PREFACE IX 



Father Blanco's " Flora" ; but neither this work nor those 

 of Clain or Santa Maria are useful to a physician, nor are they 

 as accurately written as works of a scientific character should 

 be. From time to time superficial articles have appeared in 

 the Manila papers regarding the virtues of some plant or other 

 and these books and articles comprise the whole literature on 

 the subject up to this time. 



Some physicians regard with small favor the therapeutic 

 application of plants by the Filipino "herb-doctors" (curande- 

 ros) as being entirely empirical. This disparagement is un- 

 justified because in all the most rational and scientific remedies 

 that we make use of, the first step towards the final develop- 

 ment of their relative position among remedies is due to em- 

 piricism which is founded on daily experience, on observation 

 of results obtained in specific cases, facts that are handed down 

 from father to son for generations. The scientific explanation 

 is lacking, but those first ideas frequently owing their origin to 

 chance, or, perhaps, to superstition, have often been based upon 

 the observation of facts which, although fortuitous, are none 

 the less positive. 



Many of the plants mentioned in this book are official in the 

 Pharmacopoeia of India and we see no reason why their use 

 should be proscribed in the Philippines. Filipino physicians 

 not only can but should employ many indigenous plants in their 

 therapeutics; in many instances they would find them more 

 useful than the exotics, which are not always fresh and are 

 commonly reduced in strength by long keeping or damaged by 

 some circumstance of voyage or climate. The price is another 

 argument in favor of the use of native drugs. If the pharma- 

 cists would prepare extracts and keep on hand the crude drugs 

 most in demand the public would gain a great advantage and 

 the druggists be well repaid for their labor. Physicians and 

 pharmacists will surely understand these advantages and when 

 finally one considers that the patients generally prefer to be 



