Medicine: Scopolamine Confession

Scopolamine is a hypnotic drug made from henbane. As scopolamine hydrobromide solution it is widely used for inducing twilight sleep at childbirth, for quieting maniacs, drug addicts, alcoholics. Some years ago the late Dr. Robert Ernest House of Ferris, Tex. discovered, on administering scopolamine during an obstetrical case, that his patient was babbling things which she would not ordinarily have told. It seemed that the drug, by a selective action on the brain centres, inhibited a person's ability to withhold information from a questioner. In addition it was found that scopolamine, like actual...