SUBSTITUTIONS AND ADULTERATIONS.—HISTORY. 17 
X. Substitutions and Adulterations.—An acquaintance, 
based on the preceding considerations, with drugs possessing an 
organic structure at once affords the means for their examina- 
tion. When the structure of the respective substances has been 
rendered undiscernible in consequence of a fine degree of pul- 
verization, the task is more difficult. In such cases, the aid of | 
chemical analysis must especially be sought. This is rendered 
still more necessary when liquid drugs of variable composition 
are under consideration, as, for instance, Copaiva balsam, Pert 
balsam, Storax, and Turpentine. 
XI. History.—The knowledge of medicinal substances 
would remain incomplete if their history did not also receive 
consideration. The investigation should extend to the time 
and place of first acquaintance with the mother-plant, to the 
time of the first medicinal employment of each single drug, and 
to its importance in the world’s commerce. Outside of the very 
narrow domain of pharmacy, the relations of drugs to agricul- 
ture, to domestic economy, and to various industries, should 
also be permitted to be indicated, in order to illustrate the part 
played by them among existing commodities. 
A thorough historical representation of pharmacognosy in 
this sense is still wanting; the preparatory labors that have as 
yet been brought to light admit of the following preliminary 
survey." 
1. The earliest application of the products of organic nature 
for medicinal purposes, as also for purposes of fumigation, re- 
fers to those countries where a higher intellectual life first 
became developed. In Egypt, numerous monuments of the 
earliest times have been preserved, which prove an acquaintance 
with a number of drugs at a very remote period of antiquity. 
Illustrative representations on temple walls, which originated in 
the seventeenth century B. C., inform us of Egyptian sea voyages 
to the provinces of northeastern Africa and Arabia, which were — 
in part undertaken in order to procure gum arabic, frankincense, e 
1 For appropriate descriptions we are also indebted to Schir, “Die | 
Altesten Heilmittel aus dem Orient.” Schaffhausen, 1877, pp. 24 and . 
oe - — der Gifte.” Basel, 1883, a 48. 
