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Peter N. Witt, 80, a scientist

Widely known for his research with spiders and psychedelic drugs who had served as executive director of the North Carolina Foundation of Mental Health Research and re­search director of state’s Mental Health Department, died Sept. 15 in Raleigh, N.C. The cause of death was not reported.

Dr. Witt, who was born in Ber­lin, was living in Switzerland after World War II when Life magazine reported his work involving spi­ders. He had discovered that psy­choactive drugs such as LSD, psilo­ L- ybin and marijl!ana caused changes in the webs of a particular :irachnid. the orb spider.

His work received much atten­tion. and some experiments were conducted by NASA in the Skylab space station in the early 1970s, but its promise for advancing the understanding of human brain chemistry remained unfulfilled.