XXXVI INTRODUCTION. 



frame is liable, inuch of the knowledge in regard to it is exact, 

 the outcome of intelligent observation and enquiry. * ® " 



It may be that much of the knowledge of plants, once 

 possessed by the ancestors of the present aborigines, has become 

 lost to the world owing to their ignorance of the art of writing.® 



But we should not treat with contempt the knowledge of 

 herbs possessed by aborigines. There can be little doubt that 

 their " medicine men " possess a remarkably accurate knowledge 

 of the medical uses of the plants around them. We should 

 remember that they have taught us the uses of some of our 

 most important drugs. It is to them that we are indebted 

 for our knowledge of Cinchona in malaria, Digitalis, Strophan- 

 thus and Physiostigma in heart diseases, and of Quassia as 

 a bitter tonic. We cannot, therefore, sufficiently admire the 

 practical wisdom of the ancient Hindus when they enjoined on 

 the votaries of the healing art the penetration forests and the 

 climbing of mountains to examine the qualities and properties of 

 the medicines in their natural situations, and gather information 

 regarding them from hunters and shepherds who may have had 

 opportunities of witnessing their effects. | 



* Writing of America one botanist says that "when onr forefathers came to 

 this country they found the natives in possession of much medical knowledge 

 of plants. Having no remedies prepared by scientific skill, the Indians were 

 led, by necessity, to the use of those which nature afforded them ; and, by 

 experience and observation, they had arrived at many valuable conclusions 

 as to the qualities of plants. Their mode of life, leading them to penetrate 

 the shades of the forest, and to climb the mountain precipices, naturally 

 associated them much with the vegetable world. The Indian woman, the 

 patient sharer in these excursions, was led to look for such plants as she 

 might use for the diseases of her family. Each new and curious plant, though 

 not viewed by her with the eye of a botanist, was regarded with scrutinizing 

 attention : the colour, taste, and smell were carefully remarked, as indications 

 of its properties. But the discoveries and observations of the Indians have 

 perished with themselves ; having had no system for the classification or 

 description of plants, nor any written language by which such a system 

 might have been conveyed to others, no other vestige remains than uncertain 

 tradition of their knowledge of the medicinal qualities of plants." 



■j That much of the knowledge of medicinal plants by the primitive man was 

 obtained from hunters and shepherds is evident from what Dr. Raymond 

 Crawford, M. A., M D., (Oxon), Physician to King's College Hospital, London 

 said in his presidential address delivered before the section of the History 

 of Medicine, reported in the Lancet from which it has been reproduced in 

 in the Scientific American Supplement of April 14 and 21, 1917. 



" Man, doubtless, will have acquired much of his knowledge of the 

 nutritive and medicinal value of plants by the same methed as the lower 

 animals, by experience. Like them, too, he will have profited by imitation, 

 and imitation embracing his observation of the habits of the lower animals. 

 It must have been of immense importance to man, when he depended largely 



