In The Space Merchants (Pohl and Kornbluth, 1953), cerebrin is a drug given as punishment; it causes physical and mental anguish, and is typically administered for 20 years at a time for serious (i.e., anti-commerce) crimes.

Only the higher classes refer to getting cerebrin; the consumers just call the process "being brainburned".

Cer"e*brin (?), n. [From Cerebrum.] Physiol. Chem.

A nonphosphorized, nitrogenous substance, obtained from brain and nerve tissue by extraction with boiling alcohol. It is uncertain whether it exists as such in nerve tissue, or is a product of the decomposition of some more complex substance.

 

© Webster 1913.

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