169 
epi e EES ROR Cre. Slik Vay OR REE aus 
On Bilan Sl Nic vi CN 
By ArtriurR HARMOUNT GRAVES 
Plants and Materia Medica. ‘The use of plants to cure human 
ills is probably as old as the human race itself. However, the two 
other natural kingdoms also—the animals and the minerals—have 
had and still have a definite and well recognized place in materia 
of well known drugs of animal origin 
cantharides (a counter-irritant derived 
cod liver 

medica. Some examples 
are: honey; cantharis, or 
from the dried and powdered bodies of small insects) ; 
oil; pepsin; and the ree of endocrine glands, such as thyroid 
extract. Of mineral drugs, some of the most important are 
sodium, iodine, mercury, iron, aluminum, manganese, in the form 
of the element itself, or of compounds of the element; and, of 
otent and effective, recently discovered 
course, the wonderfully | 
and mineral 
“sulfa” drugs. Nevertheless the drugs of anima 
origin are comparatively few. A glance through the most recent 
United States Pharmacopoeia (1940) shows that the great ma- 
jority are derived from plants, and in the use of the term “materia 
i.e. the material of medicine, it is generally understood 
— 

medica,” 
that plants form the main bulk of the material. 
How Old Is Medicine? We have said above that the use of 
yas old as the human race; so, like- 
plants in medicine is probably 
preventing, curing, or 
wise, medicine itself, that is, the art of 
alleviating disease, without doubt goes back to very ancient, and 
vortant consideration must 
— 
probably to prehistoric times. One im 
always be kept at the back of our minds in this matter, namely, the 
length of time the human race has existed on the earth. There is 
scientific evidence that man, 1.e. intelligent, 1mplement-using, more 
or less erect-standing man, has been living on the earth for several 
hundred thousand years; and his forbears, perhaps for more than 
one million years. According to recent authoritative opinion, his- 
tory based on written records carries us back only between five and 
six thousand years from the present. What a short time this is, 
compared to the length of man’s existence on the earth! 
We can get some idea of how medicine probably began by study- 
ing the savage tribes of today—those peoples who still remain in a 
