(Ill) 



SOME NOTES EEGAEDING SOUTH AFEICAN 

 PHAEMACOLOGY. 



By C. E. Jueitz, M.A. 



(Eead April 26, 1905.) 



We live in a country of magnificent possibilities — agricultural, 

 industrial, educational, commercial ; the inhabitant of this land who 

 journeys through life with open eyes is bound to become cognisant 

 of such, and of many besides, no matter whether he be engaged in 

 the study of literature, the pursuit of art, or the application of 

 science. Possibilities many — potential sources of wealth or of 

 utility — but unworked mines, — unworked, because in some cases we 

 do not know how to work them, in others because we are sceptical 

 regarding the advantages they are likely to yield ; into some we are 

 not bold enough to venture for fear of the risks and perils we may 

 encounter ; others again there are where operations, once begun, 

 are at a standstill because the means are exhausted, the energies 

 have nagged, or the labour spectre bars the way — we simply have 

 not the men to work them. It is to a mine of the last-mentioned 

 class that I propose to direct attention. 



"There can be no doubt amongst reasonable men that, judging 

 from the vast extent of the South African territory, and from the 

 richness of its almost inexhaustible Flora, many highly useful drugs 

 will still be discovered. However, the greater part of our informa 

 tion on this point we owe, not so much to scientific research as tc 

 the experience of the colonial farmer residing in the more remote 

 parts of the interior, to occasional travellers or to the wandering 

 native." 



Nearly half a century ago Pappe wrote these words. They are 

 absolutely true to-day : the many drugs still await discovery, scientific 

 research there has been next to none, while those who, like Andrew 

 Smith, have during the interim compiled manuals of South African 

 Materia Medica, have derived their information not from the 

 scientist, but have perforce found themselves relegated to the 

 farmer, the traveller, and the native. There has been scarcely any 

 progress during these fifty years. 



8 



