Ergot, drawn from life

1897

Claviceps purpurea, the rye fungus, in Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen of 1897, forty-one years before Hofmann synthesised LSD-25 from its alkaloids. This is one of the few genuinely period images the origin story has: ergot poisoning burned through medieval Europe as St Anthony's Fire, causing convulsions and hallucinations, centuries before anyone isolated why.