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CHAPTER XII 

 DRUGS AND TOBACCO 



* IT may truly be said of fantastical physitions, who when 

 they have found an approved medicine and perfect remedy 

 near home against any disease, yet not contented with that, 

 they will seek for a new farther off, and by that means many 

 times hurte more than they helpe.' John Gerard (1545-1607), 

 gardener to Lord Burleigh. 



The Dutch word droog means ' dry ', and the plural droogen 

 was used in the special sense of ' dried roots ', and later on 

 was extended to mean any substance, vegetable or mineral, 

 which was used in the preparation of medicines. From the 

 Dutch droogen the French word for drugs was derived, 

 drogue, and from the French, our own word ' drug '. 



Many of the best-known spices in addition to their pleasant 

 flavours possess also medicinal properties, and spices and 

 drugs are often therefore classed together. 



' In days gone by, England grew her own medicinal herbs. 

 Then Germany and Austria gradually undersold the home- 

 grown plants, and English people forgot the art of growing 

 herbs, and forgot their value when they saw the plants in 

 hedge -rows and woods. 



During recent years the acreage devoted to drug cultiva- 

 tion in this country has become more and more restricted by 

 competition with foreign products, and in consequence British - 

 grown drugs have been steadily ousted from the market. In 

 1913 we imported over 71,000 worth of varieties of vegetable 

 drugs which we are able to grow or collect here.' l 



One of the most important British plants which yield 

 valuable drugs is Atropa belladonna or the deadly nightshade, 

 a bushy herbaceous plant, which grows from two to four feet 

 high. It bears large, bell-shaped, purplish flowers, and its 

 fruit when ripe is like a small black juicy cherry, intensely 



1 M. Grieve, F.R.H.S., Principal of Whin's Vegetable Drug Farm, Chal- 

 font St. Peter. 



