Story Highlights
- historical event: Dr. Albert Hofmann accidentally absorbed a small dose of LSD through his fingertips and began to feel its effects. He experienced vivid images and saw a variety of unusual shapes and colors.
On this day Dr. Albert Hofmann first synthesized a compound called LSD. Hofmann was an employee of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz. In their lab, he studied the substance ergotamine, which is obtained from a fungus that grows on rye and causes the so-called ergotism. Hofmann synthesized LSD from ergotamine (the abbreviation was created by the German name Lysergsäure-diethylamide). Hofmann accidentally absorbed a small dose of LSD through his fingertips and began to feel its effects. He experienced vivid images and saw a variety of unusual shapes and colors. In 1947 Sandoz started selling LSD as a treatment for psychiatric application, called Delysid. During the 1950s, the CIA thought this compound could be used for mind control. The widespread taking of this drug among the young generation in the 1960s provoked a reaction, and soon led to the prohibition of LSD.
