Introduction 



ISIS, the Queen and afterwards the Goddess, 

 was called the "Mother of Medicine." In- 

 deed, in ancient Egypt, eleven thousand years 

 before Christ, both men and women were skilled 

 in medicine: it was there botanic medication had 

 its origin. Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine," 

 many centuries later, knew less of the remedial 

 actions of vegetable drugs than did the women of 

 the, to him, ancient times. 



"Paracelsus states with regard to his famous writ- 

 ings that they were but the compilation of knowl- 

 edge obtained from the 'Wise Women.' It may 

 be noticed that it is the women and not the men 

 of primitive races, as a rule, who are learned in the 

 healing properties of plants. . . . From the 

 earliest times, women acquired a knowledge of the 

 human body, of science, of natural laws, and of the 

 medicinal properties of herbs." 1 



Hippocrates left no regular treatise on materia 

 medica, but he made, as did also the Iliad and the 

 Odyssee, frequent references to the work of Poly- 

 dauma, Origenia, and Aspasia Greek women 

 who were learned in the making of soothing potions. 



Theophrastus developed the botany of materia 

 medica in a scientific manner; but Dioscorides was 

 the first authoritative writer on the therapeutics 

 of plant remedies. His books listed seven hun- 



1 Maude Glasgow, in Medical Record, December 4, 1915. 

 13 



