INTRODUCTION. XXXV11 



About a generation ago, the use of plants and herbs as 

 remedial agents was greatly discredited. The late Sir Thomas 

 Lauder Brunton drew an analogy between the weapons and tools 

 employed in art or warfare, and the implements used by man in 

 the treatment of disease in different ages. It is customary to 

 divide the progress of civilization into four stages, charact- 

 erized by the nature of the weapons employed. " In the first or 

 Paleolithic age, man employed weapons or tools of flint roughly 

 chipped into shape and unpolished. In the next or Neolithic age, 

 the implements consisted of stone, bat they were polished. The 

 next age is characterized by the employment of bronze as a 

 material, and the fourth and highest stage by the employment of 

 iron. * * * * In the same way, we may recognise four stages in 

 the development of the implements in the treatment of disease. 

 In the first stage crude drugs were employed, prepared in the 

 roughest manner, such as powdered Cinchona or metallic 

 antimony. In the next stage, these were converted into more 

 active and more manageable forms, such as extracts or solutions, 

 watery or alcoholic. In the third stage, the pure active principles, 

 separated from the crude drugs, were employed, e.g., morphine 

 and quinine. In the fourth stage, instead of attempting to 



for food on wild animals captured in the chase, to watch them closely so as 

 to know their habits. * * 



'« That a good deal of man's medicinal knowledge arose accidentally in his 

 efforts to extend the range of his food supply is suggested by the prominent 

 place occupied by food — stuffs in primitive pharmacy 08 . 



The ancient Hindus should be given the credit for cultivating what is now 

 called " Ethno-botany". In Bulletin 55 of the Bureau of American Ethnologj*, 

 it is said : — 



" Ethnobotany is virtually a new field of research, a field which, if investi- 

 gated thoroughly and systematically will yield results of great value to the 

 ethnologist and incidentally also to the botanist. * * * 



Ethnobotanical research is concerned with several important questions :— 

 (a) What are primitive ideas and conceptions of plant life ? (b) "What are the 

 effects of a given plant environment on the lives, customs, religion, thoughts 

 and everyday practical affairs of the people studied ? (c) What use do they 

 make of the plants about them for food, for medicine, for material culture, 

 for ceremonial purposes ? (d) What is the extent of their knowledge of the 

 parts, functions, and activities of plants ? (e) Into what categories are plant 

 names and words that deal with plants grouped in the language of the people 

 studied, and what can be learned concerning the working of the folkmind by 

 the study of these names ? 



Ethnobotany will become a more important subject when its study has 

 progressed to a point where results can be studied comparatively. 



A prime necessity is a good native informant ; indeed it is better to have 

 several informants, preferably older men or women. " 



What a pity that hardly any attention is paid to this subject in modern 

 India. 



