Remember Hooks law? Robert Hook also was a hero of self-experiment:

Under the volume of work, Hooke began having headaches, dizzy spells and insomnia, all of which he treated in the same spirit as his other scientific work, experimenting with self-medication and diligently recording his results. Page after page of his diary records copious doses of sal ammoniac, purges, opiates. Sometimes the effects were great - clarity, freshness, revival, sharp thinking. Often the side effects were terrible — sickness, double vision, near-delusions. These too he treated as symptoms, upping the drugs continually.

From a review of a new biography in The Guardian ( The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London by Lisa Jardine, HarperCollins 2003) (via SciTech Daily)