xlii INTRODUCTION. 



and interesting study exercising the mind without fatiguing it, and stimulat- 

 ing the imagination without leading it astray, but also, because I cannot 

 help wishing, although I know it is too much to expect of our actual medical 

 men, that they should be careful observers of nature, yet in their younger 

 years, before they have entered on their great career, I cannot help wishing 

 that they had the habit of noticing all the qualities of plants which are so re- 

 markable and powerful in their healing capacities." Then Mr. Gladstone 

 narrated an anecdote, how the leaves of a plant healed the cut on his finger 

 caused by an axe in wood-cutting. 



" You will think it ludicrous, if I were to tell you a little anecdote of my 

 own, which is of the very simplest character, and it is so small and so slight 

 as almost to be contemptible, but still it illustrates what I mean. I have 

 been given, as is pretty well-known, or at least, I have been given to the 

 pursuit of wood-cutting. From a pure accident, I drew my fingers the other 

 day along the edge of the axe which was lying close by, and which was 

 tolerably sharp, and cut my finger. Upon searching about me I found I had 

 no handkerchief available. I wanted to staunch my little wound. Not 

 having a handkerchief, I got a leaf and put it on the wound. I am bound to 

 say that this was not the result of botanical knowledge, but it was a purely 

 empirical proceeding on the chance of the quality of the leaf. But there 

 was a curious result. I knew the time nature occupied in healing a little 

 breach of continuity, and when I put on the leaf, I assure you it is the fact, 

 that it healed in exactly half the time. It is hardly worth mentioning such 

 a thing as I say but I cannot help having the belief that there are good 

 treasures in nature more than have heretofore been explored in every 

 branch. To make medical students, before they have come to their great 

 responsibilities, observers of the great qualities and capabilities of plants, 

 I cannot help thinking that some good will be done."* 



The importance of studying the subject of Indian medicinal 

 plants has been again and again insisted on by several writers. 

 It is too late in the day to discuss the necessity of such a study. 

 The ease and cheapness with which these are procurable, the 

 marvellous powers that are attributed to them in the cure of 

 different maladies by natives of India, should induce us to 

 investigate their properties and settle once for all their claims 

 on our attention. 



Dr. John Lindley was a renowned botanist. His views on 

 the subject of vegetable drugs deserve careful consideration. 

 In the preface to his work on Flora Medica, he wrote : — 



" No one will be bold enough to assert that the physicians already possess 

 the most powerful agents produced by the vegetable kingdom ; for every year 

 is bringing some new plants into notice for its energy, while others are 



* Guy's Hospital Gazette for 29th March 1890, p. 72. 



