wildly and steadily on. seeing nothing, and not suffering actual pain, but with all your nerves on fire and your brain spinning. You do not stop walking till you drop dead in your tracks. The extreme vitality is kept up till the. last moment. Some of the Indians have a way of dosing their captives with this drug and sitting round the victim while he walks.

The other drug is a European product called " vinard," and also acts on the brain. A common result of this drug when taken in any quantity is to cause an insane desire — in an educated man, at any rate — to do sums. It develops the arithmetical powers to a wonderful extent, though only for a short time. The victim's chief desire is to get hold of pencil and paper, and once this is done he scribbles figures, sometimes making attempts at adding them up, but never getting them right. Presently the figures become mere scrawls, and the usual result is death or insanity. It is well known to men of science, and is used in some kinds of medicine by homesopathists.