xliv INTRODUCTION, 



foreign drugs imported into the markets of Europe would soon be superseded 

 to a great extent, if the properties of European plants were carefully 

 examined. It is contended, in illustration of this opinion, that Salicine, 

 obtained from our native Willows is equal in energy to Quinine, and that it is 

 formed by Providence in low marshy places exactly where remittent and 

 intermittent fevers are experienced most frequently, and with the greatest 

 severity ******** 



"Such a subject of investigation is by no means unimportant when it is 

 considered * * * that exotic drugs are not only costly, but 



often so much adulterated as to be unfit for use * * * * 



"It by no means follows that plants are inert because medical men have 

 reported unfavourably of their action. The most powerful species have had 

 their energy destroyed by unskilful preparation, or by not knowing at what 

 season to collect them. ****** 



the very nature of the climate of tropical countries generally causes the 

 properties of plants to be more concentrated and completely elaborated than 

 in Northern latitude." 



II. 



So far the indigenous drugs have not been carefully and sys- 

 tematically studied. The Executive Committee of the Calcutta 

 International Exhibition for 1883-84, reported that "it 

 must be admitted that our ignorance of the properties and 

 uses of indigenous drugs is scarcely pardonable. It seems 

 highly desirable that the whole subject should be gone 

 into with greater care than has yet been done, both with the view 

 of weeding out the worthless from the good, and of preparing 

 the way for a number of the better class native drugs taking 

 the place of some of the more expensive and imported medicines 

 of Europe. It seems remarkable that so large an amount of 

 aconite should be collected in Nepal and exported to Europe, 

 in order to be re-imported into India before it can find its way to 

 the poor people who crowd around our dispensaries. Illustrations 

 of a similar nature can be multiplied indefinitely. Atropa 

 Belladonna, the deadly nightshade, for example, is a common 

 weed on the Himalayas from Simla to Kashmir, yet every ounce 

 of the drug used in India is imported from Europe, the Indian 

 plant having apparently been entirely overlooked."* 



* Official Report of the Calcutta International Exhibition, 1S83-84, Vol. I, 

 pp. 316-317. 



