58 



CHAPTER V. 



Drugs. 



Though drugs or medicinal agents in use by foreign 

 nations have always had a considerable amount of attraction 

 for travellers, the consequence of which has been the fre- 

 quent introduction from time to time of new remedies, it 

 is during the last thirty years that the greatest achievements 

 have been attained, not only in the discovery and introduc- 

 tion into this country of new medicinal agents of vegetable 

 origin, but also for the introduction into our own colonies 

 of others whose established reputation has' caused them 

 to become absolute necessities. 



With the advance of chemical and medical knowledge, 

 the herbs of our own gardens which were so highly prized 

 for their very many supposed virtues by our grandfathers 

 and grandmotliers have rapidly fallen into disuse, and at 

 the present time but very few British plants are included 

 amongst those furnishing useful drugs. No better illus- 

 tration can bo had of the changes effected by the agency 

 of rapid and cheap communication with the various parts 

 of the world than a reference to the pages of the Pliar- 

 maceuiical Journal for the last twenty years, or to the 

 several numbers of Christy's Jfew Commercial Plants and 

 Drugs. 



In 1837 there appeared two volumes, consisting of 

 over 900 pages, treating of the medicinal plants of Great 

 Britain, under the title of " The British Flora Medica.'' A 

 new edition of this work was issued in 1877.* In the 



* " The British Flora Medica. A History of the Medicinal Plants 

 of Great Britain." By Benjamin H. Barton, F.L.S., and Thos. 

 Castle, M.D., F.L.S. A New Edition, Revised, Condensed, and partly 

 Ee-written. By John R. Jackson, A.L.S. Chatto and Windus, 

 Piccadilly. 1877. 



