Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol and Addictive Behavior (3rd ed.)

摘要

The use of chemicals from external sources to stimulate the nervous system, even when these are demonstrably harmful to the organism, can be observed in a wide variety of creatures. Ants and birds as well as mammals have a noticeable preference for fermenting fruit. A current practical scientific test for the addictiveness of a drug is to measure how readily rats will self-inject with it. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest humans discovered the pleasure to be gained from leaving gathered seed-grains around in water long before they discovered how to take the resulting mush out and cook it - beer came before bread.