treatable. This role of narcosis in expanding the native 
pharmacopoeia neither leads to the conclusion that most 
of the Sibundoy drugs were discovered in this way, nor 
does it suggest that any drugs so discovered are likely to 
have less therapeutic value than drugs discovered in other 
ways by other primitive peoples. Nevertheless, it would 
seem that a substantial increase in the number of medi- 
cinal plants available to a culture implies at least a slight 
increase in that small number which are therapeutically 
effective. The use of Banisteriopsis by Sibundoy medi- 
cine-men, not only as an emetic and purge, but even 
more generally to investigate medicine and disease, may 
be seen as leading ultimately to an improvement of 
tribal health. 
XIII 
I gratefully acknowledge several suggestions from 
I. M. Cooke, Claudio Naranjo and R. E. Schultes which 
have improved the foregoing presentation. The ethnogra- 
pher and linguist, Alberto Juajibioy, a Kamsa speaking 
Sibundoy, has contributed to the native terminology 
reported. 
Finally, the field work upon which this report is based 
was supported by a Public Health Service Research 
Grant (MH 06941-01), by Harvard University, and by 
the American Anthropological Association. The report 
has been written during the tenure of a Public Health 
Service Fellowship (1-F2-G M-24,938-01). Aid given by 
officers of these institutions was essential and is sincerely 
appreciated. 
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