them at the present time. Fundamental to any study of 
this kind, however, is a thorough botanical investigation 
of plant uses among modern Mexican Indians and a crit¬ 
ical examination of the earlier ethnobotanical records. 
Botanical and anthropological literature contains 
many references to a mushroom which has been employ¬ 
ed as a narcotic by some of the Indians of Mexico. The 
Aztecs and the Chichimecas were the earliest recorded 
users of these mushrooms which they called teonanacatl. 
For several centuries, however, the identity of teonana¬ 
catl has remained obscure. Recurring references to it 
have mystified biological and anthropological investiga¬ 
tors, inasmuch as careful search had failed to reveal any 
Mexican fungus possessing properties used to induce a 
narcosis. It has been suggested that the reports which 
associate teonanacatl with a mushroom are misleading or 
erroneous, although the sources from which they come 
are in other respects dependable and credible. 
Both from a botanical and ethnological point of view 
a knowledge of the identity of teonanacatl should prove 
of value. Furthermore, the correct identification of this 
narcotic plant is rendered desirable and necessary because 
an obvious misidentification has gained wide acceptance 
among botanists and anthropologists. 
II. The identification of teonanacatl 
In the summer of 1938, I began ethnobotanical in¬ 
vestigations among the Mazatec Indians of northeastern 
Oaxaca and learned that a mushroom, subsequently iden¬ 
tified as Paneolus campanulatus L. var. sphinctrinus (Fr.) 
Bresadola 1 , was being used as a narcotic. 
lj wish to express my thanks to Dr. David Linder of the Farlow Her¬ 
barium, Harvard University, who corroborated field identifications and 
rendered further taxonomic assistance. 
[ 88 ] 
