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Phantastica: A Classic Survey on the Use and Abuse of Mind-Altering Plants
Long out of print, this is a landmark study on narcotic and psychedelic substances by a world-renowned pharmacologist and toxicologist
• The first book to bring non-judgmental scientific insights to the use of drugs around the world
• Provides detailed information on all major drugs of the time, including opium, cocaine, heroin, cannabis, peyote, fly agaric, henbane, datura, alcohol, kava, betel, coffee, tea, cocoa, and tobacco
• A book credited with starting an era of ethnobotany that continues to the present day
The publication of Louis Lewin's Phantastica in 1924 began an era of ethnobotany that is still flourishing today. Until Lewin, books on the use of drugs were purely works of anthropology, concerned with how people used these plants, rather than how the plants produced their famous effects. Lewin, a world-renowned pharmacologist and toxicologist, was fascinated by both, and Phantastica was the first book to bring scientific insights to a survey of the use of drugs around the world. Lewin traveled extensively and acquired an astonishing variety of knowledge, reflected in this book, which provides detailed information on all major drugs of the time, including opium, cocaine, heroin, cannabis, peyote, fly agaric, henbane, datura, alcohol, kava, betel, coffee, tea, cocoa, and, of course, tobacco. For thirty years ethnobotanists have bemoaned the fact that Phantastica has been impossible to find; now this landmark work is once again available.
- GenresDrugsHistoryNonfiction
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 20, 2019
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Psychonautics and Pharmacology. For being a survey written in 1925 I'm surprised how forward thinking Lewin is, especially when it comes to his criticism of the war on drugs. While feeling dated at times it is still a great history of all known substances of the era, from coffee to cocaine. Its surprising how many correlations you can draw to our current world from a nearly hundred year old book, it really shows how history repeats itself.
March 9, 2009
Surprisingly lyrical, funny, and broad-minded - a much more enjoyable read than I'd anticipated.
October 6, 2016
Phantastica – Louis Lewin
German pharmacologist Louis Lewin (1850 - 1929) was a prolific writer and in his renowned book Phantastica, first published in 1924, he reviews known psychoactive plants and their histories. In this way he began the era of ethnobotany.
Not only an author, Lewin was also an adventurer and pioneer. One of the first to study chronic morphinism, published as Über Morphium-Intoxication (On Morphine Intoxication) in 1874, Lewin then travelled across the United States and obtained some mescal cactus buttons, which were used ritually by the natives of Central and North America. Subsequently he published the first systematic study and methodological analysis of this small, spineless peyote cactus in 1894, which was originally named in his honour, Anhalonium lewinii (later renamed Lophophora williamsii). This plant was then new to science.
Lewin’s Phantastica inspired the English author Aldous Huxley’s interest in drugs, and Lewin was also the first to describe the actions of the harmala alkaloids. The latter includes harmine, harmaline and harmalol that function as monoamine oxidase inhibitors found in the seeds of Peganum harmala (Harmal or Syrian Rue). These seeds have traditionally been used in shamanic rituals as incense for visionary purposes.
However, one of Lewin's most enduring tasks was to create a system of classification of psychoactive drugs and plants based on their pharmacologic actions. His categorical idea for classifying these drugs, as presented in Phantastica, was as follows: Inebriantia (inebriants such as alcohol or ether); Exitantia (stimulants such as khat or amphetamine); Euphorica (euphoriants and narcotics such as heroin); Hypnotica (tranquillizers such as kava); and Phantastica (hallucinogens or entheogens such as peyote or ayahuasca).
With this background it is relevant that his book be republished. It is a book of its time and contains anecdotal accounts of inadvertent toxicities and contemporary attitudes to drug use, at a time when there was little or no drug regulation.
Consider, for example, the common practice of drinking diethyl ether. In respect of anti-alcohol movements: “the craving for another inebriating substance leads to the discovery of substitutes. Ether is one of these succedanea…. It is not considered as becoming in the female sex to consume large quantities of concentrated alcohol habitually, and for this reason women contribute a large contingent to etheromania. A small phial of ether is an indispensable vade-mecum for such women.” Describing ether drinking mixed with alcohol in Ireland, on account of the limited supplies of alcohol at the turn of the century, he writes: “On market days in Draperstown and Cookstown the air used to be filled with the vapour of ether, and the same odour impregnated the carriages of the local railway.”
These historical accounts witness the interaction between drug taking and the social milieu. Most of them are sad testaments to cruel and unhealthy environments that thankfully are nearly unimaginable today. By the way, did you know that there was also a craze in arsenic consumption?
