Safford: An Aztec Narcotic 311 



to turn from wickedness and lead good these narcotic drugs only in their dry- 

 lives, state; and the general appearance of 

 A knowledge of botany has been the peyotl brought from the vicinity of 

 attributed to the Aztecs which they Zacatecas (fig. 3) was so very different 

 were far from possessing. Their plant from the teonanacatl from the more 

 names show that their classification of northerly region inhabited by the Chi- 

 plants was not based upon real affinities, chimecas (fig. 1) that the two forms 

 and it is very probable that they had might easily have been regarded as 

 not the slightest notion of the difference coming from distinct plants, 

 between a flowering plant and a fungus. As far as the author knows, this is 

 Certainly they applied the names nan- the first time that the identity of the 

 acatl and nanacace to both fungi and "sacred mushroom" of the Aztecs with 

 flowering plants and the name peyotl ^^^ narcotic cactus known botanically 

 to both the narcotic cactus, Lophophora, ^^ Lophophora wilhamsii has been 

 and to the tuber-bearing composite, POi^ted out. That it should have been 

 CacaHa. The botanical knowledge of ^^^taken by the early Spaniards for a 

 the early Spanish writers, Sahagun, mushroom is not surpnsmg when one 

 TT A r\ ^- J T • -t. J 1 notices the remarkable resemblance of 

 Hernandez, Ortega, and Jacmto de la ^^e dried buttons to peltate fungi, and 

 Serna,_ was perhaps not much more ^Iso bears in mind that the common 

 extensive: their descriptions were so potato {Solanum tuberosum) on its 

 inadequate that even to the present introduction into Europe was popularly 

 day the chief narcotic of the Aztecs, regarded as a kind of trulifle, a fact 

 Ololiuhqui, which they all mention, which is recorded by its German name, 

 remains unidentified.^- They knew Kartoffel, or Tartufel. 



32 Sahagun describes two plants bearing the name Ololiuhqui: one, which is not narcotic, with a 

 fleshy turnip-Hke root, leaves like those of a Physahs, and yellow flowers; the other, also called 

 Coaxoxouhqui, or "green snake," with highly narcotic seeds. (Op. cit. vol. 3, pp. 264, 241.) 

 Hernandez describes the latter as round like those of Coriander, and says that they are produced 

 by a twining plant called Coaxihuitl, or "snake-weed," which has fibrous roots and longish white 

 flowers (Hem. ed. Recchi, p. 145); while Sema does not describe the plant, which he probably 

 never saw, but compares the form of the seeds to that of lentils: "semilla a modo de lantejas que 

 llaman Ololiuhqui." (Op., cit. p. 163.) Hernandez thought the plant might be the same as the 

 Solanum maniacum of Dioscoroides. Dr. Manuel Urbina, of the National Museum of Mexico, 

 declared it to be Ipomoea sidaefolia of Choissy ; but this identification, while agreeing with Hernan- 

 dez's illustration, lacks confirmation through investigation of the chemical properties and physio- 

 logical action of the seeds of this species ; and it is not known that any of the Convolvulaceae are 

 narcotic, though many of the Solanaceae, which have somewhat similar flowers, are highly so. 

 It is very strange that Mexican botanists living in the country of the Ololiuhqui have not solved 

 the mystery of its identity. 



Mulattoes in the United States 



Elaborate statistics regarding the Negroes in the United States are given by 

 the Bureau of the Census in its recently-issued bulletin 129, compiled by Dr. 

 Joseph A. Hill. "Of the 9,827,763 Negroes enumerated in 1910, 7,777,077 were 

 reported as 'black' and 2,050,686 as 'mulatto.' In 1850 the percentage reported 

 as mulatto was 11.2 It had advanced but little in 1870, being only 12%, but 

 since 1870 the proportion of mulattoes in the Negro population appears to have 

 increased very materially, reaching 15.2% in 1890 and 20.9 in 1910. Considerable 

 uncertainty necessarily attaches to this classification, however, since the accuracy 

 of the distinction made depends largely upon the judgment and care of the enu- 

 merators. Moreover, the fact that the definition of the term 'mulatto' adopted 

 at the different censuses has not been entirely uniform may affect the comparability 

 of the figures to some degree. At the census of 1910 the instructions were to 

 report as 'black' all persons who were 'evidently full-blood Negroes' and as 'mulatto' 

 all other persons 'that have some proportion or perceptible trace of Negro blood.' " 



