Of the fungi employed in medicine, the first place must be assigned to ergot, which is the sclerotioid condition of a species of _Claviceps_. It occurs not only on rye but on wheat, and many of the wild grasses. On account of its active principle, this fungus still holds its place in the Materia Medica. Others which formerly had a reputation are now discarded, as, for instance, the species of _Elaphomyces_; and _Polyporus officinalis_, Fr., which has been partly superseded as a styptic by other substances, was formerly employed as a purgative. The ripe spongy capillitium of the great puff-ball _Lycoperdon giganteum_, Fr., has been used for similar purposes, and also recommended as an anodyne; indeed formidable surgical operations have been performed under its influence, and it is frequently used as a narcotic in the taking of honey. Langsdorf gives a curious account of its employment as a narcotic; and in a recent work on Kamtschatka it is said to obtain a very high price in that country. Dr. Porter Smith writes of its employment medicinally by the Chinese, but from his own specimens it is clearly a species of _Polysaccum_, which he has mistaken for _Lycoperdon_. In China several species are supposed to possess great virtue, notably the _Torrubia sinensis_, Tul.,[AO] which is developed on dead caterpillars; as it is, however, recommended to administer it as a stuffing to roast duck, we may be sceptical as to its own sanitary qualities. _Geaster hygrometricus_, Fr., we have also detected amongst Chinese drugs, as also a species of _Polysaccum_, and the small hard _Mylitta lapidescens_, Horn. In India, a large but imperfect fungus, named provisionally _Sclerotium stipitatum_, Curr., found in nests of the white ant, is supposed to possess great medicinal virtues.[AP] A species of _Polyporus_ (_P. anthelminticus_, B.), which grows at the root of old bamboos, is employed in Burmah as an anthelmintic.[AQ] In former times the Jew's ear (_Hirneola auricula Judæ_, Fr.) was supposed to possess great virtues, which are now discredited. Yeast is still included amongst pharmaceutical substances, but could doubtless be very well dispensed with. Truffles are no longer regarded as aphrodisiacs.