Despite the times, when next to nothing was known about drug action, Lewin shows remarkable maturity for someone who had access to the full range of exotic substances. Consider, “But medical men, professors, pharmacists, writers, artists, lawyers, officers, high officials etc., still predominate among this class of drug-takers.” Consistently Lewin remains objective about what he observed and invariably concludes in each case that drug-taking is a downward spiral to self destruction.
Finally, the language used is often quaint. Consider for example adjectival forms describing drug-takers, they generally suffix in –ist: there were the alcoholists, the morphinists, opiumists &c. But my favourite quote has to be from French barber surgeon Ambroise Paré: “L’eau de vie, une espcée de panacée, dont les vertus sont infinies.“ Cheers!
German pharmacologist Louis Lewin (1850 - 1929) was a prolific writer and in his renowned book Phantastica, first published in 1924, he reviews known psychoactive plants and their histories. In this way he began the era of ethnobotany.
Not only an author, Lewin was also an adventurer and pioneer. One of the first to study chronic morphinism, published as Über Morphium-Intoxication (On Morphine Intoxication) in 1874, Lewin then travelled across the United States and obtained some mescal cactus buttons, which were used ritually by the natives of Central and North America. Subsequently he published the first systematic study and methodological analysis of this small, spineless peyote cactus in 1894, which was originally named in his honour, Anhalonium lewinii (later renamed Lophophora williamsii). This plant was then new to science.
Lewin’s Phantastica inspired the English author Aldous Huxley’s interest in drugs, and Lewin was also the first to describe the actions of the harmala alkaloids. The latter includes harmine, harmaline and harmalol that function as monoamine oxidase inhibitors found in the seeds of Peganum harmala (Harmal or Syrian Rue). These seeds have traditionally been used in shamanic rituals as incense for visionary purposes.
However, one of Lewin's most enduring tasks was to create a system of classification of psychoactive drugs and plants based on their pharmacologic actions. His categorical idea for classifying these drugs, as presented in Phantastica, was as follows: Inebriantia (inebriants such as alcohol or ether); Exitantia (stimulants such as khat or amphetamine); Euphorica (euphoriants and narcotics such as heroin); Hypnotica (tranquillizers such as kava); and Phantastica (hallucinogens or entheogens such as peyote or ayahuasca).
With this background it is relevant that his book be republished. It is a book of its time and contains anecdotal accounts of inadvertent toxicities and contemporary attitudes to drug use, at a time when there was little or no drug regulation.
Consider, for example, the common practice of drinking diethyl ether. In respect of anti-alcohol movements: “the craving for another inebriating substance leads to the discovery of substitutes. Ether is one of these succedanea…. It is not considered as becoming in the female sex to consume large quantities of concentrated alcohol habitually, and for this reason women contribute a large contingent to etheromania. A small phial of ether is an indispensable vade-mecum for such women.” Describing ether drinking mixed with alcohol in Ireland, on account of the limited supplies of alcohol at the turn of the century, he writes: “On market days in Draperstown and Cookstown the air used to be filled with the vapour of ether, and the same odour impregnated the carriages of the local railway.”
These historical accounts witness the interaction between drug taking and the social milieu. Most of them are sad testaments to cruel and unhealthy environments that thankfully are nearly unimaginable today. By the way, did you know that there was also a craze in arsenic consumption?
Despite the times, when next to nothing was known about drug action, Lewin shows remarkable maturity for someone who had access to the full range of exotic substances. Consider, “But medical men, professors, pharmacists, writers, artists, lawyers, officers, high officials etc., still predominate among this class of drug-takers.” Consistently Lewin remains objective about what he observed and invariably concludes in each case that drug-taking is a downward spiral to self destruction.
Finally, the language used is often quaint. Consider for example adjectival forms describing drug-takers, they generally suffix in –ist: there were the alcoholists, the morphinists, opiumists &c. But my favourite quote has to be from French barber surgeon Ambroise Paré: “L’eau de vie, une espcée de panacée, dont les vertus sont infinies.“ Cheers!
June 26, 2019
An amazing and in depth look that started the study of ethnobotany. A detailed description of a wide array of intoxicants, entheogens and psychedelics.
May 10, 2013
super fascinating, filled with knowledge
July 24, 2017
Most interesting in terms of toxicology / ideas about tolerance of biological systems
October 2, 2019
A product of its times, yet still insightful and, with his premonition of the current opiod epidemic, frightening
October 18, 2025
pov requiem for a dream in a nutshell
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews