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from various types of fungi. The Actinomycetes, the Ascomycetes, the Basidiomycetes and the Fungi Imperfect each have members producing one type of antibiotic. Penicillin, the antibiotic derived from Penicillium chrysogenum is a well known substance, and its history well documented. (See Chapter on fermentation.) However, discovery of the use of penicillin was made on a slightly different level than the discovery of most drugs that had been discovered earlier. Many valuable drugs were known to very primitive societies, and their application adapted by modern medicine after some time of skepticism on the part of physicians that they could learn or use anything from "ignorant" savages. One of the most striking examples of this folk use, and recent adaptation by modern medicine, is the tranquilizer serpifil, a tranquilizing agent used in treatment of mental irregularities, was known and used by Ayurvedic practitioners of India for countless centuries. To be sure, the modern drug is extracted and purified, whereas the older use was merely a water extract from the boiled (or was the dried root ground up?) roots of Rauwolfia serpiphila, a common weed in India. But sometimes when efforts are made to use a purified drug that was formerly employed as a crude extract, there seems to be little indication of success. This may be because there are usually several substances extracted from the plant with simple boiling or steeping done by the medicine man or shaman, which may be effective in the drug or medicine. The "hocus-pocus" practiced by the tribal witch doctor along with the drug was probably strong psychological medicine itself.

As mentioned in the chapter on spices, it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between drugs, or medicines, and spices or condiments. Very frequently medicines given orally will have flavoring materials added to mask the taste of the effective drug materials. The common "sugar-coated pill" is another example of combined products to reduce the distaste of the