Culture - Elephants on acid

[enquirewithin]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2779808.ece

Mark Henderson

From Times Online, October 31, 2007


When Warren Thomas, the director of Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City, approached Tusko the elephant with a syringe full of LSD in 1962, he thought that he was about to make a major contribution to science.

Within a few moments of being injected, Tusko began trumpeting furiously, before keeling over as if he had been shot. An hour later, he was dead. “It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD,” Thomas and his colleagues concluded.

Some 35 years after his demise, Tusko’s role in the history of science has been recognised with first place in a list of the ten wackiest experiments of all time, compiled for New Scientist magazine.

He has also inspired the list’s author, Alex Boase, to assemble many more strange studies in a newly-published book, Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments.

“I started collecting examples of bizarre experiments years ago while in graduate school studying the history of science,” Mr Boase said. “I confess I had no profound intellectual motive; I simply found them fascinating....

“Sometimes such single-mindedness leads to brilliant discoveries. At other times it can end up closer to madness. Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing in advance where the journey will lead.”....

A curiosity-led experiment from the 1960s, in which Warren Thomas decided to inject an elephant named Tusko with 297 milligrams of LSD — about 3,000 times the typical human dose — to see what would happen. The idea was to determine whether the hallucinogenic drug could induce musth — the state of temporary madness in which male elephants become aggressive.

The result was a public relations disaster: Tusko died. The scientists claimed in their defence that they had not expected this to happen — two of them had taken plenty of acid themselves, they said.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/nov/01/research

Ian Sample

The Guardian, Thursday November 1 2007

One Friday in August 1962 Warren Thomas, director of Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City, raised his rifle and took aim at Tusko the elephant. With a squeeze of the trigger he scored a direct hit on the animal's rump, firing a cartridge full of the hallucinogenic drug LSD into the animal's bloodstream.

The dose was 3,000 times what a human might take for recreational purposes, and the results were extraordinary. Tusko charged around and trumpeted loudly for a few minutes before keeling over dead.

Thomas and his colleagues maintained the mishap was the result of a scientific experiment to investigate whether LSD brought on an unusual condition in which elephants become aggressive and secrete a sticky fluid from their glands. In a report of the incident submitted to the US journal Science four months later, the team concluded: "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD."

Reputation Comments on this post:

man haha, thats too funny-- I guess everything is toxic in too high a dose too eh, even acid? or maybe their brains are ...

[ima-do-proprio-ser]

insane

[Jatelka]

Here's the original paper:

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...d=739&catid=32

[beentheredonethatagain]

good thing PETA wasn't around then, I can see the headlines now, Scientist on trial for 1st degree murder, a spokeswoman for PETA is leading the push for the death penality.

[Panthers007]

They rather forgot that an elephant has a brain the size of a walnut. Yet they proceeded anyways - based on body mass. Not brain mass. Sheer genius. Shmucking fart.

[Psyvox]

(deleted)

[Samadhi]

swim remembers an article about scientists injecting an elephant with 248mg of LSD and it died... Nag/panthers post is quite right though.

[Dogears]

The whole dose calculation was way off for the animal. I don't know how they ever thought that would be the correct dose for an elephant

[Masa]

the paper says his brain was 3 times the size of a mans (3700g-dumbo 1300g-man)

[Pino]

Originally Posted by Masa

the paper says his brain was 3 times the size of a mans (3700g-dumbo 1300g-man)

And they gave them thousand times the amount needed for effects. They would have given an human around 90 mg (based on the brain mass). Happy tripping

[Psyvox]

(deleted)

[Alicia]

Originally Posted by Psyvox

so swiy CAN actually DIE from an OD of LSD? s

it be impossible lots and lots and i mean lots would have to be consumed unless of course u confuse pure lsd with other drugs. which swia has read had happened that was with an iv method of administration. the danger is more to the psychological state and those with predispositions.

poor elephant.

[Pino]

Originally Posted by Psyvox

so swiy CAN actually DIE from an OD of LSD? s

Yes you can die from an overdose of LSD, especially when injecting, however it is has to be said, it is less risky than injecting spinach.

[Jatelka]

Originally Posted by Psyvox

so swiy CAN actually DIE from an OD of LSD? s

There is only ONE suspected case in the literature (apart from Tusko, who will be sorely missed)

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/loc...d=740&catid=32

The individual mistakenly IVed about 320 mg. or 320,000 µg. of LSD'

[Samadhi]

That sounds like the most terrifying thing ever... but swim is more impressed over how this bloke managed to get his hands on 320mg of pure crystalline LSD... and apparently not know what it was enough to IV all of it!

i like how they added that parts of him were gnawed on by rodents

[NexxuS]

Swim is still not shur what Scientific benifits he would have actuly gotton out of that if the elaphant had survived. personaly swim dosent see any. Seems like a waste of lsd and a poor elaphnats life.
Reminds swim of a video he once saw on youtube of scientist giving a cat lsd. If humans have a hard time handaling large doses of lsd obvuisly less inteligent animals will too.

[smiz]

What would happen if a dolphin got injected with LSD? don't they have large brain masses? let's try it.

[Samadhi]

I assume the dolphin would trip nuts... in scientific terms that is


but in all seriousness i find it wrong to do these things to animals

[Pino]

Swim read some research about that. They injected a couple of dolphins with lsd and the poor animals killed themselves by hitting the nearby wall. The 'researchers' commented on this, that they killed collectively themselves. But swim has to look for the article to be sure, he isn't brainwashed by some media stories about lsd.