58 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION B. 



compilation of a catalogue of relevant literature available in 

 the countn,^ 



(3) An increase of the number of research grants available. 



(4) Such additions to the staffs of Government, University 

 and college laboratories, and such rearrangement of the work 

 and the time-tables as will give the officers in charge of these 

 laboratories a greater amount of leisure for the juirpose of 

 undertaking research work. 



In conclusion, let me summarise some of the results that 

 might be expected from an investigation of our indigenous flora 

 systematically and thoroughly carried out. There are hundreds 

 of medicinal jjlants and herbs used in different parts of the 

 country. The striking and manifold virtues credited to them 

 are doubtless largely ascribable to ignorance, faith and super- 

 stition. I might mention, for example, the obstinate faith of 

 many people in Siithrrhunlia fructcscois as a cure for cancer. 

 But two of our indigenous plants and plant-products have iound 

 a place in the Pharmacopieia, aloes and buchu. Why should 

 there not be more in a flora with over 12,000 species of flower- 

 ing plants? Mousouia ovata and bifloni (the dysentery cures), 

 Bulhinc alooidcs. and others, have been tried by critical medical 

 men with encouraging results. With regard to the financial 

 aspect of the (|uestion, I might state that the value of the aloes 

 and buchu alone exported from the Union in 1913 was approxi- 

 mately £40,000. With regard to poisonous herbs administered 

 by native medicine-men, I beg to direct your attention to a sum- 

 mary of cases of poisoning and suspected poisoning by indi- 

 genous plants investigated in the Ca])e Government chemical 

 laboratories from 1899 to 1913-* Of 65 cases noted, the 

 majority of which were fatal, the result of the examination in 

 no less than 30 cases was negative or indefinite, and only in 17 

 cases was the identity of the plant established, and in some of 

 these cases with the reservation " |)Ossibly." In at least half the 

 cases the culprit must have been acquitted, and was free to con- 

 tinue his nefarious practice. In the majority of cases of poison- 

 ing of stock by plants we don't even know the symptoms, much 

 less an effective antidote, and in the absence of any definite 

 knowledge the farmer will fly to an aperient, where a sedative 

 may be necessary, and thereby aggravate the evil, or he will 

 apply other empirical cures which would seem to be worse than 

 the disease. As I have said before, there are no statistics for 

 the whole Union or for any Province. But a few records 

 taken from one of the Transvaal Agriciilfiiral Joiiruals will con- 

 vey some ideas as to the havoc wrought among cattle by such 

 virulent poisons as giftblaar: " ( )n the farm P>uff'elsdraai 48, 

 Pretoria District, nine newly-imjx^rted cattle died within about 

 24 hours, undoubtedly from eating giftblaar. A week later 25 

 imported cattle died on the farm Rietfontein 1,844, near Nyl- 



* " The Urgency of a Definite Forward Movement in the Stndy of 

 the Active Principles of S.A Plant.s,'" Appendix. C. I-". Juritz. S.A. 

 Medical Record, Nov.. 191 5. 



