THE APPEAL OF PEYOTE WILLIAMSII) AS A MEDICINE (LOPHOPHORA)

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IN connection with a botanical and chemical investigation of the peyote plant (Lophophora Williamsii (Lem.) Coult.), I have pursued ethno-botanical studies regarding its use among the Kiowa, Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Wichita of Oklahoma. During these studies, additional information was received from individuals of neighboring tribes. The investigation re- vealed that several erroneousideas and misinterpretations regardingthe use of peyote have become widespread.

For more than two centuries, the use of the peyote-cactus as a re-ligious sacrament has been slowly diffusing northward among the southern Plains tribes of the United States.2 For more than fifty years, there has been a growing interest in the peyote-cult among American anthropolo-gists. An extensive literature3has appeared concerning the ceremonial use of LophophoraWilliamsii in the United States as well as in Mexico, where its use extends back probably for more than twenty centuries.4

Until recently,5 the anthropological information was in a more or less chaotic state. Shonle, Wagner, and others have dealt with the diffusion of peyote and conditions making possible its rapid spread."Although occa- sional references to the "appeal" of peyote are found, there does not seem to be any critical study of what may be termed the appeal-phase of the peyote problem. Petrullo, Wagner, and especially Radin7 have devoted more attention to the appeal of peyote than have other anthropologists, but a consideration of this neglected subject from an ethnobotanical point of view should prove of value.

It is not the purpose of this paper to present a complete ethnobotanical study of the peyote-cult, but rather to consider whether its widespread diffusion is due to the vision-producing properties attributed to the alka-loids of LophophoraWilliamsii or to the supposed therapeutic properties of the plant. In a consideration of this kind, certain fundamental facts pertaining to the botanical, chemical, and pharmacological investigations relating to LophophoraWilliamsii must be enumerated, for only on such a foundation can an accurate interpretation of peyote and some of its prob-lems be made.

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