Chapter XI: Part 11

Large doses produce catatonic conditions. A person may sit motionless for a long time in an apparently quite uncomfortable position and refuse to move. Dogs and cats given mescaline injections crouch motionless in corners of their cages, only rousing themselves from time to time to attack invisible assailants.

It recently has been found that only one chemical constituent of mescaline, beta-phenylethylamine, is responsible for the delusions. This is quite similar in chemical structure to the body hormone adrenaline. There have been conjectures that adrenaline may be changed into the mescaline constituent by some as yet unknown process of body chemistry and that this change may be the physiological cause of schizophrenia.

About 40 years ago a peyotl church was set up by Indians in New Mexico. It followed essentially the Catholic ritual, but with mescal buttons substituted for bread in communion. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs did not interfere with the rites when its investigations indicated that the mysterious drug was not habit-forming and apparently caused no physical injury.

_The Puzzling Platypus_

Fantastic combination of mammal, bird and reptile is the egg-laying, toothless water animal of New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, the duck-billed platypus. It is clearly a mammal but, with a single exception, it stands quite alone among these warm-blooded animals. The creatures from which it is a survivor probably have been extinct for fifty million years.

It is an animal about twenty inches long from the tip of its horny beak to the end of its broad, flattened tail. It is covered with soft brown fur. Its four legs are short and five-toed. These toes on the front foot are joined by webs like those of aquatic birds which extend beyond the long, sharp, curved toe-nails. On the hind legs of the male are inch-long, sharp spurs through which run minute canals connected with a large gland at the back of the thigh—very much like the poison fangs of a serpent. Yet, so far as can be determined, the gland secretes no poison and the spurs apparently are seldom used in self defense.

The female lays two eggs at a time, each about three-fourths of an inch long and a half inch wide, with strong, flexible white shells. These eggs are not incubated but hatch buried shallowly in sand and straw. The platypus lives on the banks of ponds and quiet streams where it digs burrows as much as 20 feet long with two entrances, one below and the other above the water level. The rear, or land, end of a burrow is enlarged into a small chamber in which the young are reared.

The creatures pass most of the daylight hours asleep in these burrows, curled in rather tight balls. The entrances are concealed in grass and reeds so that the occupants of the burrows are seldom seen. At night the platypus takes to the water. It swims and dives easily and its major food consists of worms and other aquatic animals found in the mud or gravel at the bottom. It has cheek pouches like a squirrel. When it comes up from a dive these pouches are stuffed with the food it has gathered, which is extracted and eaten at leisure.

Adult animals are toothless but in each jaw there is a horny ridge. The young, however, have rootless teeth—a possible clue to their very remote ancestry. Like a bird the platypus has a very small head. There is no division of its brain into two hemispheres, as in all other mammals and most birds. This is a characteristic of the reptile brain.

The creatures can climb with apparent ease. Small groups sometimes are seen sunning themselves on broad tree trunks overhanging the water. They are extremely timid but, when captured, soon become quite tame. In captivity, however, they seldom live long.

The only other member of this animal group is the echidna, or spiny ant eater, of the same part of the world. It is, however, an inhabitant of rocky districts where it digs shallow burrows in sand or hides in rock crevices. The back is covered with sharp, backward-directed spines which give it the appearance of a small porcupine. It has a long, tubular snout from which projects the long, slender tongue covered with some sticky substance. With this it laps up ants and other insects.

Like the platypus, it has short, strong legs with large claws with which it burrows with considerable speed. Burrowing, where possible, is its usual method of flight. Its other defense is to roll itself in a ball, when its sharp spines give it considerable protection. “The only way of carrying the creature”, says George Bennett (_Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia_) “is by one of its hind legs. Its powerful resistance and the sharpness of the spines will soon oblige the captor, attempting to seize it by any other part of the body, to be relinquish his hold.”

INDEX

Abominable Snow Man, 155

Ants, 6, 31, 36, 62, 71

Aphroditids, 39

Asp, 26

Bats, 121, 124

Bear, 133

Beavers, 185

Bees, 135, 144

Beetles, 142, 158

Birds, 27, 34, 43, 54, 55, 62, 70, 77, 81, 89, 96, 97, 102, 110

Brachiopods, 52

Bryozoa, 15

Caterpillars, 150

Caves, 3, 43, 57

Centipedes, 126

Chameleon, 9

Clams, 111, 113

Corals, 114

Crabs, 18, 125

Crocodile, 176

Ctenophores, 118

Dodo, 55

Dogs, 169

Duck Hawk, 97

Dugongs, 172

Eagle, 103, 162

Elephant, 93, 117, 120, 194

Fireflies, 164

Fish, 13, 33, 72, 89, 99, 143, 148, 156

Flowers, 31

Forests, 20, 42, 119

Frogs, 24, 160, 162, 167, 186

Gorilla, 194

Grasshopper, 113, 128, 130, 157

Guacharo, 43

Hornbills, 34

Horned Viper, 26, 162

Iguanas, 41

Insects, 26, 139, 181, 184

Lemmings, 196

Lizards, 30, 41, 174, 179, 180

Locusts, 128, 130

Manatees, 172

Mantid, 163

Mermaids, 172

Millipedes, 123

Mollusk, 165

Monkeys, 21, 37, 141, 183

Moth, 191

Ocean, 47

Octracoderms, 33

Opossum, 170

Orchids, 122, 191

Oysters, 117

Pearls, 112

Penguins, 5

Pigeons, 27

Plants, 46, 78, 108, 131, 137, 139, 149, 150, 154, 159, 187, 190, 192

Platypus, 199

Porcupine, 197

Proteus, 57

Proturans, 185

Rabbit, 192

Rats, 137, 141, 184, 195

Raven, 89

Reptiles, 61

Rotifers, 85

Salamander, 178

Sea Horse, 82

Sea Urchin, 50

Seals, 84, 161, 188

Shark, 134, 138

Shrew, 181

Silk Worm, 98

Skuas, 110

Snails, 44, 109, 152

Snakes, 26, 49, 77, 88, 105, 162, 174

Spiders, 9, 15, 30, 41, 67, 91

Sponge, 2

Squids, 67

Sting Rays, 89, 146

Tamandua, 21

Tarantula, 30

Termites, 45, 115, 137

Ticks, 20

Tiger, 196

Toads, 159, 162

Tomato, 92

Toucan, 108

Trees, 129, 141, 189, 190

Viper, 26, 162

Weasel, 193

Whippoorwill, 70

Worms, 10, 22, 51, 64, 73, 90, 98, 132, 142, 151, 157, 158