ina 
As Schmidt says,* “The use of drugs is very ancient. With 
primitive man the observation of plants serving for food led 
gradually to [the discovery of] some that were good for healing 
diseases.” It is common knowledge that some of our domestic 
animals, in time of sickness and bodily distress, often seek out cer- 
tain plants which their instinct tells them will help them to get 
over their trouble—e.g. catnip (Nepeta cataria) 
Coffee an Interesting Example of Drug Plant. The history of 
the use of coffee as a beverage and also as a drug is an interesting 
example of how the use of plants as food may lead to their use 
as drugs. One story given by Ukers + is substantially as follows: 
An Arabian goatherd noticed that his flock was unusually frisky, 
and believing that their mood was due to the effect of some fruits 
of a plant (the coffee plant) that they had been eating, tried the 
effect on himself. He became refreshed and gay and joined his 
goats in their saltatorial revels. A monk, passing that way and 
learning the situation, believed that the spirit of Mohanimed hac 
euided him there, because here was something that would keep 
him awake during the long prayers and vigils. He conceived the 
idea of drying and boiling the fruits and thus gave coffee to the 
world. 
— 
— 
Gradually coffee has come into use by physicians as a cerebral 
stimulant; and the layman, knowing from experience its bracing 
effect, uses it almost universally, in the United States, in order to 
“start the day right.” Some physicians (in cases where the heart 
is strong) prescribe a cup of black coffee, taken on an empty 
stomach, to relieve continued nausea. Here it seems to act also 
as a general stimulant. 
Some Definitions and Derivations. According to Schmidt the 
word drug is derived probably from the Arabic dowd, which means 
medicine, whence it was transferred, as doga or droga, into the 
Romance and later into the Germanic languages. But LaWall t 
states that the word “is probably of Teutonic origin, the root word 
a Schmidt, Alfred. Drogen und Drogenhande 
— 
im Altertum. Leipsic. 
+ Ukers, eM illiam H. All about Coffee. Ed. II, p. 10, New York. The 
Tea aoe Coffee Trade Journal Co. 1% 
LaWall, Charl The curious lore of drugs and medicines (Four eck 
sand years of Secs pp. 355, 356. Garden City Publishing Co. 
o 